Health and Wellness: Are they Synonmous?
Health and wellness are two words that to many appear to be the same thing. However there is a subtle difference between the two. An added factor that is closely linked with these two words is sex. In India sex is a taboo world now, but there was a time when it was not so and India was the most enlightened nation in the world. One reason for this is that sex in Indian philosophy is intricately linked with religion and is also one of the roads to Moksha or slavation.
Health and wellness are not synonmous. This is a general statement. One can define and say that health is the opposite of ill-health and wellness is the opposite of illness. This can be confusing but in reality it is not so. One can say that both are interlinked, but it is possible that a man may have good health but does not have wellness.
Health is comparatively simple and means that a man is free from illlness. Wellness is a little more complex. To understand this one must delve a little more. A factor that is now accepted is that the common denominator that aids both health and wellness is sex. This has nothing to do with marriage, but a urge to mate with a woman married or not.
Two Indian sages of a bygone era namely Patanjali and Charaka( both circa 2nd century BC) have given us an insight on wellness. Perhaps that is the reason that Baba Ramdev is using the name Patanjal on his products that help bring about wellness. What do thes etwo erudite sages say?
Patanjali says that wellness means that a human being is liberated in life, liberated from pain both mental and physical,liberation from disease and the ability to mate with a woman even 3/4 decades younger. Charka, who is less well known says that wellness is a condition of the body where there is no room from illness. He means immunity from all diseases. As per him wellness is related not only to the body but the mind and soul as well. Wellness is a body condition and sex is a part of it and is the greatest rejuvenator.
Both sages had a clear insight of human beings and life in this world. What they have stated holds true even today and modern doctors have vouchsafed the truth of what both Patanjali and Charka have stated. Good health is not enough incase you do not have the factor of wellness. Many people in good health are unable to enjoy the wonder of life as they are mentally overburdened and unable to free themselves. One opening for a release and liberation is meditiation and prayer. Another method is Tantra sex. This is another form of penance and means that orgasm is not the goal, but just a milestone to the higher echelons of the mind.
The WHO( World Health Organization) has defined health as not only the absence of illness, but includes the wellness of the human being. It covers a whole lot of things like lifestyle, enviornment, relation with women( sex) and living conditions. This defination is vast and implies that people who live with poor sanitation, lack of drinking water, poor eating habits, lack of food cannot have a feeling of wellness. It will also affect their health.
Sadly all the above are applicable to India, for this is the country where we live and are obviously concerned about. Is it not a matter of sadness that 50% of the population have no toilets and live more like animals. In figures this works out to some 650 million people. I think this is a shame and then a basic amenity like drinking water is not there in 50-60% of the villages. Gandhi had said India lives in its villages, yet I am afraid he was just a wily politician and there is no campaign started by him for hygiene in villages.Did Gandhi ever concern himself in educating people particularly the villagers about proper excretion of waste products? Frankly he was a sham. These are harsh words, but one has to call a spade a spade. After 7 decades it is only Modi who thought of it.
The ancient Indian sages had clear concepts of health and wellness. As I have said sex is the common denominator for both. For the average man it is important to understand that a regressive and self denial approach in life can affect your wellness. Wellness has many pillars and mediatation, pranayama,Yogic exercises with sexual release can greatly contribute to wellness and by corollory good health. I think this is where Acharya Rajneesh made a significant contribution. He advocated a lack of inhibtion. In any case he stated nothing new, as all what he said or wrote is part of ancient Hindu scriptures.
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