I remember my teacher. Through the years the theme of his life to enlighten the world never changed, yet his focus would shift from one topic to the next: ayurveda, jyotish, vastu, gandharva ved, on and on. As his attention shifted, our attention shifted with his, and we thereby learned. But we did not just learn facts about one field of knowledge and the next. More importantly, we learned how he thought and how he functioned. We saw how everything shared a greater context that was essential to really understanding anything. We saw universal principles at work that permeated all of life .

Recently, my focus has been on the health of the physical body. I have explored a multitude of theories and approaches. Your responses to this (assuming you have been reading my blog, attending classes, or living at Mount Soma) have been diverse. Perhaps taking a moment to explore your personal response would be of value to you.

I enjoy many quotes from the fitness industry. Here is a small sampling as best as I can remember the wordings:

‘Just do it’
‘Do today what others won’t, and tomorrow you will do what others can’t”
‘Do not go for greatness, go for consistency. Through consistency, greatness will follow.’
“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”
‘First you fuel the desire, then the desire fuels you.’
‘Day by day, be better’
‘You want me to do something? Tell me I can’t do it.’
‘Focus on the possibilities, not the problems. Focus on the gain, not the pain. Make it happen, don’t just let it happen.’

That sort of direct, all out approach to enlightenment is excellent. Oh yes, and my recent favorite: “Digestion is everything.” Part of me would like to stop right here and ask you to connect the dots and reflect on the implications and extent of that quote for yourself.

Firstly of course, digestion is not just of food. Nor is it simply of the gut. For example, focusing on how food feels after you eat it is indeed crucial. How you process the same meal can vary from day to day. Have you noticed how sometimes a meal just seems to go right in? The cells of your body just seem to drink it right up – sometimes not. The same is true with digestion of thoughts and emotions. It is incredibly fascinating to watch how people digest and process their life experiences. As with all of life, more attention should be on how you digest food. In many ways that is more important than what food you ingest. It is said that when the digestion is good, the body transforms whatever you eat into soma… the nectar of immortality.

All the Gods, i.e. all the laws of nature, are instrumental in digestion. Ganesh is the Lord of Categories. When digestion is good, foods are partitioned properly. Nutrients feed the muscles and organs instead of accumulating as fat or toxins. Hormones, timing of meals, combination of foods, on and on… it can all be viewed as the domain of Ganesh.

At the same time, Shiva is the pure transcendent. When the physiology is established in that, all things work in harmony and health. Digestion then, is the domain of Lord Shiva.

Skanda is the commander and chief of the whole army of the gods. Easy to see then, how digestion is His domain.

And Mother Divine. Well, rest into the arms of the Mother. Eat what She offers and needless to say all will be well. Digestion is clearly Her domain.

All the Gods, all the laws of nature, are totally interconnected. They are all one. Viewing anything and everything through the facet of the diamond of life of each God provides an ever deepening understanding and expansion of perspective on all that is.

Get your digestion right, and you are whole, healthy, and enlightened. As with all fields of life, as we explore the facet of life called fitness and health, all the laws and deepest secrets of life are revealed. To really understand, to really digest, anything, is to really understand everything. If you explore the world of fitness, or anything else, watch how you digest it… how opinionated you are with respect to it… how open you are… how fascinated you are or are not…. how universal and deeply you look… where you get stuck… where you dig in your heels… on and on.

We have and will continue to explore many fields of life. I invite you to join me in these explorations. Through these explorations, we till the soil that facilitates the blossoming of life. How do you digest life? Digestion is anything and everything. Digestion is the key to life.
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By the way, we have created video blogs of the essential points for enlightenment and will be posting them soon, probably one by one. But the next blog I have planned is on a topic that desperately needs clarification and is currently up in the media, namely, “Sin and Salvation.”