Journey to Enlightenment Part 02

Author(s): Chitrabhanu, Nirmala Hanke
Publisher: Create Space

Page 93

1.
Breathe
The first step is to breathe, with awareness, depth, peace and precision. Longevity depends on the number of breaths we take. Hence the longer the breaths, the longer is our life. We need to breathe in oxygen through fresh air, in good measure, to give a good amount of energy to our body and mind. We can swing on our breath. Take some time in the morning, or before food or in the evening to concentrate well on your breath, so that you form a habit of breathing with awareness and peace through the day and also at night. Pranayama (control over breath and its exercise) is a beautiful journey, which makes you feel rejuvenated, relaxed and free from tension and negative emotions.
Concentrate on each breath you inhale and exhale, Do not waste your breath by breathing with anger, greed, ego and hatred, as we do not know whether we shall breathe the next breath.
Chant the mantra ‘SOHUM’, i.e. 'I am That', whilst breathing. I am Atma (the soul) and Paramatma (God). What I am searching outside, is within me. Give at least 15 minutes every day to yourself to breathe, to think, to reflect.
2.
Eat Plant-Based food
The body is nourished by food - healthy, pure and innocent food - not food made by harming other lives. Diseases and health-related problems arise mainly as a result of our ignorance about what to eat and how to eat. Body is made from the food you eat. Vegetables and fruit and juices make the cells alive. Birds eat fruit and they remain healthy and keep flying freely. There are no hospitals for birds. 'Yogis' in forests used to live only on fruit.
Animal milk is meant only for their offspring, when they are born and are young, just as a woman's milk is for her child. Mother feels love and affection for the child and the particular hormone changes blood into milk. It is produced only for 18-24 months after child-birth. Besides humans, no species drink milk once they grow up. It is just the greed and the wrong propaganda of the dairy industry which attracts consumption of milk by humans even after 2 years of birth. The cruelty perpetrated to the animals for milk production is horrendous and the animal suffering does not leave us unscathed. It is well-known that the great George Bernard Shaw, at a party in his honour, after receiving the Nobel Prize had mentioned to the hosts, 'my stomach is not a graveyard to bury the dead'.
92 - Journey to Enlightenment - Volume Two