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THE ART OF POSITIVE THINKING
facilities available to him. However, many pcople ignore this truth. The so-called 'big man thinks it beneath his dignity to make any effort. To do work with one's own hands is looked down upon as something despicable. We must come to realize the truth that exertion is absolutely necessary for the upkeep of the body.
I used to lament how a labourer was obliged to work so hard! Also what extraordinary toil the ascetics had to endure! They had to go begging for alms, to fetch water, to carry heavy loads in scorching heat. How great an effort it all involved! But gradually I came to realise the truth that excrtion is necessary for physical hcalth and that any part of the body, deprived of healthful exercise is liable to turn morbid and sick and utterly useless. The great secret of health is work. Each part of the body requires exercise. For perfect health, the hands, the feet, and every other part must be fully exerciscd. There can be no proper blood circulation in a part which is not so exercised. Without proper blood-circulation, any part is likely to grow morbid. It requires no germs. or contagion to make it sick. The root cause of multiplying diseases today is lack of exercise. People come to attend meditation camps where they do yogaasanas. Why? Doing asanas involves no great spiritual endeavour. Though the esfort may partake of spirituality, yet doing asanas is not purely a spiritual exercise. The first objective here is body-perfection: to train the body, to keep it in good form. For without a healthy body there can be no meditation, nor any spiritual development, no breath- or body-perception, nor any perception of the psychic centers, nor any pcrccption of colours. All these perceptions become impossible for a sick organism. The body must be in perfect health. Doing yoga-asanas is conducive to physical well-being.
It is useful to distinguish clearly between self-reliance and selfexertion. The latter is a physical process. To exercise different parts of the body and employ them in work, to utilize the power latent in them is self-effort or valous. Self-reliance is trust in one's own strength, in one's capacity to exert. Sell-reliance comes first; it leads to valour. Without self-reliance, the question of effort or valour does not arisc. He who cannot stand on his feet, has to take the help of a stick, or walk on crutches. To have faith in one's own power is the first requisite — that is self-reliance. And to utilize this power, to cmploy it in work, constitutcs valour.
The first attraction of a meditation camp is the prospect of spiritual development; the second the maintenance of physical hcalth. As it is, the desire for physical health comes to be the prime attraction, though it should be the other way round. Spirituality should be the first consideration which in itself ensures physical well being. But with most people the intangible is not easily reached, whereas the tangible is readily grasped.
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