Ancient Indian scriptures & Ayurveda on the root cause of Stress,The most common disease today

Day to day stress has become a part of life in ‘kaliyuga’ (Modern age) as we are making our body and mind do more work than its capacity and strength. Physical and mental mutitasking has become part of life and most of the times this becomes a challenging and demanding. These challenges of performing actions are most of the times associated with worries or ‘Chinta’ be it because of fear, expectations, excellence,  acheive targets, success etc. Sometimes people take even the daily tasks which are inevitable as a challenge and hence they are not enjoyed but stressed. The daily work of eating, cleaning, taking care of family, cooking, managing at workplace, do an errand etc. are seldom enjoyed but rather done with lot of stress. Such actions associated with Chinta becomes a toil on the health and leads to ‘Dukkha’ or unhappiness. This unhappiness will manifest in the form of emotions such as anger, depression, anxiety and physical manifestations such as pain, disturbed digestion, low enthusiasm and vigor etc.  Shankaracharya has interestingly labelled such mental condition as ‘Jwara’, in which the body and mind is afflicted with excessive heat (Jwara is term used for fever in Ayurveda). Jwara, many old vedic scriptures is used as a synonym to disease, related to both mental or physical. Shankaracharya further states that the main ‘Jwara’ or disease of human being is worries - ‘Chinta’. In Skandhapuran it is stated that ‘Chinta’ is responsible for destroying or disturbing appetite, strength, beauty, intelligence, sleep, enthusiasm, wealth and above all longevity.

Ayurveda has precisely stated the effect of excess ‘Chinta’ on the nourishment of the body. Among the seven body tissues which build the structure of the body the first tissue is the ‘Rasa dhatu’. This is the nutritional fluid which carries the nutrition for all the next six tissues and is circulated and transported to provide the desired nourishment along with the blood to the entire body. Heart is the pumping organ of this nutritive fluid together with the blood tissue making it available to each and every cell providing the selective nourishment it needs. Imagine if such primary nutrition is compromised or gets disturbed or becomes of poor quality, then how will all the rest of the bodies tissue will be nourished. This leads to emaciation, depletion of the entire body.  Excess Chinta is stated in Ayurveda as the cause of the disturbances in Rasa dhatu i.e. nutritional fluid and can lead to dreaded disease to cause emaciation. Interestingly Heart is the pumping organ of the nutrition and also the seat of Spirit and Mind. If one is unhappy in spirit and occupied with many unhealthy emotions in mind, it will definitely afflict the heart as an organ.

Any talented, highly qualified physician can advise the best medicine, corrections in lifestyle and food, counseling session, surgical procedures as and when needed, but cannot arrest the chinta of the individual, as for treating Chinta even lord Dhanvantari will be helpless. One has to overcome this vulnerable situation with own efforts with the help of knowledge transcended from the Vedas and Purans. In Mahabharat one quote states that if one does all its efforts to treat some physical or mental condition and still is unsuccessful in achieving total reversal, then one of the most important shift one should do is to stop thinking about it always and continue working on it without worrying.

Yoga vashishta has stated that, ‘Chintan’ i.e. excessive thinking will increase the ‘Chinta’ similarly like adding fuel to increase the fire increases. One has to stop unnecessary thinking, over analyzing, negative thoughts coming to mind to get rid of worries similarly like extinguishing the fire by not providing the fuel. Avoiding ‘Chintan’ is the best medicine for ‘Chinta’ because excess thinking and analyzing even for finding the solutions and answers for certain situations or questions in life events will not help in reducing it but rather will increase it.

“I am not worried about what I have achieved, not worried about what I will achieve tomorrow and that’s why I am able to live my life in a disease free state -‘Nirogi’(Healthy)”, as very rightly quoted in  the Bhaagwat.

Let’s cultivate the habit of being healthy in mind first and the physical health will just follow.

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