Indian Spirituality A Way To Attain Holistic Health
Spirituality and its role in ensuring health for all, relevance of the concept in the minds of today's youth and love as the starting point of all positive energies as visualised in spiritual living - these were some of the issues discussed on the second day of the first World Convention of Science and Spirituality. A host of speakers from the medical and spiritual fields sought to clarify these issues.
The convention was presented by The Times of India along with the World Academy of Spiritual Sciences (WASS), Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and Research Institute of Vedic Culture.
The panel discussion, with as many as nine speakers from various arenas, focused on how the Indian way of spirituality is gradually becoming a part of world's conscious efforts towards achieving holistic health. Sister B K Denis from Brahmakumari organisation said spirituality, in sharp contradistinction to materialism, is what teaches one to view oneself "as a being rather than an object".
Speakers stressed the need to include spirituality in the holistic education of youth at all levels. Dr D S Karthikeyan described spirituality as "need of the day and need of the hour'. 'Cardiologist S C Manchanda said that despite there being as yet no solid definition of spirituality, medical community has for long recognised its importance in the general well-being of patients.
In his presentation, Dr H K Chopra, chief cardiologist, Moolchand Medicity and vice-chairman of WASS, underlined the importance of anger and intelligence management in achieving a spiritual and healthy life. Classifying anger as justified and unjustified, Dr Chopra said: "Some amount of anger is needed to increase productivity. But out of control or long-term anger can cause a host of health problems like angina, high blood pressure and heart attack. It is an important emotion so it should not be misused."
Even as spirituality was pronounced to be the final answer to all the dilemmas of present day living and lifestyle-related complications, Dr Vijay Chandra, advisor, mental health, World Health Organisation, southeast Asia regional office, pointed out that some years back, WHO had made attempts to include spirituality in its definition of health. "We lost the battle because there was not enough scientific evidence to convince the World Health Assembly. We need to define spirituality away from its esoteric connotations so that we can answer the queries of the scientific community and health policy-makers across the world."
Even as the debate over what exactly spirituality is continued, Dr S K Sama, chairman of WASS, said: "Spirituality is about living by choice. But the choices should be made consciously and not accidentally."
Describing love as an essential component of spirituality, Swami Nikhilanada said: "The key to real happiness is when a person develops love for something or somebody beyond his/her own self. Love has no opposite because it is the key to realising the oneness of the entire creation." The deliberations on "Youth and Spirituality: Emerging Dimensions," was kicked off with a performance by the students of Modern School, Vasant Vihar.
In his presentation, Dr Jitendra Nagpal, consultant psychiatrist, VIMHANS included some of the definitions of spirituality that young people had come up with. The definitions clearly showed that for the youth spirituality is an "indescribable" support system with "healing and growth inducing" powers but definitely different from "organised religion".