Mind, Body, Soul - Let there be imbalance !

Dr Sumedha Kushwaha *

It has been raining incessantly for over three days in Imphal now, the weather is beautiful, winter is approaching, the entire scenery seems to exude love and appears romantic. However, no matter how perfect the natural environment maybe, the human mind always has a problem.

To decode the physical world as a cumulation three distinct things- the human body (simply put as an intricate machine which we dump with excess fuel ie. food), mind (a wild beast sitting on a pandora box of the most magnificent things) and soul (the everlasting, gentle, all energetic yet peaceful source of all universe).

If these three are working in perfect harmony with each other, you are on the verge of being a superhuman. However, if you become conscious, you understand that the source of all discord in life is because of a subtle imbalance between the three.

Human attention is firstly on the body adornments. For most people, it’s the body which is of most significance. Predominantly, most of us wish to become more beautiful, attractive, appealing- because as humans, we have a natural preference towards more well groomed, intricately carved or simply put beautiful objects or humans.

Secondly, the attention comes to taming the wild beast which is always raging a war between right and wrong, good and bad etc. in the skull.

Thank god there is a bony periphery around it... otherwise… by now it would have blown you away !

Last but not the least, the thing that we rarely think about is the soul. Soul is an ever knowing presence which encompasses the entire universe, the problem is we aren’t in sync with it. The moment we are aware of the endless potential that we have just inside of ourselves, just a few layers beneath this traffic of our endless thoughts.

Nothing in life is impossible. This phenomenon has nothing to do with your age, gender, religious identity or regional identity.

We are all intentionally dying everyday, every moment if we supress ourselves. If you think you have music inside of you, but you can’t make a tune out of it because of XYZ any reason and your wish is unfulfilled, you die in that thought, that very moment.

If you think your place of residence should not be earth but Mars and you truly believe it, if you supress this feeling to identify with the rest, that’s more madness than at least trying to reach there. Not being able to pursue what we really think we can or are capable of is the biggest sin we do to ourselves.

Having faith in our talent, potential, instinct is all one part but being brave enough to take the leap of faith is another. Most of us fail not because we lack skill or potential (your mind and body are okay) but because we can’t connect with the source. That’s why I used the word leap not merely jump. When we take a leap, its far beyond our physical and mental energies. Be crazy, try to do difficult things !

However, most of us are chained to our pasts. When you look back, you don’t remember everything clearly, but certain moments with your friends, lovers, teachers, strangers, nature you remember so vividly. Why ?

Because in those moments- “you were fully present”. You were then connected with the source. I am fully present, when I am in the act of giving- be it for my patients or when I take care of someone or I am happy and doing something for myself. The act of giving makes me feel alive and in bliss.

After years of working hard and gaining experience, I now aspire to stand second or towards imperfection while working very hard because nothing in my opinion is perfect.

What is perfect for me might be totally imperfect for you. Similarly, the balance between the body, mind and soul can never be perfect. Don’t try to achieve perfection, let’s always have room for improvement and improvisation. The key is to always strive.

A very close friend of mine wanted to be the richest person of some State in India. While that person would talk about dreams and I could sense the exhilaration the voice, I appreciated it !

But I when thinking of adjectives like richest, number 1, topper etc. I always feel- Then what ? People on the lower side will always strive to reach up, try to become better.

But those who are already on the top… what next ? Stay there ? Be Number 1 throughout life.. its virtually impossible. Someone else will become better, someone will have even a more pathbreaking idea than you.

Simple. If our actions are harmonized with our soul, we understand that all this that we are crazily striving for is so temporary.

The real happiness is being connected with oneself, connecting with other people not at a physical level but a metaphysical level, being one with nature and the universe understanding that this originated from us and we originated from it.