The cause of disease

‘There is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life.’ (SD 1:643-4)

‘To say that selfishness is the cause of all disease is too general a statement.

To be more specific, it is the form of selfishness called passion, whether conscious or unconscious, which is the fruitful cause of disease – unconquered violent passion, such as hatred, anger, lust, etc.

Any such passion, mental or physical, shakes the lower constitution of man; it escapes from the control of the guiding hand of the higher part of his being, changing the direction of flow of the pranic life-currents, condensing them here, rarefying them there.

It thus interferes with the normal, easy workings of nature, which in this connection means health.

In fact, selfishness is at the root not merely of most disease, but of most evil-doing, and both are originally caused not by unconquerable but by unconquered passions.

‘The symptoms of disease, which only too often are treated as being the disease itself, are not infrequently the efforts of the forces of health to throw the poison out of the body.

A disease should be understood as a purifying process because the end will be a cleansing. It should be welcomed in the sense of a quiet understanding of the situation, and without either fear or an attempt to complicate or hinder the process.

But many people have an idea that the curing of disease consists in damming it back, shutting the doors against its egress out of the system. Such damming back, however, allows the roots of the disease to take firmer hold and spread and accumulate energy, so that when it reappears – as it inevitably will for its roots have not been extirpated – its reaction upon the body is more violent than it would have been if the disease had been allowed to take its course. ...

‘In many instances diseases may be a heaven-sent blessing: they cure egoism, they teach patience, and bring in their train the realization of the need for living rightly.

If we with our ungoverned emotions had bodies which could not be diseased, they might well be weakened and killed by excesses.

Diseases actually are warnings to reform our thoughts and to live in accordance with nature’s laws.