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CREATING HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS
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organs are conjoined with the body. Ayurveda gives a twofold epistemology of disease: (1) Not to perform the activities of body, speech, mind and senses on account of laziness (ayoga); (2) Not to indulge in excessive activity of the body, speech, mind and senses (atiyoga). In the present age, excessive indulgence or abundance of unrestricted activity is causing a plethora of diseases known as lifestyle diseases, which affect both body and mind. Conquering the senses (jitendriya) and restraining the senses (indriya-samyam) are fundamental to good health. He who has pure and righteous emotions has control over his mind. His senses only perceive the respective qualities of objects without any sentiment of attachment or aversion towards them. Such a person can be said to have conquered the senses.
Acquisition of the qualities of objects that gratify the senses and the mind (vishayas) is a natural process of life. It is also natural to develop feelings of attachment or hatred, pleasure or displeasure towards the vishayas that are acquired. The feelings of love and hatred and of pleasure and displeasure always vary in intensity. One who knows the detrimental consequences of developing likes and dislikes for vishayas, does not allow liking to degenerate into attachment or dislike to degenerate into hatred. On the other hand, he who doesn't ponder the consequences of indulging in attachment or hatred is carried away by them and becomes a slave to these emotions. Such a state is hazardous to health.
Just as we need to put a comma or full stop in a sentence for clarity of meaning, we also need to apply a comma or full stop to our tendency of developing the feelings of pleasure or displeasure towards an object or idea. We can call this punctuation process an act of self-restraint. He who fails to put a comma or full stop to his tendency to indulge in worldly pleasures falls prey to an insatiable desire and this insatiability drives him to crime or makes him mentally ill.
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