Meditation, to me, is like vaccination. It prevents diseases from coming. What sort of diseases though?
The modern day problems of loneliness, anxiety, depression, frustration. It’s not
that they were not there before. They were there then too, but they were easy to handle. These days it’s very difficult.
I have said again and again that meditation is the key. It helps us master our mind.
Let me put it very briefly: When can you be happy? When you are restless and rocking around with speed,
with aggression, can you be happy with such a restless state? So, what is required? Peacefulness within.
Happiness demands that you are at peace. If we are not at peace, happiness will elude us.
So, in order to arrive at peace, you will have to have a contemplative mind and harmony within. And how can
you arrive at a contemplative mind unless you have a focused mind? And how can you
arrive at a focused mind? By training the mind through meditation. Now you can join the dots.
Fundamentally, meditation dissolves any sort of stress. And stress is the single most cause of releasing
cortisol hormone into our bloodstream. And it is this blood level increase in cortisol that increases
all the inflammatory processes. And because of this increased inflammatory processes, you become vulnerable
to various kinds of diseases, not just becoming vulnerable to viruses and bacteria.
But it promotes also asthma; it also opens many chances of having, for example, high blood pressure,
heart attacks. And mentally, stress leads to anxiety, anxiety leads to loneliness, loneliness to
depression and the whole chain reaction. So, to me, mental health is where you can be de-stressed and you can
remain in a joyful, cheerful situation; then, certain beneficiary neurotransmitters that mind enjoys,
then your blood flow is better, your defence system – especially immunity also - improves quite a lot.
I’m not saying this because I’m promoting spirituality, meditation. But it’s scientifically proven
as well, that meditation does change our stress level and decreases cortisol
and increases many beneficiary neurotransmitters. So yes, it does help.
Well, if you see the background behind depression, anxiety, and the ultimate step of taking the matter in your own
hands and call it quits, and end your life with suicide - this is the culmination where you have lost
all your hopes. Where there are no hopes left anymore to hinge upon your future. That’s when you commit.
Now what is it that keeps us going? Hope? Aspirations? And when they are thriving in our hearts,
you will work towards it. Moment you lose hope, you become anxious and you get into a trap of depression.
So, to me, best would be to vaccinate your emotional and mental well-being in such a way that you don’t succumb
to anxiety and depression that can precipitate into final schizophrenia or suicide. Prevention, to me, is the best
medicine. Once you get into a state of depression, which can escalate to a next level, and a person who has
already decided that, “I am going to commit suicide”, it’s very difficult to change his mind.
Once a person gets into depression, it’s also quite challenging. Best is to prevent it from happening.
And I am an advocate, promoter of prevention of such mental states. To me,
this can easily be achieved through meditation. If you have that problem of getting easily into
anxious mode, once again yogic meditation can help us. But you don't have to go out shopping
around - who is better - because there is no end to it. The moment you see there is a price tag on meditation,
run away from it because they have started their yoga shop. Yoga has become 'udyoga' (profession/ business). In Hindi,
it rhymes very well: yoga, udyoga. Yoga can never become udyoga. Yoga can never become a business.
Because yoga ultimately is all about your merging with the Ultimate – we call ‘Brahmavidya’.
And you cannot put a price tag on such things. Brahmavidya is the only thing that can not only help improve
our physical health, but it can help our mental health and spiritual well-being. So, our goal is much higher - not
just getting out of depression, or not just getting out of anxiety or not only preventing the
suicidal tendencies. But go above all these things and tap into some higher dimensions. So, I highly
advocate everyone to meditate and remember my caution: if there’s a price tag over it, run away from such gurus.