Almost 50% of the human illnesses are of psychosomatic reason—more so in rich countries and in females.
If the mind changes then the body also gets changed. Meditation can become medicinal. In fact these two words medicine and meditation, come from the same Greek root, which means healing. Medicine heals the body and meditation heals the mind.
When I was a student in medical college, at that time most diseases were due to infections, malnutrition, deficiencies and unhygienic conditions. In last 5 decades, much socio-economical growth has taken place. Most people have become educated. Dozens of diseases got eradicated with the help of vaccination. Green Revolution has transformed the technology of agriculture and much food is available now. Antibiotics and surgical procedures have become very advanced. Hundreds of medical problems have become part of the history.
But humanity is still suffering—new psychological disorders have appeared. At the time of independence, there were very few psychiatrist in metropolitan cities of India. Now they are needed everywhere, even in small towns. In coming two decades, there will be more psychiatrists than physicians and surgeons.
With growing richness, malnutrition is gone but over nutrition has come with more complicated issues like obesity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, ischemic heart disease, liver disease due to alcoholism, brain problems due to addiction. Not only endemic or epidemic, depression is becoming pandemic.
Medicines cannot help a person to stop smoking, drinking alcohol, self-injecting drugs or overeating. Even doctors are suffering from these problems. There is no effective way of controlling anxiety, phobia, depression and bipolar disorder—these are spreading like viral infections.
Now meditation is needed more than ever before. Previously it was optional but in near future it is going to become compulsory, just like vaccination. For better and healthier society, spirituality should be introduced at early age with schooling. Remember the old wise saying: “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”.
I want to repeat and emphasize—right now meditation is cure for many psychosomatic disorders, and for coming generations, it has to be used as vaccination to prevent all such problems.
For the above mentioned reasons, I resigned from medical profession and took the responsibility of being a meditation teacher.
My gratitude to Mr.Shailendera Shekar, Trustee of Indian Institute of Yoga and Management for sharing his view.