Good Health
At the physical level, weekly fasting is not advisable for a young person who is working all the week round with a severe outline. A lot of energy is needed for right living. Eat such foods as are easily digestible. It is not the gross calories that are needed, but the subtle energy born out of sattvic (pure) food. This is the fuel upon which our intellectual and spiritual live moves. You may not realize it now, but in the long run, when you want to 'raise' the engine and soar higher - then too late, alas - that you are in want of energy and strength.
We may look for biological causes for illnesses, but the root cause is mental. The body is a tool, wielded by the technician - the mind - behind it. The tool's performance depends upon the knowledge and ability of the technician. It is not our body, but the mind and intellect that is acting in us. When the mind is bright and alert, the actions are spectacular. But when the mind is exhausted, dissipated, moody or sorrowful, it reflects on the body. Emotional and intellectual exhaustion decreases our physical capacity and brings about a sudden exhaustion - sleeplessness, high blood pressure and heart trouble.
A typical industrialist may find that the bank is not releasing enough loans, or that the government is exerting pressure, or that labour is not co-operating. The cause of such anxieties is very subtle and you may not even be aware of it. All worries are due to the psychologically selfish notion that "I will work only for my family. I will have nothing to do with the world". Only if you can understand that you, industrialists especially (or other specialists), are a rare few, gifted by the Lord with the ability to produce wealth for society or nation, and you have been doing it successfully and will find a joy for doing it on a larger scale for other.
If the mind is happy, I am happy, if the mind is miserable, I am miserable. If my mind has negative thoughts, my actions are detrimental to myself and to other members of society;whereas the actions or a person with positive thoughts are a blessing to himself and to society. Why is the mind always in fear, hesitation, without dynamism or courage to take up a particular programme? What am I to do? Why am I wavering all the time?
What is it that orders the quality of thoughts? The texture and quality of thoughts are governed by the values that you uphold in life. Every one of you has got a value for something - certain convictions that you have reached in your intellect as to what should be the direction of your life. If your values are unhealthy, you can repair them with your intellect. Recognize your present negative values as dangerous and change the though pattern to a higher ideal. The lower thoughts then change to a higher texture. This is how all great revolutions have come by. The revolutionaries make people think in a direction. Unless the values of life are changed, the contours of our national life cannot change. The inner wealth is the strength and vitality of your mind. Newton's law says that nothing can move without the expenditure of energy. When we worry, we waste a lot of mental energy, our wealth. This expenditure and exhaustion is evident on our face.
Suppose you have got the value of "I hate". You have got the freedom to hate anybody. The person you hate sleeps well eats well, but it is you who gets exhausted in hating. But if you were to love that person even if he is harming you, it will not affect you, because certain values of life reduce the expenditure of energy and disscipation, making you efficiently face your own problems - economic, industrial professional or domestic.
Revolutionaries your attitude to the world outside by bringing a total reorientation of your life. Make it a success out of the failures of today; this is the highest are to work on yourself. These values are love, tenderness, forgiveness, truthfulness and goodness. Knowing a thing and living up to it are totally different things. To manage your life, the higher values are necessary, so that your reaction to the outside world does not dissipate your energy.
If you are not going to face your challenges, you, the educated, will become extinct. The illiterate's way of life is to imitate you. You change your attitude to life and change the health and destiny of your nation.
(a) Weekly fasting is not advisable for young persons, Why?
(b) What kind of food gives you strength?
(c) What do you mean by the words 'tool' and 'technician' mentioned in the passage?
(d) When do we feel the emotional exhaustion?
(e) What are the causes of worries?
(f) Positive thoughts are blessings to society. Explain.
(g) What happens to a person when he is full of worries?
(h) What do you mean by higher values of life? In what way it helps a person?
(i) Attitude changes the health and destiny of a person. Do you agree? Explain with example.
