Action to maintain one’s health is the highest offering one can do not to the self, but to the Divine. Realize that you are the Temple of God. It is the only beautiful and miraculous place you can experience God.
Your Body – The Abode of your Spirituality
We are conditioned to believe that to experience the presence of God and receive his blessing we need to perform certain rituals at certain places and at certain times. However, the essential teaching of any religion isn’t to reinforce the presence of God alone but also to teach humanity the necessary and fundamental requirements for a human to experience God.
And that necessary requirement is a healthy body.
It is a belief that health and exercise have nothing to do with Spirituality. It is true; ‘you are not the body, you are not the mind’; but it is your body and your mind. They are there to serve you every moment of life and hence need to be taken care of until your last breath. Health and exercise aren’t needed to keep oneself away from sickness and disorders, but are requirements to maintain a state of awareness and to stay connected with the Divine always.
Every great scripture emphasizes the importance of caring for one’s own body. In the Bhagwat Gita, on Karma Yoga, Krishna advises Arjuna; “Exercise is your primary duty”. It is a Nitya Karma that one should never fail to perform in any life situation and neither should one justify the inability to exercise. It has to be done. It is a Nitya Karma because it is a sin if not done.
Not just the Bhagwat Geeta, the Bible too is very transparent in emphasizing that One destroying the ‘Temple of God’ will be destroyed by God. The Corinthians 1 says, ‘You are the temple of God, the spirit of God dwells within you’. Similarly, the Quran on health and devotion says, ‘a strong and healthy believer is better and more beloved to Allah than the weak and unhealthy’.
Experiencing the Divine within oneself is the only source of true peace and happiness. Every religion and spiritual soul insists on the same basic need to experience the divine; a healthy body. Tirumular, one of the greatest self-realized masters the world had seen; has said, ‘the first and foremost requirement isn’t devotion, rituals or faith but a healthy body without which experiencing the Divine is impossible’. A healthy body is the first requirement to experience the divine within oneself.
Failing to understand this core truth, one will only waste time and life in search of God by indulging in activities out of blind belief, mechanical rituals and mere superstition.
Wishing you a life full of blessings, health and happiness.
Atmayogi Shri Aasaanji
Aham Brahmasmi !
