Bizarre Thought (1):

Recently a bizarre thought occurred to me. Have you noticed how people who crave a particular thing are usually restricted by circumstances to give up that very thing? For e.g. a person who loves sweets and has relished them his entire life becomes a diabetic and is warned off sweets by the doctor. All of us have come across similar examples. This set me thinking as to whether all of us are born with a fixed quota of things that we may partake in this life? What if our bodies have been pre programmed in such a way that we can have a prefixed amount of sweets, just so much carbs, exactly so much breaths and a fixed number of heart beats before it finally stops? Scary thought that. By that logic if one takes less carbs and lipids one may take them for a longer period. Isn’t this belief also held up by science? The basic aim of yoga is to regulate once breathing. Great yogis have perfected the art of breathing less (one breath per hour or so). And they are famed to live up to a hundred and more years easily. Even athletes and those who undertake regular aerobic exercises, slow down their heartbeats to up to 40 beats per minute and regular exercisers are known to live longer. It has long been documented that organisms that live longer than humans (the tortoise for e.g.) have slower heart rates than humans. Is that why the Budhha and most religions advocated the middle path – the path of restraint? Is that why most religions have warned off people from indulging too much in those nefarious activities that raise ones heart rates (and I am not talking about jogging here)? Do we have a fixed quota of work and of leisure, of happiness and sorrow, of laughter and of tears? Munch on that…….