The metaphysical basis for Integral Health – the three poises of reality
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2013
The concept of health and the discipline of healing evolved to serve life. It is life per se that is the raison d’être of existence. That is why health and healing are the noblest of all disciplines pursued by the human being. And that is also why health and healing cannot be isolated subjects, mechanically pursued by an objective mindset. The concept of health is not only linked with our physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, it is also linked with the higher-order pursuits of existentialism, metaphysics and philosophy and our deeper pursuits of true religious experience and spirituality. The basic tenets of health therefore can be linked at multiple points of the spectrum of consciousness in the quest for Truth. It would be interesting in this context to understand the significance of health in consonance with the experiential concept of Reality as perceived in the spiritual heritage of India.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — the inner poise
By Soumitra Basu - Oct 15, 2012
In the realm of ‘Matter’, there is usually unanimity of scientific opinion about the general laws of physical sciences (scientists behave as if there is a ‘monism’ in matter itself). However, regarding the ‘Spirit’, there are very different opinions based on different experiences and realisations of different spiritual seekers. Spiritual seekers are not necessarily united in their understanding of spirituality and have not bothered to evolve ‘universal laws’ of spirituality while scientists at least share a modicum of commonality regarding scientific concepts.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — beyond the sense-experience
By Soumitra Basu - Jul 15, 2012
The first radical step in spiritual and mystical experience was the transcendence of sense-experience. This did not mean a belittling of sensory functioning and a glorification of sensory impoverishment. Sensory perception is our first gateway to knowledge and this was duly acknow-ledged. In Sanskrit, the term Indriya is used to denote the sensory apparatus and the Vedic god Indra shares the same linguistic root. It is the function of Indra to oversee that the quest for knowledge is not distorted or misled by the senses.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — Yoga and health
By Soumitra Basu - Apr 24, 2012
Why do we need a distinct paradigm of health based on Integral Yoga? Before reflecting on this question, we have to consider a basic postulate, why do we need a yoga perspective of health at all? Sri Aurobindo describes yoga as “a methodised effort towards self-perfection” that proceeds along two dimensions:
The metaphysical basis of Integral Health — the ‘Threefold Life’
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2012
In his treatise on the practical application of yoga (The Synthesis of Yoga), Sri Aurobindo describes three kinds of life available to humanity in consonance with three separate formulations in Nature: “the ordinary material existence, a life of mental activity and progress; and the unchanging spiritual beatitude (1).” These three kinds of life are the three choices available to the human being; they have their separate connotations, trajectories and culminations. They have unique ramifications in every sphere of human activity, including health, development and psychology.