In 1976, the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, gave us six cancer patients who were at their third stage. They wanted to know if yoga could somehow help alleviate a little bit of the pain, a little bit of suffering. We said, ‘Let us try something.’ To these patients who were given like six months to one year of life, we started the practice off with yoga nidra. I have always believed that more than the physical component, it is the mental fear which is more dangerous than the disease. There is one illness, which I call DIFS, disease induced fear syndrome, which can be lethal and harmful for the individual. That fear ‘I am going to die,’ or ‘I am suffering from cancer’ had to go. Yoga nidra helped in achieving that. It built up their confidence, optimism. It gave them a tool to relax and not be under the constant influence of fear and anxiety.
After that we taught them Pawanmuktasana Part 1, to promote circulation through the whole body. Then we taught them pranayama, to activate the vital energies and to develop their immunity, and, ajapa japa, So Ham with breath awareness. For six to eight months, these six patients practised yoga every day, and surprisingly they survived for decades beyond the time prescribed by the doctors. They became well. They were clinically cured with these four things.
Much later many other people tried, but they got stumped because cancer happens in every part of the body, from brain, to liver, kidneys, skin, to blood. So, it is not one practice which can be applied to all the cases. If it is blood cancer, the practices have to be different. If it is brain cancer, then just hope for a quick departure. It depends on where the cancer has affected your body and your senses. In many cases, if we can strengthen our mind with positivity, with prana, then that can help us overcome the physical debilitating condition.
Cancer is what? Deformation of cells. Even when you have a normal boil, the cells are deformed. The difference is that when there is a boil, the cells deform and they can be brought back into the condition in which they were. You can see the healing. Then, at certain times you cannot bring them back to normal. Definitely, the immunity of the human body has taken a big beating, with all the tasty food that we enjoy, all the chemicals that we ingest, the pollution of food, air and water. All that has affected the health of the human body.
The latest scientific studies show that from the year 2000, in every generation we are losing 10% of our immunity. That is a serious challenge in front of people, yet nobody is thinking about it. Nobody is willing to change their eating and drinking habits. If we are not going to change, then how can we expect wellness and therapy? The more we ingest these pollutants into our body, the more we will be susceptible to many more illnesses and diseases than cancer. There can be many other types of illnesses which we cannot deal with.
It is always better for human life and human health to go back to basics, to go back to a natural life, where you can be out in the sun, where you can play in the mud, where you can bathe in a spray of water outside, and live a life connected to nature. Eat nourishing food, drink not the bottled water, but a water that can help the body with the right alkaline content. For total health we need to bring a lot of changes into our lifestyle and routine, without which it will just remain a distant dream. We shall be fire-fighting with this problem now, and that problem in the next generation, and the third problem in the coming generation.
I feel that health wise we have come to the point where we can simply fall over the cliff any time. There are some people who are aware of the risks and who are making the attempt to live a better life, yet that percentage is minimal, and the majority like to indulge and splurge in life. At least conscious people should make the effort to change their life, to inspire and encourage others to change their habits, with a better understanding of what is happening to the human body. The focus should be on lifestyle, rather than on therapy.
10 January 2025, Ganga Darshan, Munger