The Spiritual Dimension of Health.

[Guest guest]

The Spiritual Dimension of Health

 

-----------

 

Recently, Dr. D.B. Bisht has come up with a book titled ‘The Spiritual Dimension

of Health, ‘ (Publisher, The Director General of Health Services, Government of

India, New Delhi 1.). Dr. Bisht avers : " It is the ‘soul’ that sustains all the

other parts of the being. Otherwise, the body and the mind and the emotions,

being often at conflict with one another, would easily fall apart. " A workshop

organised lst year in Bangalore, India, under the auspices of the World Health

Organisation to discuss this neglected dimension of health, came forward with

several suggestions, such as :

 

The existing definition of health accepted by WHO, should include the

spiritual aspect.

There is a need to recognise the spiritual aspect of health, and the fact

that the spiritual component pervades all the dimensions of health - physical,

mental and social.

Meditation, the means of experiencing the spiritual energy, should be

incorporated in the educational system.

The present crisis in the life of a man is due to the neglect of the most

important dimension of life - spiritual. To begin with, methods of Meditation,

Asana, deep breathing, etc. should be introduced in the process of education.

Health care should be in the hands of those who are fully aware of and

sympathetic to, the spiritual dimension. Spiritual here means a total harmony

with living and non-living, perceptible or non-perceptible environment. The

World Health Organisation should involve itself in active denunciation of all

human manoeuvres to destroy the eco-system we live in.

The Health Ministry should be bold enough to start a centre for teaching the

Holistic Health under a charter of Parliament, outside the existing structure of

medical education, and outside the boundaries of Indian Medical Council. Health

is not a purely medical issue.

 

Dr. Ms. Aneeta A. Minoch of New Delhi, who also participated in the aforesaid

workshop, has this to say : " Spirituality raises the threshold of bearing pain,

reduces medicalisation, reduces dependence on drugs. It promotes a positive

attitude to physical work, exercise, diet, and personal habits such as drinking

and smoking. It cultivates a desire for introspection and self-analysis... "

 

http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/reverence/chap11.html

 

The new Deemed University of the Ramakrishna Order seeks to fill up the " gaps in

education " by making available to the common public inputs on spirituality and

moral values through contact and later distant learning courses which, " they may

not have learnt in the conventional education system " according to the concept

paper released by the Ramakrishna Mission. No wonder certain political

dignitaries absented themselves from the inaugural function of the University.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050705/asp/calcutta/story_4948359.asp

 

The World Health Organisation has already noted and incorporated most of the

suggestions thus opening up heated debates within the medical and pharmaceutical

community (....rather industry). However nuclear scientists and physicists

support this view and lament that the new paradigm of interconnectivity and

interdependance, starkly evident through their studies, is yet to percolate down

to the antiseptic chambers of modern medicine.

 

Says Lorry Dossey in his book, " Space, Time and Medicine " ,

 

" What we call modern physics says something entirely new about the world and how

it behaves. For many years, these theories have been accepted as the most

accurate descriptions we have ever had about our world. Nevertheless, medicine

has been reluctant to incorporate these ideas into itself, continuing to view

the body as a clockwork mechanism, in which illness is caused by a breakdown of

" parts. " "

 

http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/0-394-71091-6.cfm

 

Needless to say traditional healings systems ranging from shamanism, native

Indian American healing, tribal medicine to ayurveda, homeopathy and Reiki, all

have always maintained that the body, mind, emotions, vitality, spirit, society

and environment are an integrated whole and none of the parts can be treated in

isolation.

 

If the recommendations of the WHO are even partially implemented then we can

expect humanity to slowly return to health, both mental and physical, thus

paving the way for a corruption free society at all levels, individual and

collective, and also the restoration of the endangered eco-system.

 

Regards, Jagannath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start your day with - make it your home page