A certain amount of nervous tension may be necessary if we are to accomplish anything in life; we should make the best use of even our neurotic trends and the nervous tensions so that they may ultimately help us to be of greater service. But want of this knowledge is steadily swelling the number of emotionally unstable persons in our crazy contemporary society. The reason for this increasing mental illness is given by a practising psychiatrist as the inhability to relax which is " one of the most wide-spread diseases of our civilization, and one of the most infrequently recognized." (Dr.Flanders Dunbar, Mind & body,p.138,Ref.Adventures in religious life-swami yatishwaranand )
the air around us is full of vibrations harmful to body, nerves and mind. It is very fortunate that the necessity for mental treatment through the practice of relaxation is being recognized more and more by many doctors and psychiatrists, some of whom are even coming to appreciate the value of Meditation. Each one of us in his own way should practise some form of meditation, for in the words of Dr. Austen Fox Rigs, " meditation holds refreshment and rest, conserves energy for future needs, and helps to keep life balance and elastic." (Austen Fox rigs,The Reader's Digest,January,1946.)
The doctor, however, uses the word meditation in various senses. It is concentrating the mind either on the form and nature of beauty, or on the meaning of truth, or on the spirit of courage, or on the future of human race and its civilization. It may be,again, concentration on the implications of immortality. It may even be on the eternal truths of religion. He has given hints to the process and aim of meditation in the words:
" To start the process of meditation one needs only to 'move the mind off' on the right track. The preliminary direction should aim the mind upward and outward in the direction of the Universal and impersonal, rather than downward and inward toward the specific ego-centric."
The doctor concludes his commendable advice by saying :
"Once having given the stream of thought its direction, go with the current and let it take you whatever it will. Simply become a spectator."
(From-Adventures in religious life by Swami Yatishwarananda )
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