Page 15 - NAMAH-Jul-2021

Namah Editorial

a
infinite. The only way for it to know all the bronze (Dvaparayuga) to live a hundred years.
mysteries of creation is to become one with
the Creator, a unique possibility bequeathed During the Mahaabhaarata war, Arjuna, the
to man. The process through which we can great hero of the battle was 70 years and
reclaim our Divine Inheritance is called Yoga. Krishna, the divine charioteer was 108,
while Bheesma the Mighty was 170 years. We
Thus we have two world-views of life, one born may in our scientific arrogance rubbish this
of the fire and vision and power of yoga while as a piece of fiction, but the tale of longevity
the other is born of our limited understanding is written everywhere and in every piece
by the mind and the senses. But just as the of history of the former ages of mankind.
sense and mind-born understanding can be The picture that science presents, trying to
verified so also the yogic vision and action convince us otherwise, is quite misleading.
can be verified. Present modern science, which claims to have
increased the lifespan of mankind, is hardly
In fact the yogic vision is much more easily a few hundred years old.
subject to verification since, unlike the mind,
born scientific forms of knowledge, whose But mankind has existed and survived and
laboratories and research are accessible only evolved through millennia. Records of
to a few, the yogic research is accessible to all ancient Greeks and Romans clearly speak
who are ready and willing to make their mind of old age when people crossed 70 and some
and body itself the laboratory of the Creator. who actually crossed a hundred. What has
increased, if at all, is not lifespan but life-
Is it not already so? Is not our mind and expectancy which is quite a different thing.
body the product of a long and complex Lifespan is what is given to an average man.
evolutionary process that we think is random It is largely a genetically programmed thing.
because we are unaware of the Hands and the It is like a baseline on which we can build
Heart that has undertaken this tremendous or reduce. Lifespan is a statistical figure, the
adventure of creation. According to this view, law of the average in terms of numbers. Of
matter and all else that has evolved and still is course some would say that modern medicine
evolving serves the purpose of taking matter is nearly 2,500 years old with Hippocrates
itself further and further in its journey until as the leading physician. But we know that
it is ready to manifest the seed of the Divine the methods he used and even much later
within. This gospel shows us one way to deal have been largely outdated and would be
with the present crisis and all others. The considered primitive today. So was it the
fact that humanity has largely followed this medical knowledge of those days or the faith
way quite intuitively and survived through they invested in it, the all-weather medicine
millions of years is itself a sign of its validity. called faith or the placebo effect that helped
Some form of yoga has always existed upon people?
earth and in its heydays life was much longer,
robust and healthy. If we are to accept the On the other hand, we can take Dhanvantari
accounts of the seers, it was not uncommon as the father of ancient Indian medicine.
for human beings even in the previous age of Though considered by some as a mythical

15