Living a happy and meaningful life

Aging is a natural process. No one wants to be old. There has been a frantic search for developing ways and means to stall youth. But until now not much progress has been made in this direction. Scientists, however, are optimistic that they will be able to make youth permanent for far longer periods and lengthen longevity up to 200 to 400 years.
Be that what it may, let us focus on how life in today's context is and ought to be. The idea of a longer life may be fascinating but if it is full of stress and strife, will it be equally welcome. Life -long or short -has to be enjoyable, meaningful and productive. What is youth if it is worth nothing, abused or even directed to serve negative and destructive purposes. Sukanta Chsttopadhya or John Keats did not live long nor were they born with a silver spoon in their mouths, yet they turned their disadvantages -financial hardship for one and both economic penury and failure in love for the other -into creative strokes.
Not all are however geniuses like those two poets. Yet the urge to live a fulfilling life is what makes sense for common people. If serious, some can indeed transcend the life of the run of the mill. The definition of a productive and meaningful life is likely to change depending on societies, communities, religion and even on the outlook of two individuals living side by side. One can think of living a comfortable and luxurious life and go on earning as much as is required to lead such a life, means notwithstanding. The other may opt for a simple, honest, disciplined and somewhat struggling life.
To have a satisfying life, health plays a pivotal role, though. Not all are ready to take the trouble of keeping the body fit enough. Those who take regular exercise certainly have an edge over others who are lazy enough not to put their bodies to such voluntary enduring tests.
The Times of India has run a story on a 120-year-old monk named Swami Sivananda. If the record of his birth is correct, he should be the oldest man on this planet, although according to the Guinness book of records, a Japanese man is the oldest at 115 -younger to him by five years.
The Swami's is a fascinating story. He visited -and that too at the request of his disciples --a hospital for the first time in his life for a check-up. The reason is simple: he never had any health complaint before. Now at 120, he complained of headache for a few days. So he was persuaded to go for the medical examination. The doctors at the hospitals could not believe he was that old. But the reality is that he was born a year after the X-ray had been invented.
The medical check-up yielded no problem except high blood pressure. With no wrinkles on his face, Swamiji demonstrated a sarbangasan (a form of yoga) in front of the physicians and nurses who watched his manoeuvre with gaping mouths.
Swami Sivananda also did not have a happy family in his childhood. At the age of four he lost his parents and at age six he lost his elder sister who used to beg for the duo's survival. Then suddenly his life changed when he was handed over to a Guruji who took him to Nabadwip. He settled down in Varanasi. It is during this life of a sanyasi that he possibly unravelled some of the mysteries of life.
No wonder Swamiji has agreed to take the medicine the doctors prescribed but only for five days. He has convinced the doctors that he would summon his own mechanism to reduce the blood pressure by then.
The secret of his health, according to his own admission, is that he believes 'in eating simple, living humble and in being compassionate'. A two hours regime of pranayam, yoga and light exercise daily is all he does to keep him fit. Mashed green chili, boiled rice and boiled vegetables constitute his food. But the other ingredient of good health is compassion -helping others. The joy of doing something for the needy is gratifying for the holy man.
His life offers a lesson for people who accumulate heaps of wealth and wallow in luxury but still suffer from numerous illnesses. Simple along with small is beautiful too.