What is health? What is disease? What is love? What am I? What is the nature of this world?
I never learned the answers to these questions in medical school or management school. Instead, I had to look to my roots in Advaita Vedanta to investigate and discover the answers. That education began thirty years ago for me with Chinmaya Mission, where I spent many days of the week in Bala Vihar, Yuva Kendra, and adult Vedanta classes. (My parents thought I wasn’t listening. )
Churning these questions and measuring the answers against my own experience ultimately yielded a new vision of life, in which the objective sciences I learned are contextualized within the fluctuations of the mind and stabilized in the still depths of the ocean of consciousness.
Seeing the state of healthcare in this country, I couldn’t keep my thoughts to myself. They have been elaborated upon in my book, Michelangelo’s Medicine, which details how we can see the human body anew as not merely a physical structure, but an integrated activity of thought, emotion, intuition, energy, and ultimately consciousness itself. This new vision is the basis for true healthcare.
In a recent conversation with Dr. Deepak Chopra, I discussed the book’s implications for healthcare and beyond. The conversation can be viewed here. I offer all these with love and gratitude at the feet of my many teachers.
Anoop Kumar, MD, attended Bala Vihar and Yuva Kendra for many years at CMWRC and also trained in Carnatic vocal music. He is board-certified in Emergency Medicine and holds a Master’s degree in Management. His passion is exploring and translating the intersection of self-awareness, science, and well-being in daily life. Visit Anoop at anoopkumar.com.