Maa Prem Shashin
Speaking at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, in November 2018, the Indian President noted that India is facing a possible “mental health epidemic. Its contribution to global suicide deaths increased from 25.3% in 1990 to 36.6% in 2016 among women, and from 18.7% to 24.3% among men.” This is higher by nearly 1.4 percentage of India’s share of global population in that period. Happy Ho organizes best Meditation and Tarot classes in Noida and Delhi NCR area in India.
A WHO report reads: In India, the National Mental Health Survey 2015-16 revealed approximately one in 20 Indians suffers from depression. It is estimated that in 2012, India had over 2,58,000 suicides, with the age-group of 15-49 years being most affected.
According to an insurance company’s survey, about 89% of the Indian population complains of stress as compared to the global average of 86%. Key reasons of stress are work and finances.
The recent suicide by a well-known Indian coffee baron is tragic. It is reported that he was under ‘tremendous pressure’. Tweeting on this, a noted industrialist said, “I only know that entrepreneurs must not allow business failure to destroy their self-esteem.”
The preceding data reinforces the need for solutions for people who regularly face stressful pressures and suffer from loss of self-respect.
“Many studies have investigated meditation for different conditions, and there’s evidence that it may reduce blood pressure as well as symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and flare-ups in people who have had ulcerative colitis. It may ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and may help people with insomnia. Some research suggests that meditation may physically change the brain and body and could potentially help to improve many health problems and promote healthy behaviors”, says National Centre For Complementary And Integrative Health (USA).
According to a Harvard neuroscientist, “meditation not only reduces stress, it changes your brain too.” He studied two groups: long term meditators and a control group. The former group showed “an increased amount of gray matter in the insula and sensory regions, the auditory and sensory cortex.” The scientist said that its logical for your senses to be enhanced when you are mindful; attentive to your breathing, to the ambient sounds, to the present moment experience; and have shut cognition down.
In the east, meditation has been experienced for centuries for a deep understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life. Now, it offers a workable solution for relaxation and stress reduction, to avoid the resulting low self-esteem and confidence in one’s own worth or abilities and self-respect.
Osho, in his unique way guides how to reclaim the lost self-respect. He says that self-respect is “natural to one’s individuality.” It stems from self-acceptance and a sense of dignity and thankfulness for what you have. Positive and confident of yourselves you have realistic views of yourselves in varying situations. Trusting your abilities, you set expectations and have them. You accept that you will be able to meet their goals, within reasonable limits as you are aware of your limitations, and so plan sensibly and realistically. When some of your expectations do not materialise, there is no self-doubt. Instead, you remain calm, relaxed, and hopeful. Not shameful of your imperfections, for e.g. difficulty in relating with others, you are prudent and do not manipulate or misguide others. You respect others as much as you respect yourselves.
Osho gives in-depth insights about the mind. He says that in the ego state, you compare yourselves with the other reducing them to inferior nobodies. Soaked in superiority and through years of current education, ego is accumulated. When you are chock-full with ego, your mind clings to it and imprisons you. “Watch your ego through and through…accept it as it your reality. And how are you going to drop it – you are it. You are lost in your ego. The self you have lost away back in the past. There’s a great distance between you and yourself…Right now you are existing at the periphery of yourself. That periphery is pretending to be yourself, that pretender is the ego.”
“Re is to repeat while spect means to see again”. It means that you revisit the early years of your life for reconnecting with your egoless, natural, playful, and joyous and unprejudiced state. He says that this will help even though, for centuries, religions have reduced man through self-condemnation. We are told that we are sinful and must improve by becoming the ideal person. This strategy has conditioned us into rejecting ourselves. For continuous upgrading toward perfection, we invest every moment of our lives which causes continuous anxiety and tension. Life becomes a burden. Uneasy with ourselves and trying to fulfil all the ‘shoulds’, tall anticipations, we lose connection with ourselves. Then, we lose our natural-authentic-self.
So, we feel unworthy, undeserving and fear others judgements and non-acceptance. We give up the responsibility to be happy and the choice to evaporate our ego which is byproduct of the ever-dwindling mind. Restoring self-worth even if others disapprove will bring anxieties and anguish but we are unhappy even when we are in the self-rejection mode. So, we must experiment in life.
Theodore Parker said, “Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect”. So, to live an abundant life with nil embarrassment of what others say about us, and deep self-acceptance, we need to be self-loving-caring. This will help in exchanging stress and emotional exhaustion with responsibility.
Osho says, “You cannot be anything other than you are. Let it sink deep into your heart: you can only be that which you are, never anything else. Once this truth sinks deep, that ‘I can only be myself’ all ideals disappear. They are discarded automatically. And when there is no ideal, reality is encountered. Then your eyes are here now, then you are present to what you are. The division, the split, has disappeared. You are one.”
He narrates a Sufi story about a poor man who had to beg for survival but he hated doing that. One day, in utter dismay, he decided that he would jump into the river to end the dreary life. So, he walked toward the river and saw a Sufi mystic sitting there. The mystic looked at him and said, “People come here to end their life. You can commit suicide but before you do that, listen to my offer. The king needs two beautiful eyes and you have them. As you are going to die, you don’t need them. So, how much would you sell both your eyes?”
The man thought for a moment and finally asked for ten million rupees. The mystic accepted the price and asked the man to come along with him to the palace. He told the man that after the king has taken his eyes, he would himself bring him back to the river so that he can jump into the river for dying.
Walking toward the palace the mystic also said, “I know more customers. How much would you like to take for your head?”
Finding it strange, the man asked the mystic if anyone would take his head without the eyes. The mystic responded that he knew a magician who only needs a skull and didn’t need the eyes. He would clean up the skull before using it. The mystic assured the man that he would manage to bring him headless to the river for committing suicide. The man quoted a price which was accepted.
On the way to the palace, the mystic asked, “Would you like to sell the remaining body too? I know a scientist who dissects bodies. He would be happy to get your body.”
The man was wondering how he would commit suicide if he has sold his entire body. Sensing his query, the mystic said that there was no need for suicide as everything would have been sold. When the man enquired who would get all the money, the mystic replied that he would retain it because the man would not be able to take it after he was dead.
By the time they reached the palace the man was anxious about what was he going to do. He had never valued his eyes, skull, and body. He realised that he had been ungrateful because he did not know that he was blessed with the body. He did not about the sacredness and preciousness of life. So, he then decided that he would neither commit suicide nor sell his body and that the mystic had helped him with this insight.
So, it’s important to sit back and relax. Meditation is a solution for all, especially for those who have a medical condition which may aggravate in stress. Osho has designed several active and passive guided meditations. These are accompanied with music for each stage of the guided meditation. Select one. Experiment with it for three months sincerely for complete relaxation. You are likely to find out which diminishes stress levels, works best for you and what you enjoy doing.
