Health and the Spiritual Life

By Phiroz Mehta

Continued from part 1

First, regard food as a cleanser of the body rather than a nourisher. The whole universe is only too willing to nourish us and maintain our lives. Almost every food has nourishing elements in it. Some foods are preponderantly nourishing, others are purifying and cleansing. Bear in mind that the latter have almost as much nourishment as is necessary for us to live; and only a very little of the specifically nourishing foods, which are definitely clogging and disease-producing unless carefully checked in quantity, is necessary in addition. After we eat, we must digest. Digestion is followed by assimilation and elimination. Our business is to keep strict watch on elimination, and Nature will see to the assimilation.

Second, masticate every morsel thoroughly before swallowing.

Third, eat in moderate quantities only, not more than three meals a day, and never too late in the evening — say after 8:30 p.m.

Fourth, take food which is fresh, pure, wholesome, and very simply prepared, so that none of the vitamins and mineral salts are destroyed or lost.

Lastly, have no fads or dogmas on the subject, either scientific or unscientific, but observe a regime which is a balanced regime for our particular individual nature and needs. When this is the case, enjoy the meal, for without enjoyment there is little value physically or spiritually.

If our daily occupation does not give the body sufficient exercise, then it becomes necessary to obtain this either through outdoor or indoor sports and physical culture. All outdoor games have the inestimable advantage of intimate contact with light, air and earth, and, as in swimming, with water; all of which are healing and life-supporting agents. Running and swimming are perhaps the finest forms of physical culture, because the body is used symmetrically and develops proportionately. They also make for grace, which is the true adjunct of strength. All other games, like tennis, rowing, cricket, are good, and should be freely encouraged. But attempts at over-exertion — as in trying to break records — should be discouraged. For then the game descends from being a sport to being a fight, with invariable ill-effects on heart and muscle.

Perhaps the greatest value of all games is in learning how to associate co-operatively and with good-humour, with our fellowmen, and in learning “to play the game”. The man who can “play the game” is an asset to the community, and stands a good chance of making a success of life.

Whatever games we play, or whatever occupation we follow, physical culture should be an essential element in our lives. This statement needs elucidation. It is only commonly understood that physical culture means performing physical jerks. Innumerable systems of physical jerks exist, each having a larger or smaller number of devotees. These systems do some good. But in many cases they do considerable harm, too, physically and psychologically. For a jerk can easily err on the side of violence, of misplaced effort, and actual wrong use of the body. In “jerks” there never is an element of art or skill — the aesthetic and intellectual side in us is neglected, with consequent clumsiness of action and character (for action and character mutually affect each other).

Hence, physical culture must lay stress on the cultural side of physical movement. What is culture? “Kult-Ur” means “the cult, or the following, of the light (Ur)”. We may therefore regard physical culture as the cult of the light as far as the body is concerned, or, as a mode of activity which liberates the light within the body. In this connection we could profitably meditate upon that sentence “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light”.

The culture of the body may be regarded as a process of purifying, refining, sensitising, and strengthening it; of making it supple and flexible, graceful and proportionate; and of making it skilful and spontaneously co-operative with the impulses of the mind and the heart (intellect and the aesthetic sense), which themselves are simultaneously being cultured. This last point is fundamentally important. The dancer frequently states that the purpose of technical study is to discipline the body so that it can be made a perfect tool to express the dancer’s emotions and ideas. But, are these emotions and ideas worth expressing?

Continued in part 3

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