Protect Your Health

June 02, 2013

Bangalore, India

(H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar inaugurated the Cancer awareness drive which marked 'World No Tobacco' Day at the Art of Living International Center. The awareness drive, jointly organized by The Art of Living and BGS Global Hospitals included an exhibition on the harmful effects of tobacco consumption. Shri Somashekhar, MLA from Uttarahalli constituency; and Dr. K. Ravindranath, Chairman and Managing Director, Global Hospitals Group; and Dr Vishal Rao, Head and Neck Onco Surgeon, BGS Global Hospitals were present at the occasion. Below is a transcript of What Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said:)

It is said, ‘Aushadhi Jahnavi Toyam Vaidyo Narayano Harihi’.

This means that when we take a medicine, we should consider it sacred, like the water from the river Ganga.

When you drink water from the river Ganga (Ganga jal), how do you feel? You drink it with a feeling of purity, and with faith. That is the difference between regular water and Ganga jal. When you drink with faith, then the water becomesteerth (sacred water). A medicine should be taken with this same feeling, then it will work effectively. It is not just popping a pill into your mouth and drinking water.

‘Vaidyo Narayano Harihi’, means that a doctor should be seen as a form of Lord Narayana.

There are two meanings for this verse. One is that the true doctor (healer) is Lord Narayana and the true medicine is the water from the river Ganga.

The other is that a medicine should be considered as sacred as the water from the river Ganga, and a doctor should be seen as a form of Lord Narayana.

For protecting your health, good habits are needed. The mind also plays a very big role here. If we want to be free from bad habits, our mind should be pleasant and we should have faith.

Our ancestors have said that for a disease to be healed, three things are needed: Good habits, good thoughts andmedicine. In addition to taking the medicines, the mind should be kept pleasant and peaceful and we should have faith.

Ayurveda originated on the banks of the river Ganga. If you go to Rishikesh and Haridwar, you will find many Ayurvedic shops there. It has now spread all over India. Get your health checked at regular intervals.

We keep on eating and spoil our health. Many people do not exercise either. Earlier, people were very hard working.

To eat a piece of sugarcane which is around 6 inches, we need to put so much effort. And when you eat sugarcane with a lot of effort, it also gets digested easily. Now just imagine if someone told you to eat a ten-foot long sugarcane. You will get so tired that you will not be able to eat anything after that.

Do you know, one spoon of sugar contains the juice from a ten-foot long sugarcane? And we eat so many spoons of sugar in day. Now if we eat so much sugar with no exercise, how can the body bear it?

People over the age of forty are getting Osteoporosis, they have joint pains and loss of calcium in bones. All this is due to white sugar. The British removed jaggery and gave us white sugar. And since then we have been eating white sugar and spoiling our health.

If you eat sugar, you need to exercise accordingly. Diseases like diabetes come because we haven’t paid attention to food. You must take care of your food habits. When you do this, you will see a big difference in your life.

Stop using white sugar and use jaggery instead. Jaggery has Zinc, Magnesium, Potassium and other minerals, which help in strengthening the body, generate blood and promotes hair growth. White sugar contains Sulphur which drains the Calcium in the body, which is why people get diseases like Osteoporosis.

So stop eating sweets that contain white sugar, and eat sweets that are made of jaggery. Then you will see that your health will be good.