In farming, quality of the seed is of prime importance. A good quality seed will give a good produce. If we give fertilizer, right moisture, sunshine and warmth to a bad quality seed the crop produced will not be as good as that of a good quality seed. The same is true of the human body. If we are lucky to have parents with good health, we will to a large extent inherit good health. The mental health of mothers during pregnancy. It is now realised that even smoking or alcohol or excessive tea or coffee can have adverse effect on the growing baby.
Physical health and mental health of the mother therefore influence the growth of the offspring. Whether the child yet to be born will become a sanyasi, a hoodlum, a musician, a philosopher or a criminal will depend on the type of “seed” implanted in the mother. In Mahabharat” there is story of warrior Arjun related to his pregnant wife (carrying their first son Abhimanyu) about the complexities of army formations and how to tackle them. He told her about how he got trapped in the enemy camp (chakravyuh) and how he and his soldiers managed to come out of it.
His wife being a worldly woman not keen on martial happenings, out of sheer boredom feel asleep while Arjun waxed eloquent about his prowess in the field of the battle. Abhimanyu was born and he grew up to be a fine soldier. He was caught in situation similar to that of his father. He was not able to come out of the enemy trap, was caught in the confrontation and killed. This maybe attributed to the fact that his mother fell asleep as Arjun explained the intricacies of how he came out of the enemy formation.
This story highlights that the mental state of a mother had definite influence on the growing child. Hindu scriptures advise that during pregnancy the mother should have a serene atmosphere, be made to read good books and religious literature, to be made to listen to good music so that the right seed is implanted in the mind of the growing infant. Music has good effect even on the growth of plants. Scientifically, it has been found that music played daily to plants has helped to make them bloom better than those which do not have the benefit of music.
This is true also of cows they give more milk if music is played to them. I feel that nutrition and exercises during pregnancy have to be given due weightage. A pregnant working woman has often an easy and painless delivery while a high society mother many have a prolonged and painful delivery due to lack of exercise and over nutrition, and many a time they have to undergo a ceasarian operation. We cannot deny hereditary factor in certain diseases.
If we take a swab of the throat of a healthy person and examine under the microscope we will find it riddle with bacteria of a number of diseases. The body has the power to keep us free from the disease and still harbour the bacteria. It is immunity or “resistance” of the body or let us call it “vitality”. If we have a high level of vitality we will be unaffected by disease even we come in contact with it.
When our resistance or vitality is low, these bacteria will multiply in number and attack us and then we might succumb to it. We can take the level of vitality higher by a proper nutrition, restful sleep, sunshine, exercise, drinking plenty of water, avoiding constipation and keeping ourselves relaxed. Let us not forget the role of mental condition in causation of disease. It plays a major role in many diseases. “To kill the germ and cure the disease” is the doctrine of modern science. If we see this doctrine in the light of above fact that you can harbour the germ and still may not suffer the disease, really does not appeal to the sensible mind.
Why to kill? Why not sharpen our won defence mechanism and raise the level of health so that this germ becomes ineffective? The body itself is more keen to get rid of disease and it had got the capacity. It has self defence mechanism. Our body has an inbuilt defence mechanism when faced with our enemy the disease bacteria. The first defence of the body is the outer skin and the membrane around the interior organs. Areas prone to invasion like mouth and eyes are protected by, respectively, saliva and tears. Both are mildly antiseptic liquids. The stomach acids besides digesting food also kill many dangerous invaders that are often swallowed by it.
When the resistance of the body is low and the germ penetrate vulnerable areas, the body’s infantry, the white blood cells of the blood spring in action in its defence. The average human body contains 3000 millions of them. When germs invade, these cells rally and multiply at the sight of infection and kill the enemy by absorbing and digesting it. Thus the name Phagocytes (eating vessels) is given to these valiant fighters.
Many of the phagocytes dies during the battle which rages in an infected area, say a boil. Dead bodies of these cells get collected in the form of pus. One day the boil bursts, all the pus comes out and the boil gets healed. Antibodies are specific substances made in the blood in response to the antigen or toxins produced by invading bacteria. They are specific substances made to fight the germs harbouring the body at the time of the disease.
This antibody is most effective to fight the disease and the germs can never develop resistance to these antibodies because they are the instant produce of the body as result of reaction of the toxins or antigen produced by bacteria. They do not have any side effects on our bodies, as any unrequired material is not added to it by the body. They are very specific, they reach the seat of harbouring bacteria. So that organs or parts of body which are not diseased are not affected.
Different drugs we take for diseases are not specific. It will act at the site where it is required but at the same time act in a destructive way on other parts or organs of the body where it is not required. All drug apart from giving desired effect, have harmful side effects also. If a drug is used for a long time, the side effects can keep on mounting and harm the other organs of the body. A simple pain killer can cause gastric ulcer, spoil digestion, affect even heart, kidney and liver. But in most cases the side effects are also slow to come. They are not immediately known to the patient. Sometimes they show up after a big interval so that the patient is not able to connect the cause of the new disease o the bad effect of the drug taken earlier.
Any medical practitioner will agree that the best way to cure a disease is without drugs. Here we many point out that even when the battle is won by phagocytes and antibodies, the body does not disband antibodies. They persist in the blood stream for a long time being reinforced occasionally by fresh ones manufactured in the liver and the lymphatic system. So if the same germ should return, the correct antibodies are waiting to repel the attack.
Test One.
Test Two