AUM HANG HEALTH HARMING HABITS By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM The age-old saying on healt
AUM
AUM
HANG HEALTH HARMING HABITS
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
The age-old saying on health and allied matters runs thus:
If wealth is lost, nothing is lost; if health is lost, something is lost; if character is lost, everything is lost.
May I venture to make a slight change that would be in keeping with the modern trends in our human society. Shall I bracket Health and Character and say that if Health and Character are lost, everything is lost beyond redemption. To have a high moral character sans Health is indeed a distant dream. A man having health problems may not be able to maintain his image as a man of character. A unhealthy man is vulnerable to all pulls and pressures and is likely succumb to indecent proposals. Thereby he may lose his reputation, if any, of being a man of character.
HEALTH IS WEALTH
A healthy mind in a healthy body is an age old saying. Indeed it has stood the test of time and men or women with a logical bent of mind won’t find fault with this saying. However, in the 21st century, when there is a rat race going on and Man has no time to “ stand and stare”, one needs time to pause and reflect if “ this life full of care and anxiety” will lead him to his desired goal. Running in circles, one reaches nowhere and is bewildered, confused and thus loses his sense of judgement on even mundane things. Well, a physician may call it Disorientation and prescribe a capsule or two per day besides an additional intake of rock salt to help you get back to your moorings. Nevertheless this remedy may not last long and the patient may be saddled with the same old malady once again.
Is there a way out? Indeed there is one, if you care to adopt this way of life where the SOUL is more important than the body. This leads us to Spiritualism where the soul seeks the Almighty and adopts a way of life through its body where there are no man-made pitfalls that you may not be aware of. You and I have to care for our soul too. We understand that what our body does has an impact on the soul through our Sanskaras. Therefore, our action or inaction should be such that leaves no scars on the soul through our lasting habits.
A person may have good habits or he may have bad habits. Our repeated actions form a habit. Man, by nature loves to choose the easy path even if it is harmful in the long run. The Upanishads call it the Preya Marg as opposed to the difficult going that produces good results ultimately and is called the SHREYA MARG. An individual who is lazy and given to the Epicurean philosophy, “ Eat, Drink and Be Merry” cannot but choose the Preya Marg that is bound to take that individual downhill. The vices forming bad habits that harm the Health creep in surreptitiously and take over the reins of life before the lazy fellow realizes what all he has lost in life.
ADOLESCENTS NEED PROTECTION
The senior citizens and adults in the human social order have an onerous responsibility of guiding and protecting adolescents and preventing them from going astray. Never mind if initial attempts result in failure but be at it. A human being saved from becoming a social rogue will be like gaining a good soul for the human society. Initial failures lead to ultimate success.
Adolescents have a tendency to form a group of their own where they share secrets, compare notes and are initiated into all forms of bad habits that lead to vices that bring untold sufferings. Nevertheless, adolescents work under peer pressure only and go out of the comfort zone provided by parents. The seniors among adolescents command more respect than teachers or professors who do not have a close interaction with their pupils now a days. The teaching-learning process is by and large mechanical. Since the teacher and the taught no longer have that intimate relationship that a Guru and Shishya used to have in the Gurukulas of yore. Thus the teachers in schools and colleges are out of the circle that moulds and shapes adolescents into fine adults and good citizens of a civilized society.
The SHATPATH BRAHMAN, containing an elucidation of Yajurveda mantras, had envisaged: “ Matriman, Pitravan , Achayavan Purusho Ved” AND THAT MEANT THAT THE Mother, Father and Acharya shaped a child into a man of knowledge. I regret to note that the Vedic concept does not exist anymore in our society in Bharat, leave alone societies elsewhere.
Consequently our adolescents fall a prey to bad habits and the vice-like grip does not loosen until it is too late to reform the fallen individual. The juvenile delinquents commit serious crimes like **** and murder and get away with a light punishment of imprisonment of three years. The concept of reforming such juvenile delinquents has fallen by the wayside because the Reformation Homes teach them more vices than any ordinary jail. On release from the reformatory houses, they are worse than the hardened criminals. Let the issue rest at that until law makers find time to have a second look at the law on juvenile delinquency and reduce the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16.
VICES GALORE
You name a vice and adolescents of today have it. The fault lies with their upbringing and lack of moral education. The young boys and girls are given *** education in some secondary schools and they experiment with each other. There is no denying the fact that ****** urge of adolescents is stronger than at any age in life. That is the time when through imparting good education, moral education by giving personal examples and sublimation of *** through channelizing energy by engaging them in healthy activities, delinquency can be checked to some extent.
Spiritual education may be of help but the policy makers in the realm of education have little comprehension of this concept. Likewise teaching of lives of great men of the past not only helps juveniles with a trend of delinquency to put their lives on rails but it also inculcates Patriotism. Unfortunately, our policy makers have little time or inclination towards making leaders of tomorrow because they are continually busy saving their seats of power and engaging legal brains to save them from the stigma of a scandal a day. It is sad but it is true.
There is no point in talking about smoking and drinking alcohol when leaders of political parties in power indulge in the same vices. Yatha Raja Tatha Praja – that old saying reflects the reality of life today. Adolescents take to smoking to prove that they are adults now; they take to drinking to prove that they have entered Manhood. The adults who are not gripped with these vices may show adolescents some light at the end of the tunnel. Where are such adults who can play the role model and guide the new generation from going astray.
Taking drugs that are harmful to health must be prevented at any cost. It is eating into the vitals of the Nation. The drug *** alcohol *** free *** is catching up with the new generation at a fast pace. The only hope is the religious organizations like the Arya Samaj or the Shanti Sabha but they will have to gear up to meet this gigantic challenge. There is no point in looking up to the present day government at the Centre because they are deeply involved in corruption cases like the 2G, 3G, Coalgate, the shady land deals that they have no moral courage to call a spade a spade and lead the movement of Reformation of Adolescents who are the Future leaders of Bharat.
Let the Common Man take a lead and form De-Addiction centres in various localities to reform our loved ones. Subscription given by the AAM AADAMI will go a long way in Reformation without kowtowing to corrupt ministers who pollute more than they can clean. Have Trust in ISHWAR and confidence in self to lead the Reformation Movement.
Email : sawantchitranjan@yahoo.com or chitranjan.sawant@gmail.com
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