The prime cause of sickness is rooted in the mind. No disease can exist in the body and mind of a person unless there is some susceptibility in the consciousness. Mind by nature is a non - stop thinker and generates a continuous stream of thought patterns. Some are evil and some are pious and pure. According to the characteristic of every thought pattern it influences the functioning the various organs in the body and thus responsible for the cause of any disease. The great physician, Charak had said, 'Pradnyapradhanam hi moolam rognum', i.e. 'all diseases originate from foibles of human thinking'.
Diseases which are the product of continued emotional stressed and termed 'Psychosomatic diseases (psycho meaning mind and soma meaning body). For example excessive anger have been found to increase the acid secretion in the stomach when a person is constantly in an irritated state of mind. The excessive acid secretion slowly eats into the protective mucous lining of the stomach and an ulcer is formed. It has been rightly said that an ulcer is not caused by what we eat, but what we is eating us. (It means 'Anger' is eating us). Further, a study in the characteristic nature of 'anger' reveals that it is aggressive, it burns and boils, it accelerates and goes on pushing forward blindly. These mental vibration generated by 'Anger' affects the functioning of "liver and gall bladder" which can cause jaundice.
Louise L. Hay in her book "Heal your Body", gives a long list of physical diseases with their mental causes, and suggests how to overcome them by "Metaphysical Ways": The mental thought patterns that cause the most diseases in the body are Criticism, Anger, Resentment and guilt. For instance, Criticism indulged in long enough will often such as arthritis. Anger turns into things that boil and burn and infect the body. Resentment long held festers and eats away at the self and ultimately can lead to tumors and cancer. Guilt always seeks punishment and leads to pain. "It is so much easier to release these negative thinking patterns from our minds when we are healthy then to try to dig them out when we are in a state of panic and under the threat of the surgeon's knife".
Let us, for a moment, take a pause here and theorize what is mind? What its is relation with the consciousness and the physical body?
Mind of a person depending on his past Samskaras, is born out of five elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space)
"Ehu Mann Karma, ehu mann dharma,
Ehu Mann panch tatt te janma."
"This mind doeth deeds, this mind practiceth righteousness, And this mind is born of five elements". (SGGS: 415)
Consciousness is a vital factor in building the body and mind. In pursuit of its self - expression, the consciousness groups around the surrounding matter and appropriates it to shape a physical body suitable for its dwelling, Consciousness constantly receives the impacts from the external worlds and goes on materializing its physical body as per the plan or self of the 'Mind'. Since the matter it has appropriated had three qualities of vibration (Sattva, Raja and Tama), the mind will respond according to these three qualities. Therefore, a person will develop his temperament either Sattvic, or Rajasic, or Tamasic. His emotions, his feelings, are the natural outcome from his mind by further interacting into his environment.
Mind is thus bound by its material body on one side and supported by life from the side of consciousness. Mind, in its grosser form of elements can be termed as energy (a crude analogy of matter) and, in its most finer aspect can be termed as pure consciousness:
"Ehu mann shakti, ehu mann si(v)o,
Ehu mann panch tatt ka jeeo,
Ehu mann le jo unn mann rahe,
Tau teen lok ki baten kahe" (SGGS: 342)
"This mind is shakti, this mind is shiva, This mind is originated from five elements, One who transcends into Higher consciousness, to him is revealed the mystery of Three Words".
Shakti resides in the lower region of the physical body and shi(v)o resides in the head region of the body. But the mind, which is a product of five basic elements, ranges its vibration from the shakti to shi(v)o, i.e. from the grosser matter of the lower nature of mind to energy of the higher nature of mind, also called the transcendental region. By ascending to these heights, one becomes conscious to the "Three worlds". One can scan the mental world, the astral world, and the physical world at 'will'. Thoughts in mind keep on stimulating the body organs. Evil thoughts which originates from the lower mind are prone to generate diseases. The pure thoughts which originate from the higher mind can cure them all. The factor of purity is in direct proportion to the development of consciousness in the mind if a person.
According to Hath Yogic practices, Shakti which resides in the Mooladhara Chakra of the physical body called 'Kundalini', a serpent force, normally sleeping, is deliberately aroused, so that it can pass through the spine (Nadis - the energy channels) and get communion with pure conscousness residing in the crown chakra. Whatever be the ill effects of this type of practise, it aims at getting rid of the evil through patterns, like kama, karodh, which are dominantly responsible for creating innumerable diseases in the body. The experience of many people who practise Naam Simran and sing God's name for long periods of time, feel that kundalini automatically rises higher up unconsciously and communes with the crown chakra from where one can drink the nectar of bliss.
Naam Simran: is simply a way of spiritual practise as compared to the complicated methods of Yogic practies. It is a process of constantly remembering mentally and uttering by tongue, in low tune, the name of God, which sanctifies the atmosphere around the body and soul of a person. By its practise our individual consciousness gets alined with the Universal Consciousness without much effort, provided one has developed the faith and purity. As a consequence the practitioner gets Divine protection from all evils:
"Taati vau na lagai parbraham sharnai,
Chaugird hamare Ramkar, dukh lagai na bhai" (SGGS: 819)
In the supreme Lords protection suffering shall not touch me; All round me is drawn the lords mystic circle, keeping away suffering.
In the practise of Naam Simran, the mind initially is made to turn inwards with a decisive 'will' to eradicate the five evils from within the body and mind (Kama, Krodh, Lobh Moha and Ahankar): "Antargat teerath mal nao". By nature these evils dominate in their respective regions of the body. Starting with Kama which dominates the lower bottom region, then the Krodh dominates the naval regions of fire, Lobh, and Moha dominates the heart region of the body. And lastly, Ahankar like a king in the head region from where it rules and encompasses all other evils in order to dictate terms to them.
By deploying the mind into these regions with self - introspection, and by intensifying the recitation of God's Name, during Naam Simran, these evils slowly and steadily are uprooted from their locations and are replaced by the vibrations from the higher regions of consciousness: Mind thus loses the hold on the grosser elements of the body and lofts the consciousness towards the higher realms, where the individual consciousness gets ecstatic experiences and the devotee intensify reciting the name of God by every part of his body. "Gurmukh rom rom har dhiave". One becomes God - conscous. Then, transcending further with the devotional vigour, the individual consciousness submerges into the universal consciousness, where he does not see any thigh other than God.
"Kabir tu Karta tu hua, mujh me raha na hun,
Jab aapa parka mit gia, jat dekhan tat tun. (SGGS: 1375)
God takes care of everything and redeems his devotee from the entire range of maladies.
"All diseases yield to the divine energy, when it starts flowing through the mind of a person".
Sukhmani Sahib - a scripture of eternal peace, being recited in almost all the Sikh homes every day is a great boon to mankind. It is said that by its recitation all pains and maladies go. During its recitation, a single line of five words sums up the whole essence of our subject into a short sentence:
"Sarab rog kau aukhad Naam"!
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