By: Karthik

The Body, Mind, Heart & Spirit is a labyrinth that is intricately connected with one another and forms the constituent of the holistic being; Buddha said that, if one can stay connected to the body, sync, be sensitive, perceptible, open, listen to Body Intelligence, one could attain Mukthi, Moksha, Nirvana or Liberation. Body has its own intelligence, its intriguingly complicated, hence it has evolved to be simple. Just think of this, when one eats something that doesn’t suit or even eats more of what one likes, over drinks, it simply shows the effect immediately, it throws out, shows some allergy bumps and communicate its intelligence – please don’t abuse me…stop. On the contrary, think of Mind, say a person has a bad habit, a simple bad habit, like laziness, or even smoking, though its a mind thing, it manifests its effect first in the body.

The symptom of health deteriorating is first seen in the body, we know its psychosomatic; but old habits die hard. Unlike the body which throws-up immediately, the mind struggles because its been complicated over the years. Bad physical health is detrimental in Happiness Quotient, even if one has a slight head-ache, the body, commands the entire attention of the mind on the unhealthy condition in the body. It is said that the body is the visible mind and the Mind the invisible body. There are a multitude of examples to cite this. Lets look at something more familiar, lets see a sport like cricket, where when a catch is dropped by a fielder, you could easily observe the body language of the fielder, he would indicate, it was the blazing light, that blinded him, or vigorously wriggle the palm and fingers and say ouch and umm and scratch his head and the face would carry and continue the mood of the drama for few more minutes, whereas the same fielder when he catches a brilliant catch by spectacular acrobatic dive, or rolls couple of somersaults after having held the catch, the whole thing that the body would have undergone in those few seconds is beyond the capture of rationale, practically speaking , it should have caused most injury , on the contrary, the jubilation and the celebration follow. The mind can convey all this and it transmits faster than light.

Bodily Health or Physical Health should be ones prime focus. Mental hygiene, Spiritual Fitness is equally important or perhaps, there are many ways to care for your body, from simple things like food, sleeping habits, to regularly exercising, sports, fitness. While it may not be something possible for everyone to pursue a life time sport that is physical , it may be beneficial. If its something which stands a chance , one should pursue, else exercise and other activities are always a means to achieve this, a sport takes care of all the constituents of the labyrinth of holistic being, body, mind, heart and spirit, it works at all levels, regular exercise is a sure way , one may not be able to carry the same intensity or motivation in a long run, hence one needs to bring in variety of physical activities or exercise to break the monotony and boredom that could creep in, it helps in renewing the spirit of exercising regularly.

Every sport has its own demand. A racquet game like Badminton has different demands than another racquet sport like Tennis, leave alone a totally different sport like basketball or cricket. Each sport develops a unique muscle and mental intelligence. That is why a specialist in one sport is not an expert in another, in-fact within a sport itself, we could find something like a batsman, bowler, wicket-keeper and so on. The skills are entirely different and hence the body intelligence too. Right approach, right procedure, supported by right habits are key to get the right results in physical fitness, it is very similar for the Mind, Heart and Spirit too, Mental hygiene can be taken care of by meditating, simply pursuing talents that which you are good at, what comes more naturally to you like playing some musical instrument, painting, solving puzzles, solving cross-words, playing chess, sudoku, reading , contemplation, introspection, soliloquies some of the mind callisthenics which helps a long way. These are the skills that could be developed as well not necessarily in born. Heart the seat of emotions is even more powerful, it can be nurtured and nourished with strong bonding, loving relationship, friendship, socialising, allocating time for simple joys in life like travelling, going to cinemas, dining, feeling blessed. Showing compassion, empathy, being kind towards all life forms, showing gratitude and grace, accept all that is, whatever be the situation, sensible entertainment, being happy, positive…
Spiritual Fitness the best way to have it is to have a strong faith, it is the panacea for everything, when there is perfect alignment, congruence in Body, Mind, Heart like the unison in thought, speech, action, desire, (easier said than done), the Spiritual Fitness takes care of itself; modern life poses imminent threat to this and it is not that easy. Yet all those who find it are blessed. Happiness is the key to all, Happiness cracks/dissolves down the ego, its an interesting paradox that I have observed, one cant be egoistic about being happy. When one is happy, one is but peaceful and loving, this would be the perfect matrix, the love that blossoms out of happiness and the peace which ensues is absolutely genuine. Any other hierarchy or matrix is farce, like one could be in love , yet be obsessed, possessive , insane and sometimes even cruel, all that which we are aware of, which manifests no happiness, or peace. One could be peaceful like a seer/ monk, yet miss the real taste of happiness, love and bonding.. Happiness is the mantra, a happy person is a spiritual person, after all even Buddha pursued the search for truth not just because he questioned existence, or was disturbed with the activities of the mundane material world or wanted to decode existence. Happiness is a state of mind/ consciousness, look at a toddler, or outside the window towards the essence of existence.
Be Happy! Live! Love! Laugh! Stay Spiritual!!!