Spirituality & Health

We are involved on a daily basis with health issues and means to resolve them. In particular, we have heard and considered various ways to deal with chest pain when it occurs. It is a serious issue that confronts humanity today and we heard some eloquent discussion on what is within our control. One thing stands out… and it is that the onset of heart disease means medication for life. We typically use the curative approach to health issues. When a health issue arrives, the doctor is approached. This is not a very suitable route to take.

Stress and problem situations are very common place. We know the kind of havoc they wreak on the body. Some students have diarrhoea before their exams. Some break into sweat, just before a public speech. Some people have heart attacks when they watch TV and feel that their favourite team is losing the cricket match! Some people can not tolerate other’s driving. Road rage is a common phenomenon.

The way we think and respond to situations, affects our mental and physical health significantly. Nowadays, the lifestyle adopted is such that people are easily and perpetually affected by situations. If someone owns a Maruti Zen and a neighbour buys a Mercedes Benz, this contrast too could become a major stressor for some people.

Instead of taking an Aspirin everyday and then responding to every external event as a potential problem, a better approach would be to address the way we think by understanding more about the nature of our consciousness.

Several experiments have been done in this field to investigate the effect of meditation and spiritual practice on health. At the Brahma Kumaris facility of J Watumull Memorial Global Hospital and Research Centre, Mt. Abu, a programme “Reversing CAD through lifestyle intervention” has been going on for several years. This programme is being conducted with the help of Defence Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS).

In this programme, people with various levels of arterial blockages undergo training in groups of 25. They continue their medication, but also learn various aspects of diet, exercise and most importantly, meditation. There are follow-up camps after 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. The results have been very positive and there has been significant reduction in the blockage levels noted by the patients.

In Bangalore too, the Kidwai Medical Institute of Oncology (KMIO) has two rooms dedicated for the learning and practice of Rajayoga meditation. Cancer patients and their caretakers come there to learn these meditative practices. The feedback has been excellent. Patients note benefits such as change in attitude, peace of mind and better ability to cope with the disease.

So what is consciousness really? The typical understanding most people have is that consciousness is an epiphenomenona of the brain. This is because the source of consciousness is not visible and there had been little evidence of any non-material entity in the past. However, as someone wisely said, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence! Of late, there is a lot of research going on that indicate that the brain itself cannot generate consciousness. There is a tremendous body of evidence pointing towards past lives. Many scientific studies have been done in this field now. Check http://www.childpastlives.org for an informal discussion forum about past life experiences.

From a more direct perspective, in High school, we study Newton’s laws of motion. One of the laws states that any object continues to be in a state of rest or in uniform motion unless acted upon by an external force. So we are walking, talking proof that we cannot be simply material entities that obey laws of matter. Our bodies are made of living matter, but for Newton’s law to hold true, for us to move, each body must be driven to action by a self-aware, conscient, independent entity. In this entity, we can trace the source of consciousness. As Rene Descartes expressed it… I think, therefore I am.

From a Spiritual perspective, this source of consciousness has been well understood and discussed for a long time. It is termed as the soul, spirit or atma. It has the three faculties of the thinking mind, the discerning intellect and the unique repository of experiences - sanskaras. Each soul is unique having different set of experiences acquired over its eternal past. Each of us may observe the same event and yet register completely different thoughts based on our past experiences that have shaped our personality. For example, a particular topic such as this may fascinate some of the audience while others may experience disinterest.

In spite of our many different personality traits, we find that there are a set of common factors that bind us together. We are motivated by the same basic things… unlike what Freud and others have expressed, the root motivators for us are the same positive aspects of peace, love and joy etc. These qualities are the very nature of the soul. When we consider ourselves to be bodies, we compare and experience various problems due to distinctions of caste, creed, gender, nationality, religion, social status etc. However, when our awareness is based on soul-consciousness, we experience our nature of peace, love and joy and are also able to share the same with others.

Spiritual awareness leads to changes in our outlook and attitudes thereby leading to a change in lifestyle. There is equanimity, cheer, positivity and enthusiasm when we practice a spiritual lifestyle. Good spiritual health lays the foundation for physical, mental and social health.