Yoga and Total Health — January 2018

YOGA AND TOTAL HEALTH • January 2018^2121

(Thoughts about ‘The Thinker’ of October 2017)

Whenever I read Dr. Jayadeva’s ‘The

Thinker’, or for that matter any other

genuine spiritual literature, I compare

my own behavior or mental or

emotional state to what I read. So when

I read the words about sitting down

for breakfast and instead of enjoying

it, thinking about the country and the

world and that they should improve,

I felt that those words applied to me.

With one exception though, I do enjoy

eating much, be it breakfast or any

other meal, but, logically considered, I

cannot be fully in it even though I feel

as if I was, for the very reason that I

started a not-so-good habit long ago of

listening to the news at the same time

as eating. So the words about missing

out on responses must apply to me, too.

True, I am always aware of the various

tastes – the taste of my whole-grain

preparation (a compromise between

healthy Chapattis and Western bread),

the taste of butter (less healthy than

Ghee, which, however, would also

take too much time to prepare), the

taste of honey, banana, etc. And I am

aware of the pleasure it gives me to

chew and taste and swallow the food,

since the pleasure of it is too great to

be overlooked. But there it ends. “The

responses missed out”, as it says in ‘The

Thinker,’ I understand it to mean the

effects the food has on the eater and

the responses, i.e. the various bodily

sensations caused. I do not get, or to be

more precise, I do not become aware

of any particular reaction or sensation

in my throat or stomach or anywhere

else.

I think I know a little about

“responses”, because there was a

period, many years back, when I had

many sudden bodily reactions. They

showed in breathing, trembling,

pressure, tension or other ways and

also sudden feelings springing or

creeping up in me. All this was very

confusing, difficult and also often

attended by fear. I used to wrack my

brain about the possible causes of all

this. Sometimes I could trace some of

it to certain factors, such as place, time

and other people. Maybe also certain

thoughts I was just thinking, which

also led to a brain-wracking question,

i.e. where do my thoughts come from?

What is it in me that is thinking, and

why this or that thought at a fraction

of a second? I also did not know what

to do about these sudden sensations

he Responses

Missed Out”

Hella Naura

T

“