The Hindu Business Line : A manual for the `most expensive machine'

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Chennai Feb. 17 "When you buy any sophisticated machine like a computer, iPod or digital camera, it comes with a comprehensive user's manual. But how many of us know that our Vedas-Upanishads have a universal user manual that can guide us how to use our body and mind?"

Swami Suddhananda tosses this question as casually as he does searing and incisive comments on the self and the priceless machine that our maker has given us - the human body and the mind.

"The other day somebody showed me a computer with amazing possibilities, movies, music, conference across the world, etc. But without knowledge on its possibilities, how much can you explore by yourself?" he asks, adding that human beings have been given the "most expensive machine in the world."

Apparently, the University of Yale had done a costing study — how much it would cost to create a human body with its network of blood vessels, plasma, cells, bones, marrow and so on. "The cost was put at $1 trillion. Let's say this is an exaggeration; even if the cost is $1 billion, how many of us know how to use the immense possibilities of this `machine'.

The most expensive camera can only record movements and sound, but this machine, apart from its audio and video functions can also touch, taste, smell. But what are the inputs that we're giving to this machine?"

To answer these questions the Suddhananda Foundation for Self-Knowledge is organising a five-day festival in Chennai to throw light on "Vedanta - The Universal User Manual".

Suddhananda argues that every machine, including the human body and mind, works on the concept of inputs and output.

"Natural inputs" are given to the human being such as sunrise and sunset, fragrance of flowers, and so on. But the thoughts that are fed or generated in this "priceless machine" are critical.

Cautioning people to keep clear of religious or other kinds of fanaticism he says, "If you're given this particular faith or that particular ideology then you make a fanatic out of a person. But if he/she is given the right kind of thoughts and also taught how to think, then it's a beautiful machine... it cannot only think but can only own up its thinking.

"This machine is self-correcting, it has the possibility of pain and pleasure, problem and solution, bondage and liberation."

He added that the human machine is a "purposeful creation with infinite possibilities and the Vedanta manual or guide can unfold these possibilities."

As one can argue about the number of rectangles within a larger rectangle divided by two lines — 4,5,7 or 9 — similarly "somebody can say you are limited or mortal, different from god, your life is pain. But somebody else says you are immortal, absolute, infinite. So whose version should you take; the choice is yours. Do you want to limit yourself or explore the infinite possibilities of your being?"

Suddhananda adds that the human machine too needs maintenance. "If you put diesel in a petrol Ferrari, the car will stall and you will be stranded. Similarly, if you already have a high fat high cholesterol body, it needs a low fat low cholesterol diet. The reverse will kill the body."

But, he cautions, taking care of the body "doesn't mean worshipping it, as we do with Miss or Mr Universe. Don't forget the body is not the ultimate, and if you are a stupid person inside a wonderful body, nobody will care for you."

So does `maintenance' include exercise too?

"Exercise is a very modern concept and required for our contemporary lifestyle. But my father/grandfather didn't need it because they walked to the market ... we go for a morning walk, but if you walk to the market, that is infra dig."

His take on breathing exercises: "Breathing is very beautiful; it cleanses your system and the lung power increases. When you walk fast breathing automatically takes place. But because you're not living a particular lifestyle, you need to sit down for half an hour and breathe everyday."