Stress And Competition Dr.

Shriniwas Kashalikar

If we carefully study the stress; then we realize that one of the factors; causing stress; is the stiff and cut throat competition. The competitions for reaching the top and being number one in different fields; such as business, politics, cinema, arts, sports, examinations etc.; is the hallmark of our life. Since the competitions are painfully stressful some advocate eradication of competitions and some advocate the importance getting trained to succeed in competitions; for maintaining and promoting quality and merit! But hardly do we realize that the cause of stress is not the competitions themselves but the basis of the competitions prevalent in our society! Our society is infected by the viruses of individualism and socialism. With the infection of individualism we have become engrossed in the petty materialistic gains and mean pursuits; oblivious to the material conditions of the others. At best we may participate in some charity. On the other hand; with the infection of socialism; we have become obsessed; although irrationally and ineffectively; to regimentalize the material gains; for all; often irrespective of; of sincerity, commitment, responsibility, skills and expertise.

But in both cases; the perspective, policies and actions; revolve around physical characteristics and material gains and either pursuit of petty gains, or insistence on arbitrary and unjust regimentalization. In both cases the principle; simultaneous blossoming one and all is ignored, neglected, suppressed or shunned. Thus; the day to day transactions and the value system; revolve around the physical attributes and material gains. The best person, the best activity, the best achievement and everything best; in both; individualistic and socialistic societies; is NOT based on; how much that individual or a group; has contributed to the blossoming of one and all! Naturally the competitions are also organized on the basis of physical attributes and material gains; and encourage and promote; petty selfish attitude and pursuits and knowingly or unknowingly ignore, neglect, suppress or shun the attitude and efforts for individual and universal blossoming. They promote the success, which is mean, mediocre and hollow at the core; and bloat the ego, pride and arrogance of the successful people on the one hand; and impart depression, frustration, self pity and humiliation to the failures. Thus; it is the basis of competitions and not the competitions per se; is the cause of stress!

A healthy society evolves to embody the principle; simultaneous blossoming of one and all and the competition based on the contribution for its quest, fervor, study and achievement. Thus in this competition; both; the winner and the loser; blossom together! The skills and expertise in the pursuit of petty gains (often at the cost of others); being antisocial; are not respected and are never; the basis for any competition. In fact; they dealt with necessary corrective or punitive action A practical, simple, traditional, universal and totally safe and inexpensive way to evolve into such a healthy society; is NAMASMARAN. But, what is NAMASMARAN? Namasmaran means; remembering the name of God, Guru, great souls; such as prophets and holy objects such as planets and stars. It may be remembered silently, loudly, along with music, dance, along with breathing, in group or alone, either with counting by rosary (called SMARANI or JAPAMALA) or without counting. The traditions vary from region to region and from religion to religion. However the universal principle underlying

NAMASMARAN is to reorient your physiological being with your true self. In fact while reorienting with true self you aim to establish and strengthen the bond or connection; between; your physiological being; with your true self. You aim at reunification with yourself! Since remembering your true self is the pinnacle of or culmination of individual consciousness, and individual consciousness is the culmination of every activity in life, remembering any name of God or Guru (any symbol of your true self) is equivalent to opening the final common pathway for the individual consciousness associated with every possible activity to get funneled into or unified with objective or cosmic consciousness. Thus NAMASMARAN is in fact the YOGA of YOGA in the sense that it is the culmination of consciousness associated with every possible procedure and technique in the yoga that you are familiar with. It is the YOGA of YOGA because it is the culmination of consciousness associated with all the activities in the universe, which it encompasses as well! It is YOGA of YOGA because everybody in the world irrespective of his/her tradition and the beliefs; would eventually, ultimately and naturally reach it; in the process of liberation. Even so called non believers also would not miss the benefit of remembering the true self through one symbol or another!

Just as NAMASMARAN is YOGA of YOGA it is meditation of meditation also! It is the natural and ultimate climax of every form of meditation. These facts however have to be realized with persistent practice of NAMSMARAN and not blindly believed or blindly disbelieved with casual approach! In short NAMSMARAN is super-bounty of cosmic consciousness for every individual to realize it (cosmic consciousness)! This is truly a super-bounty because a person, who experiences it, rises above mercenary, commercial and even professional and charity planes and manifest supertransactions in his or her life! These are just few observations to give rough idea about what is NAMASMARAN. NAMASMARAN is an ocean of bliss. Its true meaning is beyond description in words and has to be experienced, most preferably not by one or two; but, by billions!