KVE301/KVE401 Universal Human Values and Professional Ethics
Chapter 7: Harmony with the Body – Understanding Sanyam and Swasthya
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Unit 5
Appendix
Our State Today
What is our state today? Today we are facing different problems and they are a lack of responsibility towards the body, a tendency for medication to suppress the ailment, and polluted air, water, food. Let’s take them in detail:
A. Lack of Responsibility Towards the Body
Our lifestyle has become very busy and unnatural. We usually do not give priority to taking proper care of the body. We have increasingly started eating at odd hours, eating junk food, and are largely ignorant about the state of our body. We tend to look with contempt (disrespectful) at any kind of physical work or labor. E.g., in an attempt to keep enjoying tasty food, we ignore the fact that we are eating for the nourishment of the body and not to perpetuate (continue, maintain) the happiness of ‘I’.
B. Tendency for Medication to Suppress the Ailment
Whenever there is a pain in any part of the body, it is a signal of some disorder that needs to be properly attended to. However, our common tendency has become to suppress this pain by immediate medication and then forget about it. Our focus today seems to be more on ‘fighting germs in the body’ than on helping the body restore itself to its natural state of harmony.
In fact, today we are focusing a lot more on what to do if we fall ill rather than learning to live healthily. It thus becomes important for each one of us to become aware of our own body and its needs and how common, simple medication can be used to facilitate the body to come back to health in the care of ailments (slight illness).
C. Polluted Air, Water, Food
We have polluted our environment today and it is directly or indirectly harming us. There is contamination in the air, water, soil, plants and we are responsible for it. Our food has become impure. Due to the heavy use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and a lot of pollution, our food has all kinds of toxic contents in it. The air we breathe in is polluted by various chemicals released from industries and vehicles, while our water is also polluted due to industrial effluents (liquid sewage), sewage, etc. all this, surely, is not conducive to the health of people.