Illness - Sai Baba

Human has two varieties of troubles: the physical, due to the imbalance between the three humours vatha, pittha and sleshma (wind, bile and phlegm), and the spiritual, due to the imbalance of the three gunas, sathwa, rajas and thamas (qualities of purity, passion and inertia).

Illness is due to the neglect of some simple rules of healthy eating and drinking and due to the damage caused to the system by evil habits and stupid cravings. Person rains by greed and lust worry and fear; he/she falls an easy prey to insatiable thirst for a happy life.

Coming to the more direct topic of physical ills, you must practise moderation in food, drink, sleep and exercise. Good food taken in moderate quantities, at regular intervals; that is the prescription. Sathwic (pure, wholesome) food promotes self-control and intelligence more than rajasic (passion-producing) and thamasic (impure food).

Regulate food habits; restrain the greed of the tongue. The human body and mind will be healthy only when food is consumed within limits. Excessive eating causes various disorders.

Eat only sathwic or pure food; engage yourselves only in sathwic recreations. Then you can be free from physical and mental ill-health. Bear calumny, loss, disappointment, defeat, boldly and with equanimity; then, no mental depression can over- whelm you. All that you eat, all that you see, all that you hear, all that you take in through the senses, make a dent on your health. What is the best use to which the body has to be put? For, the body with all its equipment of senses, intellect, feeling and memory, is an instrument, an implement, a chariot which one uses for movement towards a goal. The owner of the chariot is any day more important than the chariot itself; it is for his sake that it has to be kept trim and efficient and in good repair.

The duration of life is under the control of Him who gave life, the Creator. It does not depend on the calories of food consumed or the quantity of drugs that are injected, or the qualifications of the physician who prescribes the medicines. If one concentrates on the Atma, which has no change or characteristics, no subtraction or senility, no decline or damage, human can conquer death. Therefore, the most effective prescription is the injection of Atma-vidhya (knowledge of the Soul as one's real Self).


-Sai Baba