Sufferings And Health Of Spiritual People – Ayurvedic Analysis

Dr JV Hebbar
“Rules of physics, chemistry, biology etc sciences do not apply to spiritual people. Including rules of Ayurveda.” This is the last line of this article. 

Great sufferings

God Sri Ram – he spent 14 years in forest, though he was the entitled to the kingdom. He was the heir apparent. 
Jesus Christ, being a God, underwent several excruciatingly painful situations 
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa suffered with cancer during his final years.
Sri Sarada Devi, suffered with arthritis and was working untiringly  throughout the day. 
Giri Bala – female saint from Bengal lived without taking any food or water. She was even tested by the local King himself. She was made to stay under King’s supervision 24X7 while testing. 

So, though being omnipotent, why these Gods and spiritual people opted to take the suffering on themselves? 
Here are some of the explanations – 

1. To set the highest example to the world: 
   They suffer through the difficulties and win and show us the path ahead. They show us the highest points of love, patience, forgiveness, dutifulness and sacrifice. With their examples, we the common people are expected to learn and try to emulate some sacrifices of their lives so that our lives in this world is made useful to people around. 
2. They want to teach us the “law of Karma”
   With their highest example, they teach us that, with souls in the human being forms, sufferings and set backs are natural. We have to learn how to over power these physical set backs with our sheer mental power and their blessings. 
3. To show that, even in atrocities, we can be happy and blissful! 
   Their physical bodies are affected. That does not harm their mental composure. In fact, these spiritual personalities carried a happy and blissful state of mind amidst all the troubles. Their mind is detached from the physical and social sufferings. This is a big lesson for us to learn. As God Krishna guides – we should do the work without being attached to the results. We should have Sama Chitta – unperturbed mind and intellect. 
   I saw Sri Sadhguru say – be ease with yourself. Accept your abilities and demerits. Do not expect the whole world to work as per your imaginations. In stead, make your mind work as per your rules. 
4. It is not painful for them at all! 
   When we see Arnold Schwarzenegger lift weights and do all those tough exercises, we feel – oh he is taking so much pain. But Arnold is actually enjoying all those weights. It is not painful for him. 
5. To eradicate the wrong perceptions, wrong practices pertaining to religion and spirituality: 
   With due course of time, the original spiritual concepts get mis-interpreted and lot of unnecessary rituals and practices get added up. We forget what is the actual truth and get hung up with unimportant rituals. We start giving more value to rituals than the hidden meaning behind them. 
   From time to time, considering the social changes, some old religious, social and spiritual rules need to be re-written. To do all these things, spiritual people dawn on earth. If they are simple people, we often neglect their preaching. They set highest example to all of us to follow with unimaginable self restraints. This makes us to take them seriously and follow their preaching. 
6. They suffer the pain so that world does not need to. 

Celibacy and spirituality

There is a rule in Ayurveda that natural urges should not be suppressed. Some of these urges are – hunger, thirst, sleep and semen. But spiritual masters suppress these all the time, throughout their lives.

Many common people who seek to practice celibacy for the sake of having good health, long life etc. Even Ayurveda recommends celibacy. But many become perplexed with the fact that great spiritual masters like Sri Adi Shankaracharya (32 years), Swami Vivekananda (39 years), Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (50 years), left their bodies very early, though they were following perfect celibacy – Brahmacharya.

Practicing celibacy, Yoga for maintaining good concentration and to have good Ojas – immunity is one thing.
Practicing celibacy, Yoga, meditation etc for higher spiritual gains is entirely different thing.
Read: Meditation By Watching Mind: Stages, Method, Benefits

Higher spiritual masters do not care for their body. For them, the human body is just a tool. Once Swami Vivekananda was in a foreign location. He keeps on looking into the mirror. His hosts are perplexed: Being a Sanyasi, why this monk is worried so much about his looks?
Then Swamiji sighs “No matter how much I try, I do not seem to remember my body shape and face.”

This signifies that Sanyasis do not bother much about their body or health.

Exceptional observations

1. Spiritual masters who are Bharmacharis by birth tend to live for a shorter period of time. They concentrate all their energies into achieving something very big. All their energies from all their tissues, mind, brain, Ojas and immunity are used up by their mind, will and intellect for the greater good of the world.
Read Health Benefits Of Yoga: Mind And Body

Think of Sri Adi Shankaracharya. He established and propagated Advaita Siddhanta (the soul that resides in us, is all powerful God.).
He wrote Sanskrit commentaries on Brahma sutra, Aitateya Upanishad, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Ishopanishad, Taittireeya Upanishad, ec.
He wrote 22 devotional hymns, 25 devotional Stotras, etc., roamed across India, established 4 Mutts – spiritual centers in all four directions and left the world at the age of 32.
For any other highly spiritual person, this might have taken at least 200 years.

Think of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa – he achieved God realization through all possible spiritual routes – Dvaita, Advaita, following various religious paths like Shakti, Tantrik ways, prepared his disciple Swami Vivekananda to conquer the world with spirituality and shed his body by the age of 50.
Read: Mind – Qualities And Functions As Per Ayurveda

2. Spiritual masters who were having a familial life in the early part of their lives, live longer. Most of the modern age monks. One logic could be, the Shukra Dhatu in them has been utilized and hence, the Shukra channels are not blocked to a very great extent, compared to people who followed celibacy all through their lives.

3. Most of the highly evolved spiritual masters can live as long as they wish. This process is called Iccha Marana.
Owing to their pure heart and mind, their will gets merged with the will of the Almighty.
They shape their lives in perfect unison with the will of God.
Read Satvik Nature Influencing Disease Manifestation: Case Study

4. Some spiritual people live only with the help of water, or just with air or with some foods like chilli or neem etc. They do not consume anything else!
They practice high levels of Yogic techniques. Through these techniques, they can extract energy out of anything into their body.

5. Even today, in many of the caves of Himalayas, there are many high spiritual masters who have been living since hundreds of years. I am told, they pray for the welfare of all.
Read Foods That Increase Sattva, Rajas, Tamas: Srimad Bhagavat Geeta

6. Some spiritual masters, nearing to the end of their lives, start taking the Karma load of their disciples onto them. They do so to help their disciples to reach higher spiritual levels quickly or to help their disciples out of their health or other problems.
When the masters do these, the karma effect of their disciples is transferred on to the master, leading to many diseases such as cancer. eg: Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
Read: If Disease Is Due To Bad Karma, Should We Fight It Or Not?

If these high spiritual masters wish, they can walk on fire, water, fly in air, can grow to gain a huge body or become small, become invisible etc, at will. (Ashta Siddhi).

“Rules of physics, chemistry, biology etc sciences do not apply on spiritual people. Including rules of Ayurveda.”