the speaking tree - That Space Beyond Age And Infirmity

Narayani Ganesh





The Mahabharata has an interesting story about King Yayati, who married Sukracharya's daughter, Devayani. Yayati wangled a boon for himself from Sukracharya who had cursed him with old age for consorting with another woman, Harmishta. At the king's pleading, Sukracharya relented and said that Yayati could postpone his ageing if he could convince a youngster to take the curse upon himself in his place for 1,000 years, after which Yayati would have to hand over his kingdom to him for this sacrifice.Puru, one of Yayati's sons adhering to the dharma of obeying one's parents, willingly accepted his father's old age upon himself, whereupon the king, youth restored, lived a life of pleasure and went about satisfying his desires for 1,000 long years. At the end of the stipulated period, Yayati was still loath to give up his life of pleasure. Better sense prevailed after long and painful soul-searching, and he went up to Puru, his faithful son, and took back his old age and returned to Puru his youth.Legend has it that following his son's coronation Yayati went into renunciation, living the rest of his life in the forest. In a way , today, we are trying to recreate the miracle in Yayati's story , to stay youthful for as long as possible, but without having to `trade' our old age with a younger person! There are many ways to get into the anti-ageing zone, the most obvious one being stateof-the-art medical technology , largely understood to be the domain of plastic surgery and cosmetology . While these may cosmetology . While these may contribute a great deal to making one's physical appearance seem younger than it actually is, there is the more important and infinitely larger dimension to antiageing. This includes thinking and feeling young that comes from moving from the negative to the positive. In cutting-edge biological science, the Common Fund's Human Microbiome Project (HMP) in the US is “developing research resources to enable the study of the microbial communities that live in and on our bodies and the roles they play in human health and disease“. A parallel, privately funded effort led by Francis Collins is striving for the same goals. When one day our microbiome and the already decoded human genome blueprints present our past, present and potential future state of health, could we succeed in reversing the biological clock ­ or at least, slow it down considerably?
If that happens, remaining forever young might not be impossible. Then Yayati could simply hold old age in abeyance with special spa and alternative therapies while co-opting the latest medical treatments. Human endeavour since long has been directed towards finding ways to remain `immortal' ­ to not only postpone that final curtain call for as long as possible, but also ensure a life of good health and cheer.
There is a difference in the way we perceive life and death and the way the rest of the world looks at them. Most of us in the subcontinent believe that when this life ends, another life awaits us, as part of the grand cosmic cycle of destruction and regeneration. Yet, since the current life is the only life we experience and know, there is the intense urge to make it worthwhile, by striving for better health, wealth and contentment. Hence, perhaps, the renewed focus on anti-ageing practices and therapies, treatments and technological aids.
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