The Stress Factor.

June 28, 2005

People living in the present times are full of stress and tension as the whole world has become a place of turmoil and chaos.Various religions hv presented before the votaries different spiritual paths to follow.These paths hv the ultimate spiritual goal called salvation,liberation,moksha,nirvana etc.The spiritual practices make the aspirants a less stress prone,more stable and efficient individuals.This is a preliminary pre condition for higher spiritual pursuits.Besides there is an entirely different way of looking at stress. According to religious thinking stress situations are not only unavoidable but also essential.One has to pass thru stress throughout life.Even learning and appearing at examinations cause an amount of stress.Similarly attending interviews for jobs,successful completion of any activity all create anxiety and

consequently stress factor raises its head.All worldly pursuits- literary,scientific,political,industrial etc cause some amount of stress and strain.Greatness cannot be achieved in any field nor a strong,lofty and noble character be built without passing thru the fire of stress,strain and struggle.Jesus,Sankara,Ramanuja,Ramakrishna,Buddha,Rabia etc -all great saints and prophets led,from the modern standard of stress-assessment tremendously stressful lives so much so that many of them did not live long.They subjected their bodies and minds to the limit of their endurance.But while doing so they achieved fulfillment and proved to be beneficial to the world by their contributions in the spiritual and mundane realms.

Religious systems do not give much importance to stress.Instead they blame conflict for all the problems.Stress is not created by challenges but by conflicts,doubts and confusion which could be of varous types.If one responds with fight ,as for example,Arjuna was advised to do and if he did without questioning there won't be stress for him.Getting involved in a definie action is the state of resolution of conflict and shifting of the stressor -stress response equation in favour of response.According to Indian spiritual pschology stress is produced by conflcts.First there could be conflict at the intellectual level.One may be in doubt regarding what is right and what is wrong and may find it difficult to decide about one's goal of life and one's duty and may be confused about one's relation with the world and the people around.One's intellectual conditions may be shaky.so also one's resolves.Many of the stresses are produced due to such a mental state.Arjuna o the

battle field faced such a conflict and confused and about his duty.Sri Krishna while analysing arjunas conflict said'even wise men are confused about what is right and what is wrong'.Thus there could be volitional conflict between the means and the end,between work and its results and about one's duty.

Of course in the case of Arjuna there was an emotional conflict.He had to fight against his own kith and kin.Such a situation would naturally have put him in a kind of stress.We love many people,things,activities but also hate others for some inexplicable reasons or with reasons.Normally all these likes and dislikes are well balanced and we are able to avoid the disagreeable and hold on to the agreeable.But during the course of everyman's life situations occur when one is faced with making choices between two-to give up and take up the other.A conflict arises and stress is produced.A person with a restless,uncontrolled mind is much more prone to stress than a man with a controlled mind.Desires and emotions,thoughts,feelings and memories continuously aise in one's mind and unless one is able to control and integrate them towards one direction one is bound to experience greater stress.Actually these different types of conflicts are interrelated.More often than not we are

confused intellectually,emotionally as well as volitiously-all together.

There is another diametrically opposite situation in which a person may be absolutely stress-free and yet cruel, and ruthless.All tyrants,hard core criminals are unfortunately such stable personalities.They do all the wicked things treating them as their heroic deeds without blinking an eye.Thus there could be an evil side of stress-management in that it might put a damper in one's moral sense and make one insensitive to the sufferings of others.

Apart from prescribing techniques which hv stress releasing effects all orthodox religious systems emphasise moral and ethical values and thus aim at building a stress free,socially harmonious personality avoiding emergence of stress-resistant evil character.Yoga,meditation,tapas,studying scriptures,devotedly surrendering to God are the ways to avoid unnecessary stress in one's life.This is the reason scriptures put great emphasis on unselfishness,renunciation and service even whle instructing to cope with stress through the paths above mentioned.

This has become all the more important in modern times when accumulation of wealth and production of capital by any means foul or fair,hv become the sole aim of life.People are becoming self centred and hv very little concern for the interest of other human beings,sub human creatures and nature.If stress-management techniques were to equip one to do these without qualms,it will indeed be unfortunate.It is better to hv stress and feeling for others and serve them than to become heartless stress-free brutes.Soud pollution,air pollution,problems of personal adjustments,difference of opinions in the house,strained relations with relatives,personal jealousy on persons who rise up in life, and many other things which give boost to stress factor could be avoided if we know that all these situations hv been made by us becoz of distracted priorities.We have made high industrial production,consumerism,economic and technological achievements, the yardstick of success, at the altar of

of which peace,happiness and even human,ethical,moral and spiritual values are being sacrificed.Present day people have become somethig like machines leading colourless,odourless,tasteless and hopeless life generally.Pleasures of the world are the only aims and that eventually lead to mental stress and strain.No contentment,greed,lust all lead us into the abysmal of destruction forgetting the real nature of us.This is the general trend we see and people who do not fall prey to these efferminent things and dedicate themseleves to values that are cherishable,keeping the Lord always in mind and surrendering to Him wil no doubt become stress-free as they hv developed equanimity and poise,never bothered abt the results and leaving everything to the Lord and lead a righteous life and for them life is always a blissful one.

Hare Krishna

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