How Diabetes helps us to improve our SQ

If we look a little deeper, we are apt to find that lifestyle diseases not only represent a crisis in our lives. These also provide us an opportunity for a spiritual upliftment of sorts.

Take the case of a patient suffering from diabetes. The manner in which this affliction leads one to progress on the path of spirituality can be readily appreciated by considering what a hapless patient has to go through.

Surely, no one aspires to have a silent killer like diabetes as a part of the package of challenges life offers. But once known to be afflicted by it, it takes courage to accept the fact – internally as well as socially. One’s propensity to accept things in a courageous manner goes up.

Willingly having to forsake the pleasures of the palate, the patient learns the art of humility. Delectable sweets get banned from one’s dining table. When attending a social function, nerves of chilled steel need to be deployed, so as to be able to refuse some juicy items which one sees being gobbled up with much relish by those around. One develops sincerity of purpose.

Our scriptures postulate that of the five senses which help us to get connected to the world around us, the most difficult one to rein in is that of taste. This self-control is precisely what a diabetic sets out to achieve. The clock governs the intake of nourishment. One learns to persevere.

With advice coming in from diverse sources about management of diabetes, the patient becomes more receptive. One is willing, even desperate, to try any cure that would rid one of this affliction. One ends up becoming more receptive and open-minded.

Running into a fellow diabetic, the milk of human kindness starts sloshing about within oneself. Goodness demands that while serving food or snacks to the hapless soul, principles of equality, fair play and natural justice get adhered to. To be really benevolent and generous to the other, a singular lack of generosity has to be demonstrated.

Gradually, one imbibes all these qualities in oneself – courage, humility, sincerity, perseverance, receptivity, goodness and generosity. Inner peace prevails. Progress comes about. One’s capacity to look at the broader picture and to empathize with fellow beings improves. One’s ego gets flattened.

All diabetics need to manage their lives by remaining confined within a triangle of three lakshman rekhas – diet, exercise and medication. One ends up living like an ascetic. Self control becomes the norm. Spiritual Quotient improves.

A diabetic who feels despondent could perhaps derive some solace from the spiritual potential of her affliction.

(Note: This blog post forms a part of an article which was published in the October 2015 issue of NAMAH, the journal of integral health:

http://www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Of-hierarchies-attitudes-and-spiritual-potential-of-our-illnesses-vol-23-iss-3.html)

(Related Posts:

https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/o-my-beloved-when-would-you-depart

https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/handling-the-diabetes-tsunami-in-india)