The Four Pillars of Health

There is more to it than just the physical body. True health starts with a healthy consciousness.

Health is not only a physical phenomenon. That is only one of its dimensions, and one of the most superficial dimensions because basically the body is going to die – healthy or unhealthy, it is momentary.

Real health has to happen somewhere inside you, in your subjectivity, in your consciousness, because consciousness knows no birth, no death. It is eternal.

To be healthy in consciousness means:

1. First, to be awake;
2. Second, to be harmonious;
3. Third, to be ecstatic; and
4. Fourth, to be compassionate.

If these four things are fulfilled, one is inwardly healthy. And sannyas can fulfill all these four things. It can make you more aware, because all the meditation techniques are methods to make you more aware, they are devices to pull you out of your metaphysical sleep. And dancing, singing, rejoicing, can make you more harmonious.

There is a moment when the dancer disappears and only the dance remains. In that rare space one feels harmony. When the singer is completely forgotten and only the song remains, when there is no center functioning and only the song remains, when there is no center functioning as an 'I' – the 'I' is absolutely absent – and you are in a flow, that flowing consciousness is harmonious.

To be awake and harmonious creates the possibility for ecstasy to happen. Ecstasy means the ultimate joy, inexpressible; no words are adequate to say anything about it.

And when one has attained to ecstasy, when one has known the ultimate peak of joy, compassion comes as a consequence.

When you have that joy, you like to share it; you cannot avoid sharing, sharing is inevitable. It is a logical consequence of having. It starts overflowing; you need not do anything. It starts happening of its own accord.

These four are the four pillars of inner health. Attain to it. It is our birthright; we just have to claim it.

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