Saturday 4 July 2009

Why are there more illnesses?

Society is suffering ill health because our environment is suffering from ill health – the environment is sick because of our commercial activities. What we call ‘economic growth’ is in fact a growth in waste and a decline in the health of natural habitat. When we put our waste and rubbish into plastic bins to be taken away by vehicles to landfill sites, we think the waste has gone away, disappeared – but it has not. It is sitting somewhere causing pollution and disease. If our land is polluted, water and air are polluted, so what likelihood do we have for a healthy society? If society is living in a rat-race suffering from stress and pressure then what hope do we have for the health of individuals?

The way to healthy living is to shift from quantitative economic growth to quality of life, food, water and air – to shift from craving to contentment and from greed to gratitude. Healthy living is not only a matter of physical health – spiritual and psychological health is an essential foundation upon which we can build physical health. But the modern mindset separates personal and physical health from psychological and spiritual health. We separate personal health from social health and we separate social health from ecological health. This disconnection leads to increasing illness in society.

--Satish Kumar