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Rama: The other day you were citing the example of California.

Dr. Mohan: Yes, exactly. They banned soft drinks in California Schools and obesity came down.

BRAND AMBASSADOR

Another example is Mike Huckabee, one of the Presidential candidates who lost in the early rounds. He was the Governor of Arkansas, just as Bill Clinton was. He is a very close friend of Bill Clinton. In fact I met both of them together in New York in March last year, at the global diabetes meet. If you go to the net, you will find details. and I quote: When he was elected governor of Arkansas, Huckabee was obese. Physicians diagnosed him with adult-onset diabetes and informed him that he would not live more than 10 years if he did not lose weight. Huckabee admitted that he has weighed as high as 280-300 pounds. Prompted by this diagnosis, Huckabee began eating a healthier diet and exercising. He subsequently lost over 110 pounds The New York Times called the weight loss so rapid that "it was as if he simply unzipped a fat suit and stepped out."

Huckabee declared himself a "recovering foodaholic". Huckabee has publicly recounted his previous burdens as an obese man.' He had come to the meet as a brand ambassador, to promote the message. As a Governor, he introduced healthy eating in Schools. Finally it became a model State in the US where obesity in children started coming down. It is all because of the personal commitment of this single individual. He did it on himself. So, one person can make the change.

Rama: Doctor, do you mean to say that no lean person can turn a diabetic and that all obese persons will be diabetics?

Dr. Mohan: No, both are not true. To get that, you need the genes, the genetic factor. Let me put it this way. If you take a hundred obese people, may be thirty or forty of them have diabetes. What does that mean Sixty or seventy of them still would not get diabetes, because they don't have the genes. If you take the lean persons assuming that the genes are distributed equally in the society, five or ten out of a hundred may get diabetes. That means, the chances for an obese person to have diabetes are six times more. Seventy per cent of the obese persons may not get it and five per cent of the lean persons will still get it.

THE YELLOW LINE

I can give you another example. If you don't cross the yellow line, will you never get into an accident Or every time that you cross the yellow line will you be involved in an accident And if you take the statistics, you will know that it is dangerous to cross the line. Same thing is applicable here. If the obese person reduces weight, the chances come down from 30% to 10%. This is significant.

The lean person may get other types of diabetes. I am talking about type II diabetes. Huckabee had this type of diabetes. There is the type I diabetes which is found in children. You are very lean. There is no family history of diabetes. Suddenly the pancreas packs up. All the islet cells get destroyed. They are lean.

There is yet another type of diabetes on which I did research for my theses. In the pancreas you can develop stones. They are pancreatic stones. They destroy the insulin-secreting cells and produce diabetes. They cannot even digest the food. They will remain very thin and under-nourished. They also have diabetes. But it is rare.

Ninety five per cent of people have type II diabetes. That is definitely associated with over-weight and obesity and physical inactivity.

Rama: Doctor, before we conclude, I find that you are an ardent devotee of Swami Sri Sathya Sai Baba. If you can share your experience with Him, I will remain grateful.

Dr. Mohan: I will be most delighted, as He is my Guru. Even as a child I had heard of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. But, it was only in 1991, about the time I left my old Hospital and started on my own that I started moving towards Him. The calling must have come at that time. I took the first one or two steps to go to His ashram. In fact the first time I went to His ashram, He wasn't even there. I was told that he had left for Kodaikanal that very morning. But I got drawn. I got peace. Then I started reading His sayings.

HELP EVER-HURT NEVER

I was attracted towards His concept of Universal brotherhood. All religions are the same. We should not discriminate between religions. His four-word sayings Love All; Serve All, Help Ever; Hurt Never have a lot of truth. These simple things appealed to us and various miracles started happening in my life, in my family. It is a very strange experience. The more we started moving towards Him, the more His blessings started coming to us. Without any hesitation I would say that ours has been quite an extra ordinary growth in just fifteen years. We started off with nothing. Literally nothing except a stethoscope. I had no money in the Bank. When I left my father, he said, if you can do it on your own, you do it. If you are smart enough, you do it. I am not going to give you anything. You go and prove yourself. We started in a very humble way. In retrospect, I still wonder how people came forward to help, to donate. I told you how a philonthropist donated ten acres of land in Chunampet. Dr. M S Swaminathan offers six anda half acres. Aren't they extra ordinary happenings? Things we could not have imagined have happened. Skeptics may not believe this. Non believers may not believe this. But I do believe. There are so many instances where things happened directly due to His blessings. I can share one such experience with you.

WE WERE SCARED

When we were moving from Royapettah to Gopalapuram, this land, which I wanted to buy was quoted as One and a half crores. Those days I could not even imagine a crore. That was too big for me. I didn't have that kind of money. Even after four, five years in Royapettah, I had not come to the Crores level and I had no money with me. The land owner had promised me four floors. But he would not let out the third and fourth floors, which were in fact vacant. I was stuck. I could not put my beds. I couldn't do a thing. Then this came up. But this was too big for me. We were scared.

HE TOOK BOTH LETTERS

Then we decided to go to Baba and get His blessings. Not a word was spoken. I had kept a letter with me. It read: Swamy, We are not able to take a decision. If you want us to go there, if You feel we should go there and buy the land, kindly accept the letter from me. Otherwise, please don't take the letter when you pass by me. But if you take the letter from me, then it is your Grace's responsibility to bless me and take me there. In fact we had kept two letters, one with me and the other with my wife, who was sitting at some distance from me. He took both the letters. He did not utter a word, though. Next day when he came, I was so elated that he had taken both letters from us that I spoke to him. Swami, please bless my project, I pleaded with Him. He stared at me intently. He didn't say a word. He left the place. I didn't understand what it meant.

That night, in my dream, He came and said, Yesterday I took the letter from you as well as from your wife to make it doubly sure. And today, you are asking for my blessings. That means you have no faith in me. Then why should you write a letter to me and ask me to take it I have taken the letter and the responsibility is mine. And next day, you are asking for the same thing. That shows you have absolutely no faith in me. I jumped up in my bed and said, that is why you are angry with me. I am sorry. I apologise. Then I told my wife that since He has taken the letter, I think He would forgive us and we have His blessings.

A TURNING POINT

We returned from Puttaparthi. Within two days, a new patient came. To cut a long story short, he wrote out a cheque each to me and my wife and said we can pay back any time we want. I did not sign any promissory note or on any piece of paper. I didn't give him even a receipt for the amount. He took the letter, this man came and gave us the cheque and we purchased the land. Now, you may say it is all a coincidence.

ARJUNA SANS LORD KRISHNA

I will tell you why it was not a coincidence. Once this happened, you see, I thought I was a big man. This man has given me money and at any time I can go to him. I forgot that Someone else had given me His blessings for all this to happen. In Mahabharatha, after Lord Krishna left, Arjuna who won the war could not even lift the bow. Once the divine element leaves, you are nothing. Once this happened, the news spread. One of my close relatives came and wanted me to get a relatively small amount of Rs five lakhs as loan from this man, which would be repaid in a year. I said, Five lakhs is nothing. I will get it for you. This time I just talked to him on the phone. I told him, one of relatives wants a small loan. Kindly give it. Sorry Doctor. I cannot give him that.Why? You were so generous to me. In fact you gave me more than what I needed. And now you are not giving this small amount. That was a one time offer. It was meant only for you. Not for any of your relatives. It was for a different cause. It was to build a Hospital. I specifically gave it to for that purpose and I can't give loan to anyone else. Then I realised that it was really a miracle. He advanced the money for a purpose. Of course I paid it back to him in good time. I am just giving you one example of His infinite mercy and countless blessings.

Rama:Thank you, Doctor. I hope through you I get the benign blessings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Dr. Mohan: Sure. I will give you some Vibhuthi as well.