[Home]MANAGING STRESS WITH BHAGAVADGITA
By A.P.N. PANKAJ
The year: 1971, the date : 3rd December, the time: 5.40 PM approximately and the place: Amritsar. I had recently come on posting to this city of my birth and was living on the second floor residence of my office building. It was an island type of construction with an open terrace on all the four sides of the house and doors and windows almost entirely made of glass. I waited out at the terrace as my wife and four year old daughter were getting ready to go to a movie. Suddenly, I saw fire in the sky as two planes got engaged in a dual. Soon there was sound of sirens and a total blackout. War had begun between India and Pakistan on the issue of Bangladesh.
Our house was located close to the District Courts and cantonment area. The radar station, I was told, was close by. The situation was, therefore, a target of enemy attack.
Somewhere in the middle of the night, while there was pitch dark, shelling began. We felt that it was happening next door. The glass doors of our house made shattering noises. My daughter got up from her sleep and started crying. How we spent that night is not a part of this article. When the morning came, I looked at my wife and daughter. Colour had drained from their faces and fear writ large on the face of the four year old. She sought protection in the lap of her mother and looked at me, as if to know what was happening and what was to be done.
As far as I can remember, this was the first time when my daughter would have experienced a serious stress of this kind although she could articulate her feelings and speak about them only much later in her life. The days that followed were, of course, full of stress for all of us but then, after initial experience, we had adjusted ourselves to the situation around us.
The above example may not be from our day to day experience. But then, stress is a part of everyone's daily life. The housewife in the morning: the children have to go to school, the husband to the office (and, these days, she has perhaps to go herself too ) bathroom, breakfast, lunchboxes, the housemaid, the clothes, the beds to be made up….and, in the midst of all this, a telephone call, perhaps a wrong number: irritation, may be anger, voices and noises all around!
The Sahib in the Office: sales are plummeting, the targets are not being achieved; transporters on strike, supplies of raw material blocked, production suffers; cost overruns, agitating employees, loss of manhours, boss's unhappiness, interview for promotion only a week away, ambition, competition, heartbeat going faster. And then comes the news that the head office team is coming for auditing the books and accounts: beads of perspiration on the brow in the month of January!. Failure, admonition, frustration and a sense of worthlessness! Children in the school: punishment for reaching late, tests, examinations, home work and, these days, even for entrance to the school, Questions from a three year old: "Who is the President of India? Or "What comprises Indian Sub-continent?" Bulky bags and no longer distances, especially in urban and metropolitan centres.
On the road: traffic bottlenecks, long queues at the signals, train due to depart in the next 15 minutes and you are still ten kms. Away from the station. Accidents. Injury to someone dear. Rushing to the hospital. Waiting for the ambulance. Fire, Sirens, Noises. Nerves on the edge. Stress. Mounting stress every day, day after day!
Stress is, then, omnipresent. "It may be as trivial as a jangling telephone or a slamming door that breaks concentration, as frightening as a fretful hornet at a picnic, as terrifying as a tipping kettle about to scald a child. It can be seen in the fuming commuter caught in a traffic jam; in the housewife fighting shopping crowds; in the university student confronting loneliness or a difficult examination. On a deeper level, it can be seen in the couple whose marriage is falling apart; in the family facing a separation or serious illness."
These are some of the causes of negative stress or distress. But all stress is not negative and some stress is even essential for successfully and enthusiastically facing life situations. "It is reflected in the eyes and muscles of the Olympic skier in the starting gate….It can be seen too in the creative artist or composer seeking inspiration; in the singer giving a performance that brings down the house…. Any physical or mental effort, any problem solving or decision making requires it to one degree or another and it is through the stretching influence of stress that people and communities find unexpected resources within themselves and develop the capacity to meet new challenges."
While, therefore, it is necessary to manage stress, it is neither possible nor desirable to live a completely stress-free life. While positive stress or U-stress as it is sometimes called, is essential for a meaningful life, the negative stress as research has established, can lead to some serious ailments, make people accident prone and drive them even to suicide.
Stress shows itself in several ways. People bite at their thumbnails, pace up and down in their office rooms, shuffle files and papers from this side of their desk to that, place their hands on their forehead, laugh nervously, cry, withdraw and become silent, shout, eat more and at unusual hours, give up eating altogether or eat very little, fall sick. "There is even evidence that death is likely to follow a severe individual crisis. When a person is in the grip of fear, his skin contracts into little bumps of gooseflesh and there is a decrease in salivation that makes mouths go dry and leaves a bad taste".
The research also shows that uncertainty, whether about the outcome of war, result of the examination, promotional interviews or about the eventual success of a daughter's marriage, can be a source of stress. "One World War II study showed that the fear of killing another human being was the most common single cause of battle failure or combat fatigue….During the civil war, soldiers were seen to react to the strain of combat by throwing their weapons away"….."To the fighting man war presents in one miserable package a number of stresses that people every where instinctively seek to avoid….the frustration of never knowing what is going on".
It was perhaps some such situation, indeed a set of situations, that Arjuna came to face in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It was not as if the battle had suddenly come. For months together, its inevitability had been on the horizon. Pandvas had offered to live and let Kauravas live in peace if only the latter would give them just five villages. And no less a person than Sri Krishna had gone to Hastinapur with this offer. Duryodhana would, however, have none of it. Hence the war. Arjuna knew all along that his own kith and kin would constitute armies on the two sides, that his elders and the revered ones like Bhishma, Drona and Kripacharya would spearhead the attack from the enemy's side, that brothers, uncles, grandfathers and cousins would be engaged in combat. Even as he, on the chariot driven by Sri Krishna, arrives at the battlefield and, after blowing the Conch Devadutta" side by side with Sri Krishna's 'Panchajanya' asks the Lord to take him in the middle of the two armies so that he may see all those "with whom I shall have to fight in this….combat". his mood seems to be quite upbeat. It is only when he literally sees them all that this mood changes. "When the son of Kunti, saw all these Kinsmen thus standing arrayed, he was overcome with great compassion….my limbs quail,l my mouth goes dry my body shakes and my hair stands on end. Gandiva slips from my hand and my skin too is burning all over. I am not able to stand steady. My mind is reeling. And I see evil omens….nor do I see any good by slaying my own people in the fight (Bhagavadgita i.27-30)
I have sought to describe at some length the change in Arjuna's mood from absolute confidence to utter despondence to highlight the difference between intellectual understanding of a situation and emotional involvement in it. Arjuna knew all along that the battle was coming. He was mentally prepared for it too. As a Kshatriya he was quite enthusiastic about it till almost the final moment. And yet, when this crucial actual moment arrived, his whole stance towards the battle changed. Tremendous amount of stress developed. He did not want to rule the kingdom besmeared with the blood of his people. He was not certain whether he would win or his enemies would. He was no longer interested in victory. Even if he were himself killed, he was not willing to kill them. His body said so. His words repeated it. He "sat down on the Chariot….casting away (his) bow and arrows, being grief-stricken." (i.47)
Sri Krishna seeks to deal with this situation at three levels: Physical, intellectual and spiritual. Bhagavadgita has been described among other things, as 'Yogashastra' and, 'Yoga', according to Shri Krishna means, 'dexterity in action'. This dexterity comes from conceptual clarity, attitudinal positivism and skillful handling of a situation.
Sri Krishna chides Arjuna for all the rationalisation he does of his fear, ambivalence and cowardice: "Thou grievest for those whom thou shouldst not grieve for and yet thou speakest words about wisdom. Wise men do not grieve for the dead or for the living" (ii.11)
At physico-meditational level, he prescribed (vi.11-17) a course to live down the negative, debilitating stress:
"Having set in a clean place his firm seat, neither too high nor too low,
covered with sacred grass, deerskin and a cloth one over the other.
There taking his place on the seat, making his mind one-pointed and
controlling his thought and sense, let him practise yoga for the
purification of the soul.
Holding the body, head and neck, erect and still, looking fixedly at the
tip of his nose, without looking around (without allowing his eyes to wander)
Serene and fearless, firm in the vow of celibacy, subdued in mind, let
him sit, harmonized; his mind turned to Me and intent on Me alone.
The yogin of subdued mind, ever keeping himself thus harmonized,
attains to peace, the supreme nirvana, which abides in Me.
Verily, yoga is not for him who eats too much or abstains too much
from eating. It is not for him, Arjuna, who sleeps too much or keeps
awake too much.
For the man who is temperate in food and recreation, who is
restrained in his actions, whose sleep and waking are regulated, there
ensues discipline (yoga) which destroys all sorrow."
At intellectual level, Sri Krishna advances the logic of inevitability of death, the duty of a Kshatriya, the importance of detachment in action treating the life an unending series of a variety of activities which one is called upon to undertake. While these must be performed as a part of one's duty, one must not be morbidly preoccupied with the outcome. While one must carry out one's ordained duty with total devotion and commitment, one must also remember that in any venture, it is not the action of one person alone, however dedicated and righteous, that culminates into the consequence of that action. There are several other forces simultaneously at work and they also contribute to the outcome. While, therefore, one must not forsake one's own part of the job, one must not hold one self totally responsible for the result, good or bad. Gita, to use the jargon of Behavioral Science, attaches greater importance to the process than the product. Sri Krishna also emphasises on the immortality of soul and speaks of the mortal frame as just a cloak.
One of the findings of the recent research on stress is that there is "only one thing valued more than life itself by the majority of men (in war): personal pride and honor. All men in combat live with fear; what makes most face the risk of death is not the thought of martyrdom or medal, but the more basic fear of losing the respect of the men fighting alongside them."
Sri Krishna too invokes Arjuna's sense of personal pride and honour (ii.33-36)
"But if thou doest not this lawful battle, then thou wilt fail thy
duty and glory and will incur sin.
Besides, men will ever recount thy ill-fame and for one who
has been honoured, ill fame is worse than death.
The great warriors will think that thou has abstained from
battle through fear and they by whom thou wast highly
esteemed will make light of thee.
Many unseemly words will be uttered by thy enemies,
slandering thy strength. Could anything be sadder than that?"
At spiritual level, Shri Krishna helps Arjuna overcome the stress by offering options of approach. He places before him the option of surrendering to the Almighty's will and treating himself as an instrument in His hands (ix.33)
"By Me alone are they slain already. Be thou merely the occasion, O Arjuna."
This option, culminates into the most famous pronouncement (xviii.66) of the Bhagavadgita, with the Lord telling Arjuna to "abandon all preoccupation with duties, come to Me alone for shelter. Be not grieved, for I shall release thee from all evils." Says Dr.Radhakrishnan. "Surrender is the easiest way to self-transcendence….If we are to realize our destinies, we must stand naked and guileless before the Supreme. We, now and then, vainly try to cover ourselves up and hide the truth from the Lord….When we turn to Him and let Him fill our whole being, our responsibility ceases."
Surrender-prapatti or Shranagati - and prayer then are the twins which we may adopt and in performing all actions forever realize that we are the instruments of His will. Consistency and constancy are essential in his approach. Regular prayer and surrender eventually bring us the realization that His grace is the shield that covers and protects us and His blessings always rain on us. This auto-suggestion would gradually help relieve our stress. An equanimity would then descend on us.
There is the second option: realization of the potential that every human being is gifted with but few really work for its actualization. Says Sri Krishna (vi.5-6)
"One should raise oneself through the self and never lower one self
for the self alone is one's friend and the self alone is one's enemy.
To him who has conquered the self (body and senses) by
his self, the self is his friend; for the controlled man, how-
ever, the self alone is adverse like an enemy."
But the Lord says (xii.5) that the path of self realization through concentration on the unmanifest is far more difficult for the embodied beings. It is, however, not unattainable. One has to raise above the personal, subjective desires. "He unto whom all desires enter as waters into the sea, which, though ever being filled is ever motionless, attains to peace and not he who hugs his desires….who abandons all desires and acts free from longing, without any sense of mineness or egotism, he attains to peace." (ii.70-71)
Peace then is what is required for a stressfree life. And, the Gita does not, at any point, say that this peace comes by abandoning the action. It time and again advocates action without a subjective consideration, in fulfilment of one's duty.
At the end of the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna who had given in to stress of impending battle and had sunk down on the seat of his chariot, casting away his bow and arrow, the latter declares (xviii.73)
"Destroyed is my delusion and recognition has been gained
by me through thy grace….I stand firm with my doubts dispelled."
There is a mushroom growth, these days, of various yoga shops where certain physical exercises or 'asanas' are taught and practised. These are quite popular too especially among the elite and educated in western ways, particularly those who have to go through a stressful professional life. Universities run yogic course. Doctors prescribe some of the yogic techniques to relieve patients suffering from ailments caused by stress. While it is not my intention to suggest that mere physical aspect of the yoga is not helpful, I would certainly like to mention that the approach of the Bhagavadgita is holistic and integrated one: physical, intellectual and spiritual. One to the exclusion of the other may, for a time, help but eventually it is the composite approach which helps develop a rounded personality not easily disturbed by the strains or stresses while going through the life's journey.
________________________________________
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
And Notes by Radhakrishnan. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (1958)
Ramakrishan Math, Madras.
This was published in the Tribune, Chandigarh dated Jan 30, 1994 (Sunday-Reading)
A.P.N.PANKAJ.
Vice Principal,
State Bank Staff College,
Hyderabad -500016..
Phone (O) 3310178
® 3316395