E-Paper
Disease, and its Consciousness
The prospect of 'choosing' a disease seems preposterous to most of us, but that is exactly what can happen if we are not aware of it.
The prospect of 'choosing' a disease seems rather preposterous to most of us, but that is exactly what can happen if we are not aware of it.
Haven't we all come across hypochondriacs, who seem to induce disease into their bodies, by constantly talking about it?
Wrong ways of living on the physical plane, have been handed down from our forefathers, and so when we happen to 'get' the ailments that they had, we consider it a genetic predisposition, rather than a lifestyle generated thing.
More often than not, we stimulate the consciousness of this disease of our forefathers, by allowing it to sear our minds, until we finally have it, and triumphantly prove ourselves right in the bargain! Several times, merely a hint of fear of catching a cold in cold weather has brought the cold down upon us!
In Western societies, where healthcare is prohibitively expensive, and time consuming in the number of productive man hours lost, many people have taken to reassuring themselves that they cannot 'afford' to fall ill, and so carry on blithely feeling well at all times.
Yet, when it is vacation time for them, they let go of this determination, and find themselves succumbing to all the illnesses which they had earlier kept at bay, through strong intent!
We have to resurrect ourselves from disease consciousness. Very often we find that a human will carry on happily and in perfect health until he retires from work. The moment the reralization hits him that he is now 'old' enough to retire, he associates it with declining health and senility, literally thinking himself into that situation!
A small story that Paramhansa Yogananda related illustrates this concept strikingly. "While meditating late one night, a certain saint saw the ghost of the dreaded smallpox disease entering the village where he lived.
"Stop, Mr. Ghost," he cried, "Go away, you must not molest a town in which I worship God."
"I will take only three people," the ghost replied, "In accordance with my cosmic karmic duty." At this the saint unhappily nodded assent.
"The following day three persons died of smallpox.
"But the next day several more died, and each day thereafter more villagers were overcome by the fearful disease. Thinking that a great deception had been played upon him, the saint meditated deeply and summoned the ghost. When it came the saint rebuked it.
"Mr. Ghost, you deceived me and did not speak the truth when you said that you would take only three people with your smallpox."
"The ghost replied, 'By the Great Spirit, I did speak the truth to you. I took only three, the rest killed themselves with fear.'"
