Many people ask, “If one becomes a yogi, how can disease still occur?”
This question arises because we have misunderstood what yoga is truly about.
Yoga is not an insurance policy for the body.
Yoga is liberation from bondage.
Even for a yogi, the body is still a piece of nature. It is made of earth, water, fire, air, and space, and it follows the same natural laws as everything else in creation. Aging happens. Wear happens. The elements play their role. Yoga does not cancel biology; it transcends identification with it.
There is also the momentum of life already in motion. The body you are born with carries a certain prārabdha—genetic tendencies, cellular memory, and Past impressions that have already begun to unfold. Prārabdha karma (already activated) must run its course.
Yoga can dissolve vast layers of accumulated karma (Sanchita karma), but what has already taken shape in the body must complete its course. Awareness does not interfere with this; it simply brings clarity to it.
A yogi also lives in the same world as everyone else—breathing the same air, eating the same food, moving through the same environment. Awareness does not make the lungs immune to pollution or the skin immune to fire. What it changes is the inner experience.
For most people, disease is not just a physical event—it becomes a psychological and emotional collapse. Fear, resistance, and identity multiply the problem. For a yogi, disease remains a bodily happening. Pain may be there, sensations may be there, but suffering does not take root, because there is no longer an identity invested in the body or mind.
Very often, a yogi does not “fight” the body the way others do. He allows the intelligence of life to function, intervening only when necessary. What may look like neglect from the outside is actually profound non-resistance and trust in the natural process.
Understand this clearly:
Yoga does not promise immortality of the body. It promises freedom from bondage.
When freedom is there, healing may happen—or the body may complete its natural cycle. Either way, life is lived without fear, without struggle, and without suffering.
That is the real gift of yoga—not a disease-free body, but a boundless way of being alive.
Many people on the spiritual path ask, “If one is deeply involved in spirituality, how can disease still occur?”
This question arises because we have not clearly understood the difference between a spiritual seeker, a yogi, and an advanced yogi.
A spiritual seeker is someone who has turned inward, who has begun to question the compulsive nature of body and mind. But for the seeker, identification with the body and mind is still largely in place. The body is still experienced as “me,” and the mind as “mine.” Because of this, the seeker continues to function within the natural laws that govern the physical system.
The human body is made of earth, water, fire, air, and space. These elements follow certain rhythms and laws. Aging happens. Environmental influences act. The momentum of life already in motion continues. Spiritual seeking does not suspend biology. At this stage, disease can still occur—not as a failure of the path, but as part of the natural functioning of the system.
What begins to change for a seeker is not the absence of disease, but the quality of experience. Fear begins to reduce. Resistance weakens. The psychological weight that usually accompanies illness slowly loosens. Disease may still be present, but suffering does not dominate in the same way it once did.
A yogi, however, is no longer merely a seeker. A yogi has shifted his or her identity significantly beyond the body and mind. The body is still used, still cared for, but it is no longer the center of one’s existence. For such a being, disease does not carry psychological or existential authority. The body may undergo certain biological processes, but the yogi remains inwardly untouched.
In this sense, disease may happen to the body, but it does not possess the being. Pain may be there, sensations may be there, but suffering does not take root, because identification has fallen away.
Beyond this lies a dimension that is not meant for seekers, and not even for most yogis. This is the realm of the advanced yogi—one who knows the mechanics, the knots and bolts of the human system. Such a being does not merely transcend suffering; he understands life at a level where conscious mastery becomes possible.
In yogic tradition, such mastery is symbolized by Mahamṛtyuñjaya—one who has gone beyond the compulsive grip of life and death. For such an advanced yogi, even the fundamental limitations of birth and death can be transcended. More than this, the physical body itself can be sustained for a significant length of time, if such a yogi chooses to do so. This is not accidental longevity, nor a biological anomaly, but a result of precise control over the energies, intelligence, and organization of the human system.
For the advanced yogi, even the fundamental limitations of life and death can be transcended. Beyond this, the physical body itself can be sustained for a significant length of time—if such a yogi chooses to do so. This is not accidental longevity, but conscious mastery over the mechanics of the human system.
This dimension is not a goal to aspire to, nor a promise made to those who are seeking. It demands absolute mastery—over body, mind, prāṇa, and consciousness. Without that mastery, attempting to imitate or pursue such states is neither wise nor necessary.
So it is important to understand this clearly.
For a spiritual seeker, disease may still occur, but suffering need not dominate.
For a yogi, disease loses its psychological and existential significance.
For the advanced yogi, even the deepest limitations of life, time, and death can be consciously transcended.
Yoga is not about immunity, longevity, or escaping the realities of the body.
Yoga is about freedom.
What form that freedom takes depends entirely on how deeply one is willing—and capable—to go.
From the Editor
Yoga is freedom of consciousness, not exemption from biology.
That’s the clean truth. Now let’s open it up—
1. The body still obeys nature
Even for a yogi, the body is made of:
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
Space
These elements follow natural laws—aging, wear, decay.
Yoga does not rewrite physics; it rewrites identity.
So:
The body may fall sick, but the being is not confined to it.
2. Prārabdha karma continues
In yogic understanding:
Sanchita karma (accumulated) can be dissolved
Prārabdha karma (already activated) must run its course
The body you are born with carries:
Genetic tendencies
Cellular memory
Past impressions
A yogi may transcend identification, but the momentum of the body continues.
3. Environment still acts
A yogi still lives in:
Climate
Food systems
Pollution
Pathogens
Awareness does not make the lungs immune to poison or the skin immune to fire.
But it changes the internal response completely.
4. The yogi does not interfere unnecessarily
This is subtle but important.
Often:
The yogi does not “fight” the body
He allows natural processes to complete
He intervenes only when needed
What looks like neglect is often non-resistance.
5. Disease needs identification to become suffering
Disease becomes suffering only when there is identification.
Without identification:
Pain may be there
Sensation may be there
But psychological collapse is absent
This alone reduces 50–70% of what people call illness.
6. Yoga is not for survival — it is for liberation
If the goal were survival:
Medicine would be enough
Yoga exists because:
Even perfectly healthy people suffer.
So a yogi accepts disease if it comes,
but never accepts bondage.
Disease can occur in a yogi because biology continues;
suffering does not, because bondage has ended.
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