I believe I'm agnostic. But I am too superstitious to admit it. For fear that, if at all this 'supreme' being, that I do in a way believe exists, actually does exist, then He could 'curse' me, a non-believer, and that would be quite an issue to handle in my head. Doesn't this smell like a Catch 22 situation. If I do not believe in the Supreme power, then I have nothing to fear. Yet I fear that he could use his power to destroy me for not believing. I don't believe he exists ( in forms propogated by rligions) yet I believe that he has the 'existant' power to destroy me!! Yossarian would have been proud of me ( Josef Hellers hero in Catch 22).
That brings me to a close line dividing faith and healing. Faith is the source of Misery. And yet we go to faith to help us heal our misery too. I'm sure, that is one reason, when one goes deep into Hindu and Buddhist mythology ( you may call it History or Religion), all the characters, be it the Gods or the Demons believed in meditation - thus peace of the inner mind. They believed that with complete relaxation and focussed thought, they could achieve anything. Including invoking the Gods themselves. ( Gods invoking other Gods - Like Batman seeking Spidermans help).
I remember a conversation that I had 'many moons ago' with a friend from the Bahai faith. She was explaining to me the advantages of the faith and I kept on with my standard diatribe about religion ' Religion is the cause for division among people and thus the cause for misery in today's world.' I said. She went on to try and convince me that the Bahai faith grew to cure this very problem. To unite people of different faiths. Another faith to reduce division among faiths. 'Their' prophet was preaching exactly that - the unity among various faiths - thus the recognition of each religion and their prophets. How religion has transgressed from being one about ones inner self ( Hinduism & Buddhism) to that of Family & Community( Christianity & Sikhism) to one of Nations ( Jewish and Islam) and thus Bahai was the first one to propose the religion of World unity. I continued to insist that another religion just was another slice and thus meant more division. When will we hvae a unity of reilgions from Earth with those of Mars? I must make it clear - that I criticize not the supreme - but his subjects who belive that unision begins with division!
Looking back once again, Meditation was the solution to any problem. What is prayer? It is a form of relaxation and focussing the mind away from the clutter of inconsequential thought to that of essential thought. This frees the mind from stressful thought. Thus meditation brought one away from stress. When one is relaxed and stress free, vital organs function normally. But the moment there is stress, various enzymes are secreted into the blood stream and it is my belief that these are the enzymes that actually do the harm. You could be a gourmet on food - and yet live a weighty but healthy life. Gourmet + Stress is an instant formula for a heart attack. Life spans are reduced due to stress. A hunter friend once told me that a swift kill is far tastier than one where the target has been subject to stress. An animal killed with violence I guess anyway has a shorter life (not related to cholestrol) but the vanquer of the prey too will suffer the effects of eating flesh with more adrenaline, and this once again has a chain reaction.
A simple inference from this is that those who live stress free lives, though need not neccessarily live longer, but could indulge in behaviour that stressed people shouldn't. I consume alcohol. Alcohol consumed for pleasure or habit, normally wouldnt harm you - in moderation of course ( My moderation is more than your moderation!!). Mix Alcohol with Adrenaline and is like an energy boost. If this boosted energy is channelised and burnt up - thats fine. But IF it is left to react with the rest of your system - disaster starts. And the same probably goes for all other maladies of the body. Eat well - Eat Gourmet - Let your inner body deal with the enzymes neccessary to digest and extract the maximum from your food. You may be overweight - but thats fine - Your Body knows you are overweight and thus treats anything that you injest as it should. Your mind is like a good manager - not formally trained but learning on the job - from within. Start worrying and have stress - then your mind has more to deal with. Enzymes for digestion mix up with enzymes for handling stress and THAT my friends is where the problem starts.
The Budhist chants, the Hindu chant of Om, the silent christian prayer and Allah ho Akbar were all meant to take your thoughts away - to let your body relax. These very tools of good health are today the cause of stress.
It isn't just religion that does this to you. The very doctors, entrusted with providng medical care, don't often realise that the very sight of their white uniforms ( or green uniforms) and the smell of formaldehyde and other disinfectants that make hospital smells so unique - get 'eveil' enzymes pumping into our system and thus act as the 'accelerator' of our ailments. A common headache - gets worse the more you think about it.
Eat Drink and be Merry - is just fine. Worry about it and the Chain Reaction starts. Each of us can become our own doctors for minor ailments. Hakuna Matata a phrase we call came to know so well after Disney popularised it in The Lion King. But its good for Monkeys and its good for us too. Dont Worry - Be Happy someone crooned. Do just that and live a stressfree life.
Maybe I should proclaim a new religion - a religion of the faithless faithfull.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Excellent as far as the working of the body goes. I believe in God and the supreme being, and feel that Hinduism allows us to accept any number of gods, so all other religions are OK. So I'm OK As for the connection between stress and the body, I saw an article that eating chocolates during pregnancy lead to having ahappy baby. In reality, the pregnant lady who ate chocolates was more likely carefree and stressfree- so had a healthy happy baby.It also reminds me of the trained flea joke.(A man spent ten years getting a flea to jump to his command and then set off on his scientific experiment. He pulled off one leg and said jump. It jumped. He pulled off another leg- same result. Then another then another. Finally when the last leg was pulled off, for obvious reasons the poor flea could not jump. So the inference of the experiment wasthat if you pull off all the legs of a flea, it goes deaf.) Keep up your writing. Nandit
ReplyDeleteI just heard that the Punjab University has put up a thesis that the Grasshoppers ear drums are beaten by their drumstick like legs and thats the reason they cant hear when asked to jump.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the Soviet school of Interrogation that came up with the best cure for Migraine - Tested on all 2,723,000 random volunteers (These studies were also corraborated by the Guantanamobay Institue of Freedom of Speech) but they had too few respondents alive for us to attribute these study results.
IN brief they found that the best cure for Migraine was to deliver a Standard US Army Kit Boot Kick to the lower testicluar area of the respondent. IN each case the respondent immediatly lost all symptoms of Migraine. All living respondents have sworn to have forgotten what Migraine was in the first place!