Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Editorial: Beyond Stress

In the last month's editorial, we had studied the modern psychological analysis of stress and had tried to see how certain religious techniques could help in reducing stress by affecting the stressor-stress response equation. However, we must remember that religions are basically not stress-releasing systems. They have a much deeper basis and a much higher and sublimer goal in view. To use them for stress release would be like putting the cart before the horse.

Various religions of the world have presented before their votaries different spiritual paths to follow. These paths have the same highest ultimate spiritual goal called salvation, liberation, moksha, nirvana, etc. These spiritual practices make the aspirant a less stress prone, more stable and efficient individual. 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 inevitable and unavoidable, but also essential. One has to pass through stress throughout life. Even learning and appearing at examinations cause an amount of stress. All worldly pursuits--literary, scientific, political, industrial--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 through the fire of stress, strain and struggle. Indeed, geniuses in any field, religious or secular, have been produced only through hard struggle. Jesus Christ, Sri Ramakrishna, the Buddha, St. Francis of Assisi, Rabia--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 and passed away in early middle age. Indeed, they subjected their bodies and minds to the limits of their endurance. But while doing so, they achieved the greatest fulfilment of their lives and proved to be immensely beneficial to the world. Thus, while one may practise religious techniques, the ultimate goal must never be lost sight of.

Religious systems do not give so much importance to stress; instead they blame conflict for all the problems. Stress is not created by challenge but by conflicts, doubt and confusion which could be of various types. If one responds with fight, as, for example, Arjuna was advised to do, there won't be stress. Getting involved in a definite action is the state of resolution of conflict and shifting of the stressor-stress response equation in favour of response.

Hence, according to the Indian spiritual psychology, stress is produced by conflicts and conflicts could be of various types. 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 convictions may be shaky, so also one's resolves. Many of the stresses are produced due to such a mental state. Arjuna, on the battle field, was faced with such a conflict and confessed that he was dharma-sammudha-chetah--confused about his duty. Sri Krishna, while analysing the conflict said, 'Even the wise are confused about what is right and what is wrong.' For, even the well laid down duties may come into conflict with one another and one may not be able to decide what would conduce to the greatest good to the greatest number in a specific situation. 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 also another conflict--emotional. He had to fight against his own kith and kin. Such a situation--a conflict between two opposing emotions--is another cause of stress. We love many people, things and activities, but also hate others. 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 everyone's life, situations occur when one is faced with making choices between two--to give up one and take up the other. A conflict arises and consequently stress is produced.

Finally 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 arise in one's mind, and unless one is able to control and integrate them towards one direction, one is bound to experience greater stress.

As a matter of fact, these different types of conflicts are interrelated. More often than not, we are confused intellectually, emotionally, as well as volitionally --all together.

Whether the conflicts arise in isolation or are interrelated, there could be various distinct ways of resolving them depending upon the individual's temperamental make up. In the Gita, from the beginning to the end, these various techniques have been described. It is significant that in the Gita a conflict-free personality is described at four different places in great detail: in the second chapter as the sthitaprajna; in the sixth chapter as a yogi; in the twelfth chapter as an ideal devotee; and in the fourteenth chapter as the person who has gone beyond the three gunas. A state of steady wisdom as described in the second chapter is attained by the path of knowledge. A yogi attains equanimity by the path of meditation described in the sixth chapter. An ideal devotee attains the same state by the path of devotion. Surrendering actions and fruits thereof to the Lord--Karma Yoga--of course is the main technique recommended by the Gita. The ideal bhakta or a person who has gone beyond the sway of the three gunas, or the man of steady wisdom--all of them have one thing in common: they are all equanimous, and are not swayed by the opposites of likes and dislikes, happiness and misery.

There is another diametrically opposite situation in which a person may be absolutely stress-free and yet cruel and ruthless. All tyrants, and hard-core criminals are unfortunately such 'stable personalities'. They can do any so-called 'heroic' deed without blinking an eye. Thus there could be an evil side of stress-management, in that, it might put a damper on one's moral sense and make one insensitive to the sufferings of others. This issue must also be addressed while discussing stress-management.

Apart from prescribing techniques which have stress-releasing effects, all orthodox religious systems lay great stress on moral and ethical values, and thus aim at building a stress-free socially harmonious personality avoiding emergence of stress-resistant evil character. Take for example Yoga, one of the most popular present-day stress-management systems. It has eight parts. The first two parts or steps called yama and niyama deal with moral values and day-to-day observances. Yama consists of five moral values: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, chastity and non-covetousness. Niyama includes internal and external purity, contentment, austerity, study of scriptures and surrender to God.

Tapas makes a person physically hardy, study of scriptures makes him intellectually strong and surrender to God makes one emotionally stable. In this context it may be observed that evil mythological characters like Ravana, Hiranyakashipu, Banasura, etc. had done tremendous superhuman austerities--they were great tapasvis. They also knew the scriptures and also worshipped gods like Brahma or Shiva. They were indeed great yogis and yet their practice of yoga was the cause of suffering of millions of people. This is because they disregarded the yama and made use of the excellences obtained by yoga for self-aggrandizement and personal enjoyment. This is the reason why all scriptures lay much greater stress on the practice of the ethical values, especially on unselfishness, renunciation and service even while instructing to cope with stress through the practice of other aspects of yoga.

Even from the point of view of stress-management, the practice of yama is far more important. The roots of stress lie in our greed and attachments, in our likes and dislikes; in hatred, envy and jealousy; in conceit, sensuality and possessiveness. Unless these deep-rooted evil tendencies are uprooted, one cannot hope to attain an absolutely stress-free state. Dasharatha and Arjuna, for example, were austere individuals with many exemplary virtues. Yet they broke down due to their attachments. Hence, while we practise various yogic disciplines, the moral and ethical values must not be disregarded.

This has become all the more important in the modern times, when accumulation of wealth and production of capital by any means, foul or fair, have become the sole aims of life. People are becoming self-centred and have very little concern for the interests of other human beings, sub-human creatures and nature. And if stress-management techniques were to equip one to do these without qualms, it will indeed be most unfortunate. It is better to have stress and feeling for others and serve them than to become heartless stress-free brutes.

We may conclude by studying some of the present day stress situations and find out how to manage them.

One of the most prominent stressors today is related to time. In the modern fast paced competitive society there is a pressure to accomplish more and more in less and less time. There are deadlines--this much must be done within this much time, etc. Although such an attitude can bring out the best in some, one is also liable to feel stress because the body and mind are not trained for it. This particular type of time-related stress, as a matter of fact, is man-made. The concept of time, its division into years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds are all man-made. True, there is an astronomical clock which runs according to the movement of the sun, the moon and the earth. But the rest of the division is man-made and by laying too great a stress on it, man has created his own problems. In his book Time, Space and Medicine, Dr. Dossey has emphasized how the concept of an absolute time has caused a lot of heart disease and hypertension.

So, how should we deal with this problem of time? In religions, it is advised not to waste a single moment, for a moment gone can never be retrieved. The aspirant is asked to begin his or her spiritual life as early in life and with as great an intensity as possible. We find in Sri Ramakrishna's case that after each day's spiritual striving he would weep and bemoan the fact that another day had passed without his having the vision of the Divine Mother. Finally, he became desperate thinking that he might never be able to get the vision of the Divine Mother. Such an intense yearning for God is most auspicious, though it is extremely stressful too.

However, Sri Ramakrishna also had a unique childlike way of relaxing. If he was anxious for something or someone, he could be consoled by simple explanations and could instantly relax at will. In moments of difficulty, doubt and stress, he would earnestly pray to the Divine Mother. The Divine Mother would give him some explanation and solve his problem, and he would become completely relaxed and assured. If we could develop such complete dependence on God, we could remain as intense as the time limit in work demands, and at the same time feel totally relaxed in God.

There is another uniqueness of Sri Ramakrishna, which is unfortunately overlooked and underemphasized. He could laugh as well as weep as none else, with his whole being. To be able to laugh and weep heartily are great stress relievers. One must learn this art from Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master.

Swami Vivekananda never really gave much importance to time in the sense we give it. He would often be late for his lectures or in catching trains. When someone complained, he would say, 'You live in time, I live in eternity,' and would continue to walk along without hurrying his steps. Or he would say that it was not possible for him to move faster to catch the train--after all, there would be another train which he could take.

Sound pollution, air pollution, problems of personal adjustments and many other modern stressful situations have been made by us because of our distorted priorities. We have made high industrial production, consumerism and economic achievements the yardsticks of success, at the altar of which peace, happiness and even human, ethical, moral and spiritual values are being sacrificed. It is but natural that such an attitude should cause stress, tension and unhappiness. Man is the master of time and money, and not vice-versa. The ultimate solution of the problem of stress lies in altering our priorities and revising our value systems.