"Health And Fitness" - An Integrated Part Of Sanathan Dharma

Who is not worried about health these days? It is a well known fact that we all have concerns about various things that pose hazard to our health and quality lifestyle (not in materialistic terms). Pollution in everything, junk foods, excessive usage of pesticides in  farming, stress, irregular eating and sleeping, lack of physical activity, addiction to technology and what not?  This list can go extensive and the impact of these in our health is severe . 

No one can deny the fact of scientific advancements in the field of medicine, but, at the same time, we have to quietly admit the fact that most of us rely on a bunch of pills to maintain our health after mid forties.... Just a handful of people are aware of this and take good care of their health with careful selection of food and aggressive work outs while others give it a thought only when they make an appointment with the doctor. 

In today's post, let us see how health and fitness form an integrated part of spiritualism. Sanathan Dharma, called as "eternal way of life" rather than a religion, stresses the importance of health and it realizes the fact that good health is extremely important for any kind of progress.

QUICK VIEW :

Key concept	Health and fitness in Sanathan dharma
Spiritual concepts discussed	Rules regarding trees and rivers, waking up early in the month of margazhi, why not to place head in the north direction while sleeping
Main ideas behind the above concepts	To keep the environment fresh and clean ,keep water sources pollution free, make best use of ozone layer and Earth's magnetic field for enhanced health benefits.
Health & Fitness	Ayurveda and health, Fitness through rituals like sandhyavandanam, angapradakshin, thoppukaranam, yoga and meditation.

Spiritual concepts/thoughts with hidden health benefits :

Let us examine few basic rituals, rules or what so ever, behind Hindu traditions that has hidden health benefits in them. Basically they are given as orders to be followed and when not followed, are considered as sins. But what is the main idea behind such rigid rules? It is none other than our good health and we ourselves can realize it if we analyze them deeply. 

Cutting green trees : 

It is a great sin to cut green trees. The simple reason behind this is, green trees produce more oxygen and that is good for environment and all living beings. 

Holy Thirtha (rivers) : 

Rivers (Thirtha) are considered very holy and strict rules are imposed to use them judiciously. Manu smrithi talks about the various rules to be followed while bathing in rivers. Hells are prescribed for people who pollute rivers. Again the ideology behind this is to keep the natural water source pollution free. 

http://www.arcworld.org/faiths.asp?pageID=77

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/dharma/manusmriti_1.asp

http://toilet-guru.com/hindu.php

Margazhi worship:

It is very auspicious to visit temples in early morning during this month. Making colorful rangolis (kolam) are also stressed. The scientific reason here is that the ozone layer is lowered a bit in this month and breathing fresh air in early morning gives extensive health benefits.

http://www.divyadesam.com/hindu-articles/margazhi-month.shtml

Sleeping with head in north direction :

It is strictly advised that we should not sleep with the head facing north direction. Why? Earth's magnetic pole is stretched from north to south with positive pole at north and negative in south. In similar way, human body also has a magnetic stretch with positive pole at the head and negative one at the feet. It is a basic idea that opposite poles attract and same poles repel.  When we lay our heads in north, the two positive poles repel. Since Earth has a greater magnetic force, we tend to wake up with head ache or heaviness in head. 

http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/health-fitness/why-we-do-what-we-do-sleeping-right/

Ayurveda and Health :

Ayurveda is a traditional medicine native to Indian sub continent. The origins of Ayurveda are attributed to Atharva veda which contains 114 hymns and incantations described as magical cures for diseases. 

According to Ayurveda, every human being is a creation of cosmos with five basic elements. Hence it is based on the belief that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between mind body and spirit.

Ayurveda uses a holistic approach to health and healing and diet forms an important role. Please refer my earlier post "You are what you eat - the science of food" for diet in Ayurveda. Since Ayurveda is an extensive topic, it needs to be discussed separately and I will try to present an article on this soon. Please go through the following images and links to know more about Ayurveda and health.

http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/explore-healing-practices/ayurvedic-medicine

http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/ayurvedic-treatments

http://www.healthy.net/Alternative_Therapy/Ayurveda/3

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Ayurveda

Rituals and fitness : 

Though we have many items to discuss under this topic, taking into consideration the length of this post, I have summarized only a few here. We have almost forgotten the ancient traditions and we rarely follow them now. Hence, we need to spend time for fitness separately these days, which was once available as a part and parcel of everyday life. 

Sandhyavandanam :

Please go through the following link for the health benefits of this ritual...

http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/significance-importance-sandhyavandanam/

Ankapradakshan :

It is a full body workout. It is typically done in temples as a form of prayer.
http://blog.ishtadevata.com/pradakshina.html

Thoppukaranam :

What we once did involuntarily to Lord Ganesha, has become famous "super brain yoga" now. I have written a separate article on this already and hence not writing much here. Please take a look.....

http://www.superbrainyoga.com.au/SuperBrainYoga.htm
http://qahs.eq.edu.au/superbrain-yoga-a-simple-exercise-to-maximize-brain-power/

Walking to hill temples :

Temples were constructed on hills for few reasons.  Hills provide fresh air. Even now, doctors prescribe staying in hill stations for certain kinds of illness. Next, most importantly, in those days when transportation was not available, only way to reach the temple was by walking. That provided an excellent source of exercise. Now a days we do hiking as an exercise and sometimes for fun. The same idea is achieved here in the form of devotion. Even now, some devotees go to such hill temples by walk, again as a form of prayer.

Yoga and meditation :

Do I need to tell about Yoga and meditation? The benefits of them are now universally known.  They were once incorporated as an everyday ritual. Patanjali, is considered the traditional compiler of yoga sutras. He is only the compiler and the techniques were in existence even before him. He organized them in eight steps (called as ashtanga yoga) namely Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi. Let us take a quick view of health benefits of yoga and meditation.

I hope I have summarized the main points. Thank you all for reading. Let the Almighty give all of us better health and prosperity.