STRESS AND CORRUPTION
DR. SHRINIWAS KASHALIKAR

The word STRESS is used so extensively and in so many different contexts; that its definition, meaning, significance, causes, mechanisms, dimensions, effects and Total Management have become increasingly complex, ambiguous and obscure.
Similarly the word, corruption is used so extensively and in so many contexts that it’s definition, meaning, significance, causes, mechanisms, dimensions, effects and Total Management have become increasingly complex, ambiguous and obscure!
The corruption; of the political, religious, intellectual, industrial and other leaders in world; can promote and boost the corruption of (besides their stooges and supporters); any individual; in any and every part of the world; and vice versa.
Corruption is usually and wrongly equated with mere financial scams, bribing, kick backs; which constitute “the visible fraction of the iceberg of corruption”!
Hence; let us study the basic concept of corruption!
Actually the corruption and the enormous STRESS produced by it are as ubiquitous as life and the consciousness!
Corruption embodies; degradation of one’s perspective, thoughts, feelings and actions; being influenced by and influencing; the surroundings either consciously or subconsciously; and either knowingly or unknowingly!

Corrupt Perspective
Perspective is like the space of consciousness! Thus the normalcy of this “space” of consciousness i.e. perspective; is being universal! The degree of restriction of that “space of consciousness” i.e. perspective; determines the degree of the suffocation and throttling of consciousness, marking the beginning of stress and corruption!
Thus; the restriction of the space of consciousness (perspective) constitutes separation from nature, world, countries, religions, regions, provinces, sects, linguistic groups, castes, communities, creeds, sects and even our own family and from our true self and embodies corruption and stress!
This disease of corrupted perspective is subtle and hence not easily noticed. Since the medial systems today have not learnt to diagnose and treat the disease viz. “corruption of perspective”; they do not identify and treat this disease, which often inflicts the medical systems themselves!
Sectarian and corrupt perspective makes our thoughts, feelings and actions also increasingly mean, lonely, weak, inert, grumbling, intolerant, inconsiderate, resentful, vindictive and miserably selfish and pathogenic (many times concealed under deceptive glamour and glitter) for ourselves and the society!
The paradigms or premises; of the sectarian supremacy, racial superiority, financial expansionism, religious bigotry and fanaticism and so on (without concern for the wellbeing of the entire world) constitutes corrupt perspective and highly infectious stress!

Corrupt Thinking
The holistic perspective or normal perspective as gets corrupted (diseased and degenerated) gradually becomes increasingly NARROW, sick and sectarian.
From this sick and sectarian soil of corrupt perspective, the sick and sectarian thinking germinates! Everything holistic gets degenerated into everything sick and sectarian! This is corrupt thinking and corrupt rationale; behind the coercive; international, national and local; laws, conventions, traditions, rules, pacts (formed without concern for wellbeing of the entire world)!
Thus the racially discriminating constitutions, the legal discrimination on the basis of castes, legal yet unjust tax system/s to exploit certain section for the benefit of another section, the repressive laws against trade, shops and such commercial activities, the legalized destructive promotion of alcohol, the various laws and rules with respect to special economic zones and so on are examples of “corrupt thinking”! The present sectarian medical and education systems (conspicuously lacking in integration and productive domain respectively) are also glaring examples of corrupt thinking.
The so called corruption (embodying mere financial scams, bribing and even other corrupt activities) is actually crude and superficial symptom of the deeper disease viz. corrupt thinking, which in turn is the crude symptom of deeper disease viz. corrupt perspective!

Corrupt Emotions
The motivation behind the literature, art, media, movies, dramas, and advertisements and so on (serving the sectarian aims, petty objectives, and vested interests ingrained in the above intellectual themes; without concern for the welfare of people at large; or even at the cost of the welfare of people at large) constitute the corruption of emotions and instincts.
In our personal life; one such emotion, which we carry on from childhood; throughout life, is the craze for accolades, awards and honors!
In the course of time; awards accolades and honors become a means of profiteering in many ways apart from euphoria; for us!! They become a means of establishing upper hand, dominance, and sway of one kind or another; on the society. We enjoy this upper hand, dominance, power, which further inflate our ego and give arrogant happiness, which is not easily describable! But all of us have experienced this sense of addicting elation when our ego is boosted!

Corrupt Actions
The actual laws, literature, art forms, media campaigns, movements, and such every activity in different fields; either organized or unorganized (without concern for the welfare of the world; or at the cost of the world) constitutes the corrupt actions.
In personal life; we manipulate to get “prestigious” awards, bribe to get “accolades” and use every irregular means to get “honors”!
Isn’t it true that the degree of our petty greed and our mean addictions like these; in various fields (apart from helplessness and meekness born out of dire needs); determines the extent of financial and other varieties of corruption in our society irrespective of where we live in the world?
Considering the universal expanse of the corruption and the STRESS associated with it; from the brief discussion above, it should be clear how corruption and stress are really ubiquitous i.e. not only outside but inside us as well!!
The roots of the corruption thrive from the faulty perspective, followed by corrupt thoughts, emotions and actions.

Hence the efforts without this insight constitute a phase in the groping crusade against corruption, but can not eradicate the roots of corruption and can not blossom the global perspective and global conscience.
For this i.e. to rectify, repair, restore, regenerate, rejuvenate and effectively blossom the ROOTS of global perspective and global conscience the answer is; to break open the throttling shackles restricting the space of our consciousness and thereby effectively eradicate the corruption of our perspective, thinking, feelings and actions!
This is called HOLISTIC RENAISSANCE, SUPERLIVING i.e. Total Stress Management (the core of which is NAMASMARAN).
Interestingly; even people practicing, promoting and propagating NAMASMARAN and the conscientious atheists also; without this perspective; are actually subserve Total Stress Management (total well being, holistic health, superliving or holistic renaissance); although unknowingly! Overall; they provide/contribute the fervor, motivation and driving force; and analytical, operational and technological capability respectively.

The root cause of global recession is the overpowering dominance of petty and tubular perspective over holistic perspective; in different fields. In other words; mean selfishness has overpowered the holistic aspirations of global welfare. We must appreciate that the very nature of petty perspective; is to enhance antagonism and suppress the holistic perspective that consolidates complementarity, inclusive growth and harmony.

This conflict is not new. But it has crossed the regional and national boundaries and hence its impact has become global.

How does petty perspective cause global recession?

Petty perspective is born out of slavery of incessant inner cravings for physical, monetary, political, cultural and other kinds of supremacy and control; beyond physiological needs. It results in unscrupulous pursuits towards gratification of these cravings.

Thus the industrialists prefer to thrive on such basal and morbid cravings and prefer to produce weapons of mass destruction, cosmetics, sexual stimulants; and so on. The political leaders prefer to encourage such industries and we due to our obliviousness of the reality; prefer to support such political leaders.

The medical business excessively emphasizes on individual fitness (as against holistic health) profitable to sell their products in the form tonics, exorbitant spas, so called fitness clubs and so on. The political leaders obsessed with petty gains encourage this in exchange for party funds and bribe. The medical experts drowned in petty pursuits support such industries favoring the hegemony of respective different systems of medicine (as against holistic medicine). We due to our own pettiness support such industries and policies.

As a result of this; the economic activities in different fields of life revolve around the petty perspective and lead to exorbitant growth of utilities and services for the benefit of few! Thus in poor countries also we find; markets of jewelry, five star and seven star hotels and hospitals, unproductive glamour, wasteful glitter, petty luxuriousness, vulgar yet expensive entertainment.

These economic activities make few of us rich, glamorous, arrogant, but hollow, weak and sick. As a result of petty perspective they are glorified by most major players of mass communication and we worship such petty achievements.

But since a large majority does not have money to avail these five star services; the sale begins to fall. Then the rabid competition begins. This is often called free market, free completion etc. This is followed by the frantic and unscrupulous efforts to market such useless and/or counterproductive commodities and services, through mutually exploitative ways! This involves colossal waste.

The sickeningly rich amidst us; sustain the sale of such commodities and services for some time. In fact the economy appears to be strong and booming; due to the show of glamour and glitter! But soon these industries begin to slow down due to lack of customers. They are still sustained by the political leadership through loans, subsidies and waving of loans. In other words; public funds are pumped in these dying ventures and we the potential customers are further throttled!

Majority of us suffer miserably and try to find solutions through movements against exploitation and corruption.

But the sham industrial growth due to its petty perspective and mutually antagonistic and wasteful activities; and throttling deprivation of billions of us, whose buying power gets desiccated/atrophied; races towards mutual decay. The industrial profits begin to fall and the share prices plunge.

Since the money pumped in these businesses, whether by governments or investors’, is essentially our money (which would have been potentially useful for the global development); we the common people all over the world suffer maximum, the investors with buffering power suffer less and the business houses with much greater buffering power; suffer least!

Holistic perspective in contrast embodies sublimation of inner cravings in the achievement of complementarity, inclusive growth and harmony; in other words; superliving or holistic renaissance.

Hence to manage global recession?

1. The children have to be introduced to the measures of inner blossoming; evolving holistic perspective and realizing holistic renaissance; such as hymns, prayers, jikra and NAMASMARAN; right from the beginning.

2. The productive domain must be nurtured and the “epidemic of wasteful learning of unproductive activities” leading to scarcity of jobs and subsequent evils must be eradicated on war footing urgently and seriously.

3. The concept and practice of holistic medicine have to be evolved.

4. The concept of holistic health has to be evolved and practiced in all the fields of life; so as to make them complementary and synergistic and NOT petty, mutually antagonistic and detrimental to the large majority. Thus; the industrial, agricultural, horticultural and other productions and services; must subserve superliving or holistic renaissance embodying the fulfillment of physiological needs of all; and not the morbid interests, whims and fancies of few.

5. The details however; can be worked out by the experts with holistic perspective in the different fields.

Many of us are convinced that NAMASMARAN is an activity that takes us from subjectivity to objectivity. It takes us to the root and seed of universe. It is a panacea for individual and universal problems.

However many of us question about its uniqueness, supremacy; and its insistence and generalization.

Thus; some of us maintain that we need not insist on NAMASMARAN because; there are many people who do not practice NAMASMARAN; yet serve the universe in different ways e.g. through scientific and technological research and social service.

It is true that the creative geniuses in different fields contribute to the universal blossoming without practicing NAMASMARAN. But do these people reach the root cause of the individual and universal problems or rather; the root of universe?

The hallmark of most of these people is either superficial contentment or delirium of material gains; or dissatisfaction and depression; at the end of their life.

Some of us refer to the other ways of self realization. They are doubtful about; which position to take about these ways with respect to NAMASMARAN.

It is true that many people practice many ways other than NAMASMARAN and claim the merit of these ways.

For those of us who are convinced about NAMASMARAN and its scope and potential; it is fair to practice NAMASMARAN steadfastly and share the vision, conviction and/or experiences during our practice; with others.

But this can be best done without being critical about the other ways, about which they have no experience. But suffice it to feel and express that ultimately all ways converge to the same goal of universal harmony and eternal reality.