They were the Seven Sins that our forefathers warned us to guard against. They were, the thought went, sins that led men wayward, into ungodly realms, forcing one to eternal condemnation. They were capital in nature, cardinal in their ability to force the wretched soul to wonder aimlessly away from all that is good. Our scriptures had it that each is a form of idolatry of self, where the subjective reigns over the objective.
As I amble towards Mid-Life, dragging my ailment infested frame with all the resolve of a cashless insurance policy holder, I look back in wonder and amazement. Why, almost all the afflictions that goes to plague modern life, can, in one way or the other, be contained, and even cured by putting a cap on the sins. As I delve deeper and deeper into the cause and effects of my illnesses and digest all that the good doctors who tinker with the doses that are administered to combat them, I realise, how my mother had all along been warning against the same deviation from the chosen path – of a life that celebrated the sins. That too with total disregard of conventional wisdom.
We take pride in suffering from what we call Life Style diseases – their onset, heralding the fact that we have “arrived” as it were. It is a sinister, perhaps even perverse pleasure, that flow through our veins as we troop in to the super specialty facilities, wielding our plastic cards that promise everlasting health and instant Nirvana in a two nights and three day, all inclusive package. Little do we ponder on how, we ourselves are to be blamed for the afflictions, how we, with our obsession for excesses, have corroded the system that we were originally fitted with. What can be avoided with stoic fortitude is allowed to germinate and bloom with hedonistic abandon, only to be confronted in a final battle whose outcome is too obvious to be recounted.
Before we stray from the topic, let us revisit the Cardinal Sins individually to assess firsthand how they have a direct bearing on the ailments that riddle our mind and bodies.
Wrath is the inordinate and uncontrolled feeling of anger and hatred. We are on a perpetual short fuse as we curse fate for dealing us a hand that we feel is below par. This anger leads to the boiling of the blood – high blood pressure – that in turn, forces us to test the limits of our hearts, often with disastrous and potentially life threatening consequences.
Greed on the other hand, is the unreasonable desire to acquire or possess more than one’s need, especially in respect to material wealth. It is the forsaking of things eternal in the pursuit of things temporal – a disease that tethers one to an endless cycle of self-destructive covetousness. As the pursuit of material possessions become an end in itself, it becomes all encompassing, which in turn lead to the failure of the life support systems. The realisation, that filthy lucre, whose worship leads one to this abject state, is not enough to buy the way out – something that normally dawns only when it is too late for redemption.
Sloth is the failure to do things that one should do. On a very basic level, it is the aversion to physical exercise or even the failure to develop one’s faculties spiritually. We live in a time that has made us chair bound – wired to a digital world that abhors physical exercise. Naturally, when we do not burn the calories that we intake and consider motionlessness to be a virtue, we ensure that our physical faculties not only fall into disuse but also decay gradually.
Pride is the belief that one is essentially better than the others, an excessive admiration of the self to the extent of a failure to even acknowledge the achievements of others. It is pride that tells us that we are invincible and that, we are, by some divine quirk of fate, also immortal. It leads us to ignore the early warning signs that, if brought to the notice of medical practitioners, can make the difference between life and death.
Lust is uncontrolled, excessive desire. While lust is often associated with sex and sexuality, in its truest form, encompasses all and continues to be a general term to express all kinds of desire gone awry – be that an obsession for money, fame, food or power. When life degenerates into a series of things to lust after, naturally, the faculties are rendered defenseless, leading to the onset of diseases that take on ominous portends over time.
Envy, like its blood brothers greed and lust is an insatiable, almost unquenchable, dislike for someone else’s traits – be they status, abilities or rewards. It is all encompassing, all pervading and all consuming – a feeling where the self’s gratification is achieved by the hatred towards the achievement of others. Envy corrodes the soul, plays havoc with the sanity and forces one to extreme forms of dementia which often, becomes the litmus of change from normalcy to an abject mind-body disconnect.
Gluttony, is the over consumption or over indulgence of anything to the point of wastage. While the term is normally associated with an eating disorder and relates to the obsessive desire for food, it is in fact, an excessive consumption of anything to the extent that it is denied to those in need. This Anthropocene age, charecterised by an almost all-encompassing pursuit of conspicuous consumption is therefore also the age of gluttony. If one were to look at the ill effects of gluttony on the human mind and body, the prospect will be frightening as this overindulgence can be attributed as the primary cause of innumerable diseases that afflict us.
Gluttony leads directly to the Binge Eating Disorder which in turn is the monster that rears it Hydra heads. Obesity, Cardiac failures, shooting Blood Pressure the list of children gluttony fathers is endless.
Too much of anything – even good things – is bad. Naturally, when, in our mad haste for instant gratification we follow a strict regime of conspicuous consumption ignoring time tested conventional logic, we open the Pandora’s Box in our minds and bodies. What can be avoided is embraced, what should be abhorred is accepted and what needs to be guarded against are given free access – even as we hurtle towards obvious destruction in breakneck speed.
Medical science has made such strides that we are now provided with medical care of a quality that we could never have imagined in the past and somehow, we have started to believe that there is no ailment under the sun for which man has no remedy. Why, we have even unraveled the mysteries of the genome and can tinker with the very DNA to address health issues that concern us. Cancer and AIDS have been tamed and who knows, their complete eradication may await us just around the corner.
Yes, it is a fact that today, we enjoy a life expectancy that is the highest in history. One must, at the same breath also acknowledge the fact that much of these giant strides have been negated by sheer callousness on our part – while medical science has given us one cure after the other, we have stoked the fire with our profligacy, often embracing ailments that we could have easily avoided.
If the Seven Cardinal Sins are the root cause that can be attributed to all that is profane then naturally, their opposites should and does hold a beacon of hope. A life that is marked by Chastity, Temperance, Charity (Generosity), Diligence, Patience, Kindness and Humility is one that would help, to a very great extent at least the key to a long and healthy life.
These virtues are not merely words of wisdom with a religious bias, hand-me-downs from the past – they are more of a pointer, a kind of a universal charter to be followed in life. They are not a conflict zone where religion overlaps science but are a kind of commandment that goes to fortify one against the silent killer called Lifestyle diseases that have acquired manic proportions today.
( the piece was written for the Express Health Guide)