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Hatha Yoga: The Yogi Philosophy of Physical Well-Being1776
of it. Give it a free hand and it will keep you in perfect health—restrict it
by irrational and unnatural methods of living, and it will still try to pull you
through, and will serve you until the end, to the best of its ability, in spite of
your ingratitude and stupidity. It will fight for you to the finish.
The principle of accommodation is manifested all through all forms of life.
A seed dropped into the crevice of a rock, when it begins to grow either
becomes squeezed into the shape of the rock, or, if it be strong enough,
splits the rock in twain and attains its normal shape. So, in the case of Man,
who manages to live and thrive in all climates, and conditions, the Vital Force
has accommodated itself to the varying conditions, and, where it could not
split the rock, it sent out the sprout in a somewhat distorted shape, but still
alive and hardy.
No organism can become diseased while the proper conditions for health
are observed. Health is but life under normal conditions, while disease
is life under abnormal conditions. The conditions which caused a man to
grow to a healthy, vigorous manhood are necessary to keep him in health
and vigor. Given the right condition, the Vital Force will do its best work,
but given imperfect conditions the Vital Force will be able to manifest but
imperfectly, and more or less of what we call disease ensues. We are living
in a civilization which has forced a more or less unnatural mode of life upon
us, and the Vital Force finds it hard to do as well for us as it would like. We
do not eat naturally; drink naturally; sleep naturally; breathe naturally; or
dress naturally. We “have done those things which we ought not to have
done, and we have left undone those things which we ought to have done,
and there is no Health within us”—or, we might add, as little health as we
can help.
We have dwelt upon the matter of the friendliness of the Vital Force, for
the reason that it is a matter usually overlooked by those who have not
made a study of it. It forms a part of the Yogi Philosophy of Hatha Yoga,
and the Yogis take it largely into consideration in their lives. They know that
they have a good friend and a strong ally in the Vital Force, and they allow it