I’ll tell you why cancer occurs. Suppose by chance your finger is cut and it starts bleeding. All the cells of your body start rushing toward the damaged part. In a few minutes’ time you’ll find that the bleeding has stopped. Why? Because all the cells rushed to that site of injury. But suppose those cells do not stop rushing, there will be a growth. That is called cancer. You can even prevent such diseases if you understand something that’s called control over your involuntary system. You know I sometimes think that I am so unfortunate that I feel like crying. All that I have done in my life, worked hard from the age of three, nobody wants to learn. People give me money, gifts, this food and that food, but nobody wants to learn. I think that if I have to be born again to teach you, it will be miserable for me, because I will have to work so hard all over again.
The human body has potential to cure its own ailments provided you know about your body. I don’t discuss religion, so don’t be afraid of me. No matter from which religious background you come from, I want to give you something which you need in your daily life. All the great bibles of the world say one and the same thing—be still, be still. For a few minutes in the morning and the evening, every human being should learn to be still. Why, because you will meet God? No, that’s not necessary. You will be healthy. For your mental health it’s important for you to understand quietness, stillness. During that time, those muscles which do not get rest even in sleep get rested. The voluntary system you can control. You can exercise and develop all of your gross muscles, but you don’t have control over your involuntary system, the subtle set of muscles. For that you should learn to compose yourself, you should learn to be quiet, you should learn to be still, you should learn to breathe in a serene way. Scientists have realized that 70-80% of all diseases are psychosomatic diseases. They originate in the mind and are reflected in the body. These diseases are created by our bad thinking, negative thinking, passive thinking, not having control over our emotional life, not organizing our behavior, not understanding how to behave in the external world which is actually a very simple thing. Therefore, it’s important for a human being, modern woman and man, to relax, to learn how to give rest to that part of the system which we normally do not know how to relax. Only 25% of the diseases come from the outside, are infectious or hereditary diseases. It means 75% of the diseases are not cured by so-called medicines.
So you are your own doctor. The school of meditation says that if you meditate for a few days, a few minutes every day, regularly, you will be not sick. This is called preventive cure. You have seen that there is research going on all over the world, research on cancer, stroke, heart disease, this disease and that disease. Prevention is better than cure. Now the endocrine gland system, chain of glands that secrete directly into the blood stream, is hardly known even by the experts. Very little is known about these glands. But who controls the endocrine gland system? Our mind. If the mind is put in a state of rest through meditation, even the endocrine system can be controlled. Our experiments in the Menninger Laboratory demonstrated that the mind can create cancer and mind is capable of dissolving cancer.
Now there is a word in the English language called gentleman. Actually, it has come from our Sanskrit word manas, which in Sanskrit means mind. Who are you? You are a man, gentleman. If you do not understand what manas, mind is, you do not understand anything about yourself. How can we have control over the mind? If you think that the mind is your enemy, either you make that enemy a friend or you can destroy that enemy. You don’t have the power to destroy the mind. You had better establish friendship with your mind. You should learn to have a dialogue with yourself, a creative dialogue with yourself. Sant Tukkaram from Maharashtra did it, manah sarvada bhakta ponthe bhi jayate. “O mind, learn to follow the path of righteousness. Do not mislead me.” As a friend, Tukkaram talked to the mind. You should learn to have a dialogue with your mind. This dialogue will lead you to understanding your mind. You fight the whole day with your mind. You know that battle, that inner battle, was the very cause and source of the Bhagavad Gita. The whole day you’re fighting, from morning till evening. Either you give up, or you fight but never win. Have you heard of the Gita? Yes, Arjuna means what? Arjun karne wala, one who makes efforts, sincere efforts, is called Arjuna. And he who helps you is called Krishna. So there are two characters in the Gita and their dialogue is meant for all.
Reprinted from Conscious Living, an HIHT publication.
