When wealth can become injurious to health

Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha are the four basic purposes of life. It means earning righteously with a desire to fulfill the inner happiness. The word ‘Artha’ relates to righteous earning. Any unrighteous earning can put one into danger.

There are enough references in modern medicine describing “property disputes” as one of the main causes responsible for heart blockages. The other being “marital disharmony”.

Many Vedic texts also give reference to the meaning of ‘Artha’. As per Vedic philosophy desire only begets desire. The desire of accumulating wealth is dangerous and infectious.

As per Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, any wealth acquired more than one needs cannot make one sleep properly.

Vidur in Vidur Niti in a dialogue with King Dhritrashtra described five basic reasons for not getting sleep. Two of them being “if one has stolen somebody’s money” and “if one has lost all his or her wealth”.

Chanakya Niti mentions that any wealth acquired by unfair means will not last for more than eight years.

Adi Shankracharya in his book Bhaj Govindam, Shloka 6 warns the rich community to beware of even their own sons. He mentions, “One should regard wealth always as danger as there is not even an atom of happiness to be really derived from it. To the rich there is a fear even from their own sons. This is an established law everywhere.”

Jesus in Bible also said that the rich lacking contentment can never reach the heaven.

Every wealth one acquired should be treated as a property of the trust of whose one is the trustee and this trust should be only for the welfare of the society, said Dr. Karan Singh in one of his lectures.

Sathya Sai Baba said that wealth is like a shoe. If it is small, it brings difficulty, if it is big, then also it makes one uncomfortable.

In Bhagavad Gītā, Lord Krishna said that those who cook for the sake of their body alone, eat only sins.

Wealth is the womb of all other types of vices, said Rishi Narad in Shrimad Bhagwad. He said that along with wealth come vices like gambling, drinking and sexual perversions.

Taittiriya Upanishad also said that food will eat up the eater who eats without sharing. The Upanishad talks about importance of sharing the food with others.

Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gītā said that whatever elders do, others follow the same. If one acquired money out of unfair means, it is likely that the next generation will follow the same.

Wealth should be treated as a flow of money in the universe, said Dr. Deepak Chopra. Your purpose should be only to make sure that this flow not gets diverted through your river.

Accumulating money serves no purpose unless one uses it properly for the purpose it was collected. I recall an example of a lady who let her son die for financial constraints. When asked if she had any ancestral belongings, she said she only had some gold lying in her house but that was only to be used for bad time.

Isha Upanishad also starts with the same message.

IshAvAsyaM idaM sarvaM yatki~jcha jagatyAM jagat |

tena tyaktena bhu~jjIthA mA gRudhaH kasyasviddhanam || 1 ||

All these, that are part of this world, are abodes of God. Leaving them and thus protecting (yourself).

Do not desire the wealth of anyone!

In Jainism, the term Aparigraha also says that one should not keep anything more than what is necessary.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Immediate Past National President IMA

Why spirituality is friendly to wellbeing

What you believe in can have a big impact on health and longevity. People with high levels of religious beliefs or spirituality have lower cortisol responses. Cortisol is a hormone the body releases in response to stress.

·         Positive thinking produces nearly a 30% drop in perception of pain.

·         Spirituality and the practice of religion are associated with a slower progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

·         Those who regularly attend organized religious activities may live longer than those who don’t. Regular participation lowers mortality rate by about 12% a year.

·         People undergoing cardiac rehabilitation feel more confident and perceive greater improvements in their physical abilities if they have a strong faith.

·         Increased levels of spirituality and religious faith may help substance abusers kick their habit.

·         Spirituality stimulates the relaxation response. When the body is relaxed, the heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate all go down, which decreases the body’s stress response.

·         Spirituality can affect function of the immune system. Spirituality, faith, church attendance improves immune function in ways that can be measured, like an increase in white blood cells.

·         Prayer heals the heart. Positive talking and thinking in the ICU produces better results.

Spirituality is what brings you peace and safety. It can be achieved through God or Goddess, nature, a beautiful sunset, a meditation, Pranayama, religious meeting, chanting, mind body relaxation, etc. Spirituality is something that can help all the way from promoting wellness to helping with recovery.

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications

President Heart Care Foundation of India

Immediate Past National President IMA

Lord Krishna the child, husband, preacher and the sanyasi: 4 ashram of life

http://www.itimes.com/users/iti475269/blogs

Reading about Krishna one understands the way of acquiring inner happiness. It can be understood by the four cycles of Krishna described in the Vedic literature: Krishna the Child, Krishna the Husband and Friend, Krishna the Preacher and Krishna the Sanyasi.

The childhood of Krishna describes the methodology and components of a child education.  Krishna, pure consciousness, was born as the eight child of Devki representing that during pregnancy one needs to follow the eight limbs of yoga to get a child with no disease.

A new born and during initial childhood, the child is full of pure consciousness that spreads love to everyone without any discrimination. The only thing the child during this period does is to steal and spread love and that is what Krishna as Makhan Chor depicts.

With time the child’s mental faculty starts developing distracting the child’s mind. During this phase of life the child needs to be taught to control the thoughts and mind by learning viveka (discrimination between good and bad) and doing abhyas or hard work. The episode of Krishna entering into the pond (thoughts) fighting with Kaliya (duality of mind) and controlling it represents the same. This also coincides with the time a child should be sent to the school.

The next phase of childhood is activation of intellect which in Krishna’s life is depicted as the questions in his mind “Radha kyun gori, main kyun kala?” The incident is during Krishna playing Holi with Gopis and Radha. This happens when the child gets an exposure to the worldly atmosphere and starts getting attached to it. This is the time for the child to be taught control of mind and intellect by one point concentration on the object of concentration. This is also the time when the child should be taught the purpose of life, and the aim for which he has to live in future ( usually adolescent by this time).

Krishna controls the intellect by winning over Indra (intellect) and raising Govardhan Parvat (turmoil of the mind) by one finger and saves the public from the rainy storm (wavering thoughts). One finger here indicates one point concentration on the object of concentration. Once the child is taught how to control the intellect, he or she complete spiritual education and learns about the true self.  Control of mind ( Kalia) and intellect ( Indra) leads the chilod to the next phase of life. In Krishna’s life it coincides with Ras Leela where Krishna is seen dancing with Radha and every Gopi. This also reflects the time for the internal ego to get killed and one acquires the qualities of humility. Killing of Kansa depicts the killing of ego. Once the ego is killed and humility is acquired Radha and flute are no more required and Krishna is now a perfect man and is ready to enter the next ashram of life called Grahasthashram. Radha (body) gets merged with consciousness and flute (humility) is a part of the nature. One now acquires a sudershan chakra or a weapon to take decisions and adopt the good and kill the evil.

Krishna is always depicted with a blue colour God with yellow clothes and a flute in his hands. Blue colour indicates everything is possible and yellow clothes indicate that one can acquire it provided one has the flute which is a hollow wood representing egoless nature.

Whenever Krishna is shown with a flute, the lady with him is Radha with blue sari and yellow colour, along with gopis (thoughts) dancing around them indicating that the thoughts of the mind are in symphony with each other and there is a union of mind, body and soul. Here the soul is represented by Krishna, mind by the flute, thoughts with the gopis and body with the Radha.

The second phase of Krishna’s life is shown as a perfect achiever and friend, which is evident from the story of Sudhama.

The third phase of Krishna’s life represent Krishna as an advisor, which shows his role in Mahabharata and his preaching in Bhagavad Gita. He teaches the message of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Gnana Yoga and Raja Yoga for acquiring excellence in life and inner happiness.  

The last role of Krishna as a sanyasi is the end of Krishna’s life. The four cycles also coincide with the four ashrams of life.

To achieve inner happiness the message from Krishna’s life is to learn to make efforts to control the mind, to win over the intellect by one point concentration and to acquire qualities of humility and killing internal ego. With this only one can become a perfect man like Krishna.

About the author: Dr K K Aggarwal is Padmashri and Dr B C Roy National Awardee, President Heart Care Foundation of India, Dean Board of Medical Education Moolchand Medcity, Sr. Physician & Cardiologist, Chairman Ethics Committee Delhi Medical Council, Visiting professor Clinical Research DIPSAR, Past President Delhi Medical Association and Past Academic and Research Wing Heads IMA.