Health:Your Choice
take full responsiblity for everything that happens in your life
accept that you choose every place you take your body
every person with whom you interact
every morsel which passes your lips
every thought in your mind
the way you react to each situation
& every word spoken
these things make you
your chosen experience
These timeless words were spoken between 1939 & 1947 by Paramahana Yogananda, in California:
There are three kinds of illness: physical, mental & spiritual. Physical sickness is due to different forms of toxic conditions, infectious disease & accidents. Mental sickness is caused by fear, worry, anger & other emotional inharmonies. Soul sickness is due to man's ignorance of his true relationship with God. Ignorance is the supreme disease. When one banishes ignorance he also banishes the causes of all physical, mental & spiritual disease.
Chemicals & medicines addect only the outer physical composition of the bodily cells & do not alter the inner atomic structure or life principle of the cells. In many cases no cure of disease is possible until the healing power of God has corrected, from within the imbalance of "lifetrons" or intelligent life energy in the body.  The two basic causes of disease are underactivity & overactivity of the life energy prana, that structures & sustains the body. The improper functioning of any one (or more) of the five governing pranic currents: circulation, metabolism, assimilation, crystallization & elimination - adversely affects bodily health. So long as balanced vitality is maintained by right living, proper diet & meditation, the body's own life energy 'electrocutes' disease before it can develop.
One's diet should be chosen wisely. The body requires for health certain amounts of starch, protein & fat, but in excess they can be harmful. Very little starch is necessary: bread is no longer held to be the "staff of life".
Too much starch in the diet, especially from white flour, causes an over-accumulation of mucus in the body. Eat abundantly of foods that contain a high proportion of mineral salts, such as fruits & vegetables. This type of diet prevents constipation, which, when present, predisposes the body to many diseases. In vegetables & fruits God has infused medicinal power to help in overcoming disease.
To chew food well is important - the stomach has no teeth.
Hasty eating is harmful; particulary if large anounts of liquid are taken with the meal, thus diluting the gastric juices. Also drinking liquids with meals gives a tendency to obesity.
It is important to keep the bloodstream healthy. Beef & pork may release into the bloodstream toxic poisons & microbes. The white corpuscles try to destroy the microbes, but if the latter are strong & if the white corpuscles are insufficient to them, toxic reaction sets in.
The most important principle in connection with eating is to avoid any form of overindulgence.  Many persons thoughtlessly eat late at night. Usually sleep soon follows during which man's internal machinery slows down. The food may lie in the stomach without being properly digested.
There is nothing worse for the body & mind, however, than drinking intoxication liquors. Under their influence a man may do things that in his right mind he would be ashamed to do. Violence, greed, lust for money & sex, even murder, may result form drunkness. The belief that wine, sex experiences & money will bring happiness is said by the sages to be the cheif delusion that man must overcome in order to realise his true nature.
Better than medicines are the rays of the sun. In them is a wonderful healing power. One should take a ten-minute sunbath every day. Ten minutes a day is better than only occasional exposure for longer periods. A short sunbath daily , reinforced by good health habits, will keep the body supplied with sufficient life energy to destroy all harmfull microbes.
Many persons are continually busy looking after their physical welfare but neglect the development of their minds. The key to all power lies in the mind. Conserve the vital energy, follow a balanced diet & always smile & be happy. He who finds joy within himself discovers that his body is charged with electric current, life energy - not from food but from God.
The rules for guarding against disease should be: self control, exercise, proper eating, drinking plenty of fruit juices, occasional fasting & smiling...
The external factors of medicines & fasting have a certain beneficial effect on the physical body, but they do not affect the inner force that sustains the cells. But the attempt to change one's dependence from physical to spiritual methods should be gradual. It takes time to change one's way of thinking from dependence on food to dependence on mind.
It is overeating 365 days of the year that creates many kinds of disease. Undeviating regularity in eating whether the system actually needs food or not, is also a curse to the body. The more you concentrate on the palate the more disease you will have. To enjoy food is all right, but to be a slave to it is the bane of life. Why should you let nature hurt you? Nature cannot punish you if you are not attached to the body or bound by food. You must recognise that life force is the sustainer of the body.
If you overload a wiring system with too much electricity it burns out. And every time you load your digestive system with too much food, the life force burns out. When you refrain from overeating, & when you fast, the life force take a rest & becomes recharged. The solids on which the body is used to depending are nothing more than gross condensations of energy
Life is eternal. It depends not on breath, nor on food, water or sunshine. Remember always that you are the Imperishable Spirit. This is the way to live.