STRESS AND TRUE SELF: DR. SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

The study of stress leads to many questions.

One of them is; “What is ‘self’; and what is ‘true self’?”

The physical pain and pleasure, the instinctual deprivation and fulfillment, the emotional sadness and happiness, the intellectual confusion and clarity; and the subsequent behavior; constitute individual life and we identify our ‘self’ as one who experiences all these and/or one who is responsible for all these.

This ‘self’ is wrapped in; all the physiological limitations mentioned above. It is restricted in the subjective capacity to work, know and experience; by virtue of language and digits and hence space and time.

The objective reality is beyond mathematical and linguistic comprehension. It is beyond space and time. Actually it ‘is’ beyond the concepts expressed in; ‘is’, ‘being’, ‘was’, ‘is not’, ‘not being’ and ‘was not’. Those who have realized this; basically admit that it is indescribable! But still it is described as beyond the space, time and relative reality of life and death. Hence; it is described as eternal and true bliss! This is ‘true self’.

As and when; one begins the practice of NAMASMARAN; the veils of ‘self’ or ‘subjectivity’; get rarefied and the ‘true self’ or ‘objectivity’ (which “is” already there); gets unraveled. As a byproduct; the cognition, affect and conation; rise above the subjective limitations. They become universal. An individual no more remains an individual! He or she experiences the core aspirations of the entire universe and is inevitably associated with rectification of cosmic homeostasis.

The tangible aspects of such rectification embody; the universal (holistic) perspective, policies, plans, programs and implementation; i.e. Total Stress Management. This is the relationship between ‘stress’ and ‘true self’!