Prayer for inner happiness

Stress is defined as the physical and mental reaction to the interpretation of a known situation. In absence of a known situation, there cannot be a stress. One cannot be stressed about a person who has just died in New York in an accident unless he or she is a known person.

There has to be a right, conscious-based interpretation of the situation as the same situation can bring happiness to one and stress to the other.

The most important consequences of stress, physical or mental, therefore, depend on the right interpretation of the situation.

The interpretation or judgment in the body is governed by chemical reactions and is controlled by the balance of autonomic balance system which in turn is governed by the interaction of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system.

During the phase of acute stress when the sympathetic system is predominant, heart rate and blood pressure rises and a person cannot take correct and decisive decision. He or she is likely to make mistakes which can often be detrimental to ones living. Sympathetic mode is basically the mode of flight or fight reactions of the body.

Correct conscious-based decisions can only be taken in a state of relaxed mind when the intention is inserted in the field of consciousness. The relaxed mind state of the body is the parasympathetic mode, which is healing and is evident by reduction in heart rate, blood pressure and increase in the skin resistance.

Most conscious-based decisions will be based on truthfulness, will be necessary and will bring happiness to both the persons and the surroundings.

The yogic lifestyle by which a person learns the dos and don’ts of living, does regular practice of correct postures, indulges in daily pranayama and practices regular withdrawal from the outer atmosphere, helps in preparing a state of physical and mental body state which is more receptive for conscious based decisions. Yoga Sutras of Patanajli included them in ashtanga yoga as the processes of Yama, Niyama, Asanas, Pranayama and Pratyahara.

Prayers have no value when the mind is not at rest. All of us have participated in hundreds of mourning prayers, each lasting for two minutes of silence. This prayer has no value if the two minutes of silence is not observed. If prayer is done without it the mind will remain restless and we will keep on thinking these two minutes are not over yet. The process of silence does shift our awareness towards test and parasympathetic state and temporarily we get to be in contact with the memories of the departed soul and we pay homage to him or her. 

Today a large number of organizations are teaching the process of meditation but the same cannot be taught unless a person practices procedures by which the mind gets relaxed.

The eight limbs of Patanjali focus in detail about pre-meditation preparations and once that is learned one can go to the other three limbs which are dharna, dhyana and samadhi.

Yoga asanas are different from exercises. They stimulate and stretch all or one of the seven charkas, autonomic plexuses, and ganglion and there located ductless endocrine glands. Also during a yogasana the mind is in the exercise and not wondering here and there.

While yogic exercises at rest are termed yoga asanas and the same yogic meditative exercises with activity are called traditional Indian dances. Western exercises and dances do not follow the principles of yoga.

Many international studies have shown that over one-third of the people during their lifetime pray either for their own illness or for somebody else.

All hospitals should have spirituals areas. The prayer and meditation rooms in a hospital setting invariably will provide an arena which will improve patient-doctor relationship and will reduce the rising disputes amongst them in the country.

Amongst celebrities why do only cine stars commit suicide and not cricketers or politicians: What can be done to prevent them?

Actress Jiah Khan dies

The death of Jiah Khan, the film actress, reopens up the debate on cine star celebrity deaths. Why do so many suicides occur in the film Industry? Despite similar failure rates, there are no suicides in politics or in cricket.

In cricket, we see cricketers under stress, they even lose their place in the team for years and yet they do not go in depression. The reasons may be the presence of a counselor in every team and opportunities to play in domestic games.

Will the film industry come out with guidelines for suicide and stress prevention?

We have seen cases of Raj Kiran and Parveen Babi (56) who were reported missing for years and nobody bothered. The same never happens in cricket. Parveen Babi was later found dead in her flat.

 In the past, many (eight) cine celebrities have committed suicides.  These include Guru Dutt (39), Divya Bharti (19), Nafisa Joseph (26), Kuljeet Randhwa (30), Kunal Singh (31), Silk Smitha (35), Viveka Babajee (37) and now Jiah Khan (25).

So is celebrity status a risk factor for suicide? 

Suicides are also common in medical profession but not in nursing profession. They are hardly seen in cricketing celebrities.   

Lifestyle disorders, including heart attack, diabetes, paralysis, liver disease, kidney disease and cancer are still the commonest causes of death amongst celebrities. 

·         KL Sehgal (42), Geeta Dutt (41) and Meena Kumari (39) died of alcohol-related liver diseases.

·         12 celebrities died of cancer: Nazia Hassan 35 (lung cancer), Nargis 51 and Jatin Kanakia 46 (cancer pancreas), Jennifer Kapoor 51, Nutan 54, Rehman 58 (throat cancer), Rajender Kumar 69, Firoze Khan 69, Prithvi Raj Kapoor 70, Mac Mohan 72 (lung cancer), Shamim Desai (stomach cancer), Sujit Kumar 75.

·         Both Jagjeet Singh 70 and Amrish Puri 72 died of brain hemorrhage.

·         Actors who died because of heart disease: Madhubala 36 (hole in the heart), Bob Cristo 72 (rupture of heart); heart attack: Simple Kapadia 51, Mohd. Rafi 55, Mohan Gokhale 45, Sanjeev Kumar 47, Vivek Shauq 47, Shafi Inamdar 47, Nirmal Pandey 48, Amjad Khan 51, Mukesh 53, RD Burman 54, Kishore Kumar 58, Ravi Baswani 63, Prem Nath 65, Naveen Nishchol 65, Hemant Kumar 69, Suchitra Mitra 86, Dev Anand 88, MF Hussain 85, Vinod Mehra 45, Sunil Dutt 75, Abir Goswami 37, Surinder Kapoor 85, Praveen Babi 55 (diabetes and heart disease) and Rituparno Ghosh 50.

·         Mazhar Khan 45 and Shammi Kapoor 79 died due to kidney failure.

·         Only three died of infections: Geeta Bali 36 due to small pox, Bhimsen Joshi 89 and Jagmohan Mundra 62 due to pneumonia.

·         Only two celebrities were murdered: Gulshan Kumar 41 and Priya Rajvansh 63.

·         There was only one pregnancy-related death: Smita Patil 31.

·         Two died of prolonged illness: Mani Kaul 66 and Goga Kapoor 70.

·         One died of multi organ failure: Bhupen Hazarika 85.

Out of 61 celebrity deaths collected so far,  25 died of heart disease, 12 died of cancer, 3 died of liver disease, 2 of brain attack, 2 with prolonged illness, one pregnancy-related, 3 infections, 8 suicides, 2, kidney failures, 2 murders and one multiorgan failure. 

On the other hand, amongst politicians a large number of them have died of unnatural deaths but there are no suicides. The number one cause of death however remains heart attacks or lifestyle illnesses.

Politicians who have died in air crashes include Netaji Subhash Chander Bose (alleged to have died in a plane crash), Homi J. Bhaba, S. Mohan Kr. Mangalam, Sanjay Gandhi, Ashok Birla, Surendra Nath, Madhav Rao Scindia, GMC Balyogi, OP Jindal, YSR Reddy and Dorjee Khandu. Three died in road accidents, Rajesh Pilot, Sahib Singh Verma and Giani Zail Singh.

Eleven politicians who have died of a heart attack are Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru 74, Zakir Hussain 72, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed 71, Lal Bahadur Shastri 61, Krishna Kant 75, Dr. BC Roy 80, Dayanand Bandodkar 62, G Ramachandran 70, Sarojini Naidu 70, PV Narsimha Rao 83 and Arjun Singh 80.

Most cine celebrities died of heart attack before the age of 50 and none of the politicians died of heart attack before the age of 50.

Many politicians were assassinated: Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, LN Mishra, Mahatma Gandhi, Beant Singh, Phoolan Devi and Abdul Gani Lone.

Only two politicians died of cancer: Shri VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar (blood cancer)

One politician died of surgical complications: Sikandar Bakht and one died of multi organ disease: S. Venkataraman.

No suicidal deaths have been seen in cricketers or in politicians.