How Spirituality Is Beneficial For Mental Health
Mental health is in the news nowadays and rightly so because in today’s stressful and anxiety-filled life, it is the mental health of an individual that gets affected
Some individuals have tension regarding work, workplace, co-workers or bosses and others have personal issues to stress them out. The reasons are far and wide but the one that is adversely affected is the mental health of an individual.
What is the mental health of an individual? According to the World Health Organisation, mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well, work well and contribute to their community. Thus, for a person to be able to function smoothly in life, his mental health must be good along with his physical health. So, how can one have a good mental health? Mental health can be maintained if stress and anxiety are kept at bay. In today’s fast paced life, this can be a huge challenge.
How can the mental health of an individual be improved and maintained? A one-stop solution to maintain great mental health is Spirituality. Spirituality is the science of the Spirit, the Soul or the Atman. For a long time, Spirituality was being confused with religion but in some recent years, people have started understanding that Spirituality is not religion. These are two different entities and work on completely different levels.
So, how is Spirituality beneficial for the mental health of an individual? The basic tenet of Spirituality is to attain the Realisation of self. This Self-Realisation can solve many issues of an individual. Self-Realisation is the ultimate realisation of the Truth of oneself that starts with two questions – ‘Who am I? Why did I take this birth?’ When an individual sets out seeking answers to these two basic questions, he is automatically on the path of Spirituality because Spirituality, in simple word is – Realizing the Truth about oneself, their birth, their death and about the whole life in between these two. So, for an individual to realize the truth about himself, he must first understand and realise what he is ‘not’. The path of Spirituality is expressed clearly in the tenets of Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma is an eternal philosophy of life and unlike common understanding, it is not a religion and it embodies pure Spirituality within itself. The teachings of Sanatana Dharma, which are essentially the teachings of Spirituality, can be summed up in the four Mahavakyas propounded in the Vedic and the Upanishadic texts. These Mahavakyas are –
1. Tat Twam Asi – ‘Thou art that’
2. Ayam Atman Brahma – ‘The Self is Brahman’
3. Aham Brahmasmi – ‘I am Brahman’
4. Prajnanam Brahma – ‘Everything around me, the knowledge is Brahman’
The first Mahavakya is usually clubbed with ‘Neti Neti’ meaning – not this, not this. Thus, Spirituality propounds this – ‘You are not the body, mind and ego that you think you are. You are that. You are a Soul, a Spark Of Unique Life. The Soul is a manifestation of the Supreme Immortal Power, SIP, that we call God. Hence, you are a part of God or the Divine. You are God. And finally, you must realise that everyone and everything, whether animate or inanimate, is a manifestation of the Divine.’ This philosophy or belief sounds very simple but one must not just know or understand it rather, Spirituality urges a true seeker to ‘realize’ this truth and live this truth in its entirety. This is Self-Realisation.
How can Self-Realisation benefit the mental health of an individual? When one attains Self-Realization, they realize that they are not the body, mind and ego that they identify themselves with. The body was formed much after their conception in a course of nine months in their mother’s womb. Then, what was alive in it? What was throbbing as life within? That life was energy or Power or the Soul. The body appeared and got formed only after the Soul appeared. Hence, it is an important realization that one does not have a Soul inside the body, rather, one is a Soul that has a body. The Soul is the life energy form. Hence, one is not the body. One is also not the mind because he can’t tell where is the mind. The mind is not a physical entity but it is a bundle of thoughts that bombards our peace and calm. The moments thoughts appear, the mind appears and the moment thoughts disappear, the mind disappears too. So, the mind essentially, does not exist. A person is not the mind too. Then, comes the ego. Ego is the one that makes one say, ‘I, me and mine.’ Ego is a product of the mind so, when the mind itself does not exist, ego too doesn’t exist. Therefore, we are not the body, mind and ego. Then, who are we or who am I because we all know that ‘I exist.’ The answer is – ‘I am a Soul, a Spark Of Unique Life, the life energy throbbing inside my body.’ The Soul or the life energy is a spark from and a part of the Supreme Immortal Power, the Supreme energy or the Divine that we call God. When one realises that he is not the body, mind and ego but a Soul, this ends the triple suffering that comes along with a human birth – the pain of the body, misery of the mind and agony of the ego. One may experience pain and misery but they don’t suffer. They no longer suffer from the seven monsters of the mind – fear, worry, stress, anxiety, regret, shame and guilt or the seven demons caused by the ego – anger, hate, revenge, jealousy, pride, greed and selfishness. Therefore, Self-Realisation, realizing the truth about oneself keeps an individual in a state of Consciousness, where his intellect shines and he uses his Power of discrimination to sort his thoughts.
Being in Consciousness by stilling and killing the mind promotes self-awareness and a state of mindfulness thereby, improving the mental health of the individual. In such a state, that individual is seldom unaffected by the toxic bombarding thoughts of the mind and he experiences SatChitAnanda - Eternal Bliss in Truth Consciousness. Thus, the path of Spirituality and Self-Realisation greatly benefits the mental health of an individual by making them experience a state of Consciousness, a state of Enlightenment of the Truth!
