Added to this primary source of disharmony, there are secondary causes as well. These arise due to the fact that Man is neither alone nor isolated in the cosmos. He himself is one field for the complex play of forces that weave the fabric of his nature. But in a deeper view of things everything in this cosmos can be seen and understood in terms of energies and forces. These are broadly of three or four categories. There are the gross physical forces that material Science studies. There are also the subtle forces that psychological Science tries to explore. Finally, there are occult forces hidden to our present abilities and capacities for perception and conception. To use the term from Indian Thought, these forces can be each categorized by their action as forces of creation or constructive forces, forces of preservation or balancing forces, forces of disintegration or destructive forces. Indian Thought gave to these forces significant names of Rajas (constructive and creative), Sattwa (preserving and balancing), Tamas (destroying and disintegrative). The respective beings and powers behind these three are Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, the trinity of Indian spiritual thought and vision. Illnesses also arise when there is an imbalance between these forces either due to an unequal stress in the nature or due to coming in contact and proximity with one or the other.
Let us take an example, words, written or spoken, music that is expressed, food, air, water, organisms, etc. are all gross forces and each exercise influence us to a certain degree. The corresponding subtle forces would be Thought, inner harmony and rhythm, feelings, strength, will etc. The occult element would be the various types of energies and beings that enter into us unseen and move us even without our knowledge. Now, words of Thought, food, air, feelings, organisms, people, plants, for that matter anything can have on us a destructive, constructive or preservative influence. Indian thought elaborately classified these phenomena and discovered that each and every object or form can be resolved into varying degrees of combination of five elements, namely space (etheric vibrations), air (movement), water (attraction and repulsion), fire (energizing a form), earth (concretizing, precipitating, gravitational). Different activities of life require different elements. However, if the use of one of these elements is in excess or in deficiency compared to the others, the balance is disturbed leading to a state of disharmony and illness.
Finally, we have a whole range of physical and biological phenomenon which can upset the state of harmony and trigger an imbalance. This means that the vision of Integral Health provides us with a comprehensive understanding of health and illness, and, man’s relation with the world around. It takes into account and does not exclude physical causes of health and illness. But it sees them in a New Light, thereby allowing a deeper and more holistic understanding. Similarly Integral Health takes into account and does not exclude different forms of healing practices that mankind has evolved so far. But here too it sees them in a New Light providing us with a greater flexibility and a more holistic approach.
Alok Pandey
