Use the status ENUM: http://camel.apache.org/maven/current/camel-core/apidocs/org/apache/camel/ServiceStatus.html
CamelContext context = new DefaultCamelContext()
// ... add routes
Runtime.runtime.addShutdownHook({ context.stop() })
if (context.status == org.apache.camel.ServiceStatus.Stopped ||
context.status == org.apache.camel.ServiceStatus.Suspended) {
context.start()
}