Someone recently asked me, “How do I prepare for old age?” I said, you don’t need to prepare for old age. It comes anyway!
When your joints start aching, and you can’t do things you were doing before, you start wondering
if you are growing old. But I tell you, don’t accept it. You have not really aged; your mind has not.
Haven’t you had this experience some time or another? That something in you has not aged, while everyone else is growing older. Though your body is aging or your mind is growing tired, you might even feel a little emotionally burned out, but despite all that, something in you tells you that you have not changed. The feeling of being timeless and ageless dawns.
If you live according to Ayurveda, according to the laws of nature, your total lifespan should be 120 years. In ancient times, that was the blessing people used to be given: they lived long and healthy lives. To live longer, what we need to look after are our food habits, our exercises, and a little relaxation every day, which includes a few minutes of meditation.
Scientific research now says that just three days of Sudarshan Kriya (a powerful rhythmic breathing technique) practice increases the telomere length by 22%. That could mean adding two whole healthy years to your life. Telomeres are the little caps at the ends of chromosomes, and they determine how long you live and how quickly you age. As you grow older, they get shorter, making you look older, get neurodegenerative diseases, and all that comes with aging. With SKY, telomeres stop aging, and you look young.
Practices like pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and meditation boost your immune system and make it five times stronger.
Around 40 years ago, when we used to talk about meditation, people thought it was not for young people, but for those who had one foot in the grave or those who had nothing to do. But it has been proven beyond doubt that meditation makes your body healthy, robust, and it also helps create a lot of antioxidants within, so you look younger in body and spirit.
Change can only be perceived from a reference point, that is non-changing. Similarly, in every life there is some reference point, which is non-changing, which is a source of enthusiasm, which is a source of life. That is the Self. There is no devolution or decay in the Self. It doesn’t get old or stale. That’s why, when you are close to your Self, you don’t feel that you are aging. People search for joy everywhere, not knowing that the Self is the source of all joy. Meditation takes you to this source of eternal joy.
The Self as the central focus of life is timeless, ageless. Unfortunately, we don’t connect ourselves to that timeless aspect in us, which is the reference point for all that’s changing. Whenever a person feels calm, serene, and happy, they experience the same sensation of timelessness and agelessness. And that is wisdom.
When you stop worrying, you remain perpetually young. If you stop worrying, aging can slow down.
I think it’s almost impossible to have such serenity and peace, without knowing your spirit; that something in you that is non-changing. Your spirit has no death. Even if you don’t believe in philosophies, you have to believe in physics. Scientifically, if you look at it, consciousness is energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed.
So even as the body disintegrates, what happens to the spirit or the energy in you? It lives on. The imperishable nature of our mind, of our consciousness, of our spirit, must be acknowledged. And when we acknowledge this, there is the bolt of enthusiasm we experience, a fire that nobody can put off.
I don’t believe in the idea that as you age, you lose your beauty and strength. In fact, it’s the other way around. As you age, your beauty increases. That’s when you are in touch with your spirit. As you age, your wisdom increases; as you age, you become more powerful. The spirit in you is ever young, ever new: Nit Nootan.
The author is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
