Our bodies are made of five material elements, which are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These along with mind, intelligence and self-sense constitute our nature. (Bhagavad Gita 7.4) Here the self-sense means the feeling of I. Each one of us is a unique package, ie each one of us will have different svabhava or nature. No two persons can be exactly alike because what they have gone through in their previous lives cannot be the same. Even twins have many quite distinct differences, that can be easily noticed. And we act according to our svabhava, ie there is a rhythm — a strong regular repeated patterns of movement, including thinking. For example, there are many planets which revolve around the sun. They have all different orbits and speeds of movement.
This is the starting point, ie to know what our svabhava is, if want to be svastha (healthy). Here I am referring to health of the body, mind and soul. This should be the goal of everyone of us. Going into the specifics of one’s nature, one should know what his habits are; how does he normally react; what are his values/sanskars; what are his qualities whether predominantly in the mode of goodness, passion or darkness; what is his conditioning or training or experiences; what are his desires etc. These will determine the rhythm of the person. If the rhythm is very different from the natural rhythm that one should have, then there will be problems like lack of peace of mind, overstress, laziness, which will mean that the person will not be svastha.
Therefore, in order to be physically, mentally and spiritually healthy, we have to catch the natural rhythm specific to us. Our goal should be to follow svadharma to attain the state of beingsvastha. I have mentioned aboutsvabhava earlier; svadharma is svabhava according to dharma or righteousness. I will not go into the details of dharma in this article but only briefly state that everyone should know his or her dharma, which is generally according to time, place and circumstances, and is approved by bona fide scriptures.
Unfortunately, our attempts to be healthy, physically, mentally and spiritually, are defeated by the lower modes of passion and darkness. The mode of passion, which suffers from the fault of attachment, is driven by material desires. It binds the soul with attachment to acts, ie one is unusually or unnecessarily active, ie in violation of his svadharma. This is how his peace is lost.
Similarly, a person predominantly in the mode of darkness will be too lazy, careless, etc. He will, of course, have no peace of mind. One must be between the state of burnout due to being in the mode of passion and the state of rust out due to being in the mode of darkness. One needs to be in the mode of goodness to catch the natural rhythm. There are enormous benefits, both short-term and long-term, if one can attain the natural rhythm specific to him.
Shankaracharya has guided. One should start withsatsang (good company), which leads to detachment, which in turn leads to freedom from delusion, and undeluded one contacts changeless reality, and contact with reality bestows liberation while alive.
The following are some practical suggestions to achieve the desired result. They will be clear from an example of a cow. When we are born, we start with same destiny like a cow tied to a stake with a rope. The length of the rope is symbolically our fate. We are allowed to move in that restricted area. If we artificially try to go further than what our fate has ordained, we will be straining the rope and choking ourselves, ie get overstressed. And if we break the rope and free ourselves, we will put ourselves in danger just like a cow breaking free and running away. The cow will lose the protection of its master. However, just like a cow’s length of the rope can be made longer by its owner, God can change our fate for better if we show our dutifulness. And like Shankaracharya has suggested, we can even become jivan mukta or free if we follow his advice.
So what is the conclusionIJ We should know both oursvabhava and dharma, ie svadharma; practise it; come to the mode of goodness; and take God’s shelter. Then, we will catch the natural rhythm specific to us, which will ensure good physical health as far as possible, peaceful mind and blissful state. I welcome your comments.
Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com