Chapter 3 - Back to Nature
The popular Hatha Yoga exercises can be divided into two groups; the first one will teach you to live in conformity with the laws of nature; and the exercises of the second group have as their goal the conscious control of physical and mental activities, which normally are not subject to such control.
To live in conformity with the laws of nature does not necessarily mean to live in a simple and frugal manner. The meaning here is different. The old masters of Yoga held that for many a century, men have lost the habit of living in conformity with the organic laws of their species. The result was a physical degeneration with its sequel of sickness and infirmity and a considerable shortening of the normal life span.
Two examples will justify the theory of the old masters of Yoga. It is a fact that the fossilized heads of primitive men never show the slightest trace of tooth decay. This degenerative disease has made its appearance only in relatively recent times, evidently from the time when man ceased to nourish himself in a natural manner. Rheumatism also is a relatively late acquisition of humanity. Ancient skeletons show no trace of this illness. Wild animals do not suffer from it, while domesticated animals, sharing our living conditions, are subjected to it.
The exercises of the second group aim at the development of a number of latent, as yet unexplored possibilities of human nature.
We are, as a rule, aware of what happens outside of us and are able to direct, to a certain extent, this activity. But we are unaware of what goes on within us and we have no direct influence upon the functioning of our internal organs. If we did not learn it in an indirect and exterior manner through the study of anatomy and physiology, we would hardly know that we possess a liver or a heart, nor would we have any knowledge of the digestive functions or of the circulation of the blood in the human body. This is so because we have no diret perception of these functions, nor do we have any influence on them. We are unable either to start them or to stop them; we can neither accelerate them nor slow them down through simple volition.
The same is true of our knowledge of our interior moral world. How do we think and reason? What are the secret springs of our emotions and feelings? We do not know, or at most, we have only theories about these processes. And we are also without direct influence upon this mysterious world. If you doubt this, just try, for instance, to concntrate for only five minutes upon a single and unique subject.
The goal of the second group of Yoga exercises is to teach us to perceive directly what is going on in our interior mental and moral world and to direct it consciously and voluntarily.
In comparison with the so called civilized man of today, primitive man, in spite of his great, but as yet undeveloped possibilities, was an animal. Like all the other animals, he lived instinctively in conformity with his nature. In view of his intellectual superiority, he soon adopted, however, a mode of life which distinguished him radically from other animals. In one world, he became civilized, and through civilization, he acquired immense advantages, but in return, lost others, among them, some of his instincts. Mentally, as well as morally, he ceased to be an animal.
In spite of this, he remained an animal as far as his physiological condition is concerned. The human body had not followed the human mind in its evolution. The result has been a sort of dissonance between the two, which, in turn, resulted in a veritable physical degeneration, because of the fact that man has ceased to live in conformity with the natural laws of his species.
We have already given two examples of this degenerative process. We shall cite another of a more general nature. Let us compare human life with that of the cat. Although the cat is not a wild animal, it is also not, strictly speaking, a domestic animal. It shares our civilized life without quite becoming a part of it, like a drop of oil in a glass of water, and thereby escapes its flaws. Excepting accidental death, the normal life span of the cat is fourteen years. It is fully developed at one year of age. During the approximately ten years of mature life which follows, it shows practically no change either in appearance or in activity and reproductive power. After a period of one to two years of old age, it dies a normal death.
Let us compare the life of the cat with human life. Man has a period of development of from eighteen to twenty years, then a period which we may call youth, of about the same duration, followed by a period of maturity of about twenty years, and finally, a period of old age of variable duration, but which exceptionally may prolong itself to a hundred years and even a little beyond.
Instead of the cat, we might have chosen almost any mammal for the sake of comparison. With few small variations, we find that they all have a period of maturity of about ten times the period of development and a span of old age of about the same length as that of development. Man is the only exception to this rule.
If human life followed the same pattern as that of the other mammals, its duration would be about two hundred years, and between the periods of development and of old age, man would enjoy a span of mature strength and activity of about one hundred and fifty years.
A cat, probably because it is less domesticated, is practically never sick or, if it falls ill, the illness is usually so serious that it dies from it. Man on the other hand, apart from serious illnesses, rarely enjoys perfect health. He suffers from a multitude of minor affections such as colds, grippe, constipation, digestive disorders, toothache, female troubles etc. ... A complete list would take up a lot of space and a humorous doctor justly put it this way: "Health is an abnormal state which worries me."
Modern science and hygene have thus far not been able to modify this rather unfavourable picture. It is true that according to statistics, the average duration of human life has been prolonged, but this is mainly due to the reduction of infant mortality. We must not confuse average duration with normal duration. The statistics of the average human life span are further improved by the fact that the period of old age today is considerably longer. A man or a woman who has reached the age of sixty, has a better chance, nowadays, of attaining the age of eighty or over, but that does not make them any younger. It would be far more interesting to prolong the periods of youth and maturity than to prolong that of old age.
As far as illnesses are concerned, it would not seem that in spite of the advances made by medical science, there has been real progress. Certain diseases are in regression, it is true, but others are in progression. When one side of the scale goes down, the other goes up. In northern countries the death rate from tuberculosis has fallen, but that of cancer has risen. The same is true of a number of minor infections. We do not mean to say that man today is sick more often than in the days of his father or grandfather, but he is ill just as often, but not quite in the same way. That does not mean either that science may not, some day, succeed in prolonging the useful span of human life or in ridding it of most of the ills that beset it today. We do not mean to prejudge the future, but we must admit that thus far, science has not succeeded in so doing.
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