Can we extend our life by medicines?
Thank you question can we extend our life by chemicals or by some by our own efforts answer there are definitely efforts which we can and should do to protect our health and to ensure that the bodily instrument that we have last as long as it practically can for pursuing life's ultimate purpose so at one level it is sometimes said that we all come with the number of breaths fixed but then again we cannot take one fact in isolation from other facts that means that if we consider that there is also from the same tradition a whole branch of knowledge called Ayurveda coming in and Ayurveda Ayu it means lifespan or longevity so knowledge of how to live a long life and so if our life itself is fixed we could say Ayur refers to various things but one understanding of it is that it refers to lifespan in terms of longevity so we can practically see at a day-to-day level that there are recommendations in Ayurveda for healthful practices and if a person people neglect their health then they can die prematurely so one way of premature death is of course is suicide but otherwise also we do know that taking care of efforts taking care of things can promote health and promote well-being and neglecting health can harm one's well-being even to the point of causing avoidable death so how the two exactly play out that is very difficult to understand the way in which the subtle principles of nature such as karma work that is not very easy to understand and what we need to understand is that in such situations the vital thing to know is the whole principle of karma is meant primarily for us to do the right action it is not so much for us to bother about what action will have what consequence if we simply focus on doing the right action eventually the right result for the action will come about so when we consider the end of life there are certain things in that which are in our control and certain things which are not in our control so sometimes despite the best efforts of doctors and best efforts of patients a patient may suddenly just die and sometimes you know by the best efforts of doctors the patient may be brought brought back from the jaws of death or by the serious endeavors of diet regulation exercise and therapy by a patient the patient may drastically improve one's health so certainly we have a responsibility and some ability in that extent in that regard to take optimal care of our body and that is something which is our responsibility so that's what we should focus on doing and thereby we can avoid the whole complexity around the around the discussion of exactly how or when our death is death is going to come for that one statement that the number of breaths are fixed or they should not be taken in isolation from the many other statements wherein people fight people strive gallantly to protect themselves and Kshatriya warriors go for fighting a war at that time their primary consideration is they're not thinking that oh if my death is this time I'm going to die this time they fight and they fight vigorously to win and to protect themselves so the idea is that we shouldn't take one particular statement of scripture in isolation from other statements and thereby create problems for create problems in logic and reasoning which are impossible to solve or for that matter create conundrums create conundrums logically which are impossible to resolve or practically create a culture of apathy and lethargy wherein we neglect what we can do for taking care of our health so from practical perspective both there is human endeavor and there is there is something beyond human endeavor both of which contribute to the result so there can be misunderstandings which can go towards both extremes one misunderstanding can be that actually if we just that we can by our efforts protect anyone's life and we can or protect our life and if we just have the right health and if we just do the right exercises right diet then everything will be hunky-dory and that is not necessarily true we can see sometimes people with the best health routine sometimes they just fall prey to terrible diseases and they wither away on the other hand to say to go to the other extreme and say that nothing is in our hands that is also not true is to say that nothing is in our hands with respect to death or the longevity of our life that would mean that actually we are simply caught in in a culture got in an ethos of apathy and that is not in consonance with the tradition also so the real understanding is that we by understanding the overall purpose of life and understanding our place and position in the overall scheme of things we need to do our part for protecting the body with spiritual knowledge we understand that I am not the body that I am a soul and I am going to outlive the body but still I have a I have the body as an instrument and it is my responsibility to do my part according to my ability for taking for taking care of this body for keeping this body in the optimal condition by which it can be used for constructive purposes.