Health And Energy:
On September 3, 1939 war broke out among England, France, and Germany.
We want war to be abolished; yet we cannot avoid it. It has been with us since the beginning of civilization. When war protects our country and ourselves from evil, we say it is necessary. When it is destructive, it is not so said. One conclusion we gather from Indian History is that this country has tried to spread her culture and trade but never tried to impose herself on others by force. Still our countrymen were expert soldiers for the purpose of defense. We may not know when the country should be defended with arms but we must be in the best of health if ever we decide to do it. We do not mean that health is only for winning wars, or that victory necessarily means that we are healthy.
Germs by themselves cannot make us disease. When we suffer a loss of vital energy, they get a stand. There are many opinions about disease. When a man dies of disease, we sometimes say he is lucky to have been delivered from the world and all its tribulations. But he is not at all lucky. A man’s life is full of emotions and goes through many evolutions. We believe the soul exists after death. If we can’t enjoy good health in this life, how will the soul be happy in the next? We believe this world is the best training ground for the soul and that through health a man’s life in this world progresses. That is why our ancient kings tried to check untimely death. There is the story from Ramachandra’s days. When a child in his kingdom died prematurely, he was asked for an explanation!
In our country we can hardly find a man of all-round good health. We often know what will make us healthy, but are unable to do the needful.
Our health and physique come mainly from our ancestors. Unhealthy forbears make unhealthy descendants. A man may try for good health in vain in his lifetime; yet have issues that reap where he has sowed. Professor Lamarck said, “When a man develops, his success may pass on to his children.” He cites the case of the giraffe. The deer’s continuous stretching effort to eat from higher branches resulted in a new variety of offspring which we call the giraffe.
If people of the West maintain good health, it is because of their strong and stout ancestors. It is their characteristic to guard the health of themselves and their issues. They don’t want their children to be weak, bequeathing weakness to the nation. If we also try, we may do even better than they. We should first of all look to our children and try to place them in a wholesome and co-operative environment. Their direct education into healthy habits may also be given.
There are some elementary points of hygiene that we all can observe. Clean drinking water, clearing drains, keeping our dwellings decent: these are things within our grasp. Then come diet, medicine, quarantine, mosquito nets, etc. In a word we should give the health impulse; for all men want to live and grow.
Marriage and Society :
The uniting of male and female is a normal and natural craving. Wise men thus support the institution of marriage. Were it not for marriage, we would do more evils than we do. Marriage is therefore included in religion. It is a mainstay of life, a sacrament. Men and women of all civilized countries marry before the priest.
Seeds are sown in the soil; and plants sprout forth. The semen of the male is sown in the female womb, children are born. We do not know for how long this process of producing young has gone on, but we observe that where there is a happy union of male and female an abundance of life springs forth. Better children come and progressive activity in all spheres-in agriculture, industry, research, home keeping, etc.-results. As a man cannot go to the cinema hall without a ticket and there is a guard to see that he doesn’t enter without one, similarly a prospective bride and groom should have tickets of character and health before marriage and a guard should be there to see that they are not married without one. Parents are responsible for weak and imbecile children.
Patanjal the Seer said, “Through brahmacharjya we can have health.” This idea of brahmacharjya doesn’t mean suppression of natural instincts. Science herself prohibits suppression. Without union male and female cannot be well-developed. They remain incomplete. Patanjal didn’t say that suppression was brahmacharjya. Nor did he say we should not give birth to more and better children. Our Seers themselves often had a number of wives. During the reign of Asoke many brilliant and talented people accepted the life of unmarried monks. Our Sub-continent suffered a loss thereby. The best people went childless and we fell. Statistics declare that lower-minded people produce fifty times the children that higher-minded ones do. Many brilliant boys of our country are not marrying even today because of the call to a religious and sacrificing life. But instead of helping, they harm the country and themselves. We do not support such sacrifice to the welfare of humanity’.
There should be a difference of ten to fifteen years between a man and a woman. If it be less, there is not enough nourishment to either party. The bigger difference makes it possible for a woman to give her husband greater longevity. We know we cannot expect good plants from bad seeds and bad soil. This is applicable to man and woman. In our country the marriageable age for a man may be put at 25 and for the woman at 15. We should not marry older than this or else we won’t be able to rear our children well. To get better issues we need men of superior cultural heredity and women of equal or lower. Inter-caste marriage is good on an ‘anulom’ or hypergamous basis. Hypergamous polygamy was the way our ancestors bred best. But in later times this system was abused and brought ruin in place of rise. Still many women of lower standard were no doubt helped by the hypergamy. We discourage the marriage of a woman of higher cultural heredity with a man of lower, and also of a man and woman of the same clan. Such unions breed treachery and distortion.
We do women no good to marry them without their consent. The practice of getting their consent is now increasing, and for that we are thankful. Where the woman has consented to marry a man, both the married life and the progeny are good generally. Many children of our country are born unintelligent and feeble. They have no right power of thinking and action. It is all due, we believe, to unfavorable marriages. To get better results we must revise our procedure and install female consent universally.
In our sub-continent we recognize four social classes: a thinking class, a protecting class, a business class, and a working class. We can see these classes functioning in every country and society. We know that biologists of the West are often breeding two animals of the same or high pedigree without good result. In many cases reproduction fails altogether. In the West it is called inbreeding. We call it intra-clan breeding. Our old marriage custom of marrying daughters without their consent prevails nowhere in the West. That is why the western people have produced brilliant and stout issues. If we do not complete the change of our marriage ways, we cannot expect very good results. We have many rules and regulations in our scriptures. We ought not neglect them. If we can understand the science of them we will be more persuaded to follow them and reap the reward in better progeny. Where revision is necessary in our custom we must not prove stiff and inflexible.
There are many defects in our social system. We need reforms. We must think hard how we can make a better society and world.
Law and Self-Preservation :
In the municipality we make laws for our self- preservation. How far have we succeeded? We are the inhabitants of Dacca; so let us speak of Dacca.
As we take precautions against aerial attack on city, should we not take measures against its poverty and disease?
We must educate the people in civic affairs, discipline, hygiene, sociology, industry and commerce, and the municipality should maintain one publicity office and public meeting room. People should be warned not to throw mango pits, banana skins, etc. on the road but to use garbage cans for the purpose. Children should be told not to urinate and defecate in every direction. Dacca municipality is collecting Rs. 5000 from owners of horse carriages. The drivers of these carriages seldom use a horn or bell, but shout abusive language at the top their lungs. The municipality should require the putting and using of a bell on these carriages. The owners of hotel and restaurants should be organized in a union in which the way to prosperity through service would be pointed out for all. In Dacca the refuse carts are open and garbage falls back in the street. But nobody looks at it. Compulsory primary schools should be established within the municipal area. Chittagong alone has done this, and with great success. The Chittagong municipality ensures free primary education to the poor.
How can town people get to live without disease and poverty? How much money can we afford for this purpose? When an abnormal situation arises, the Government can get money enough. We are not speaking of loans. During the Bihar and Quetta earthquakes the then Government collected a huge amount. To put the municipality on terms with emergencies there should be relief fund. And the money must be properly spent and recorded. Before starting these constructive primary works the municipality should train some young men as volunteers. Youth has a natural idealism.
Family and Environment :
Our efforts will be more fruitful if we start our development projects first in the village. The country moves on the output of the village. When the village supply stops, we feel it a crisis. So villages must be cared for first.
Our next larger unit is the district. The districts of our country are nearly equal in population and area to those of western countries, let us suppose. Further, let us suppose the people of these districts have appointed leaders, to frame, with the help of the Government, a constitution for the development of the district. The people of the district should co-operate with these framers to make the whole area prosperous; for we know the interest of all is bound up with the interest of each.
Let us look for a moment at the individual family and its setting. The joint family system, so long extant in our country, is vanishing. When we discarded it, we threw away a life-line. Of course, we have abandoned the joint family system for economic reasons. It was unjust for many heads to depend on the earnings of one. The system works as long as income is huge and derives from the efforts of many. Even the females might have earned something from cottage industries for the common joint family pot.
Youth often gets boisterous and out of control. This characteristic does harm to the country and later in life it passes on to a new generation of vipers. We must not in the name of freedom allow the newer generations to degenerate. We must look after them in the interest of our society. It is the duty of the parents to develop moral character, hygiene and health in their children. They should discuss things with them in family conferences.
Religion and Rites :
Let us briefly discuss the basis of religion. According to our ancient scriptures there are supposed to be six centres of concentration. Nowadays none pays them much heed. But if we are at all interested in religion, we cannot avoid them. For, religion means being and becoming, and the six centres are the stages through which the being passes in its becoming. The six centres are the sacral, lumbar, dorsal, brachial, cervical and cerebral plexuses. As the being moves from the lower to the higher centres, it becomes. In meditation fluid of the spinal chord is agitated, and this agitation, bringing pleasure, is called Brahma. Our scriptures have actually distinguished twelve more sub-divisions or sub-centres, and it was said that to reach the ultimate eighteenth centre a man had to cross over the first seventeen. This is the basis of our religion and of our meditation practice.
Looking at religion from a different angle, we say that men must develop activity, knowledge and devotion in order to realize the Self. Wise men say that by activity, knowledge and devotion we can reach God. These three paths are then fundamental, and religion means acquiring all the three. From devotion we become sincere, truthful, sympathetic, conscious and charitable. This normally brings in existential activities on the domestic social and national levels; it also normally results in existential knowledge or wisdom through reading and the culture of some skill. Devotion is the root, and this means tying oneself to a superior beloved in reverence and regard. This root is the first religious rite, and forms the basis of meditation too.
Religion is easy to understand. If we practice being and becoming as it directs, we can grow in all aspects. This is our faith and experience. Nowadays we don’t like to follow the religion laid down by our ancestors. That is why our homes are filled with dissension, idleness, dirtiness and distortion. Religion means the maintenance of a discipline in life. And discipline involves following a system of becoming.