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any chemical inbalances. In the words of doctors, patients, scientists and policy makers, who in June, 1999 attended an international meeting in Britain to explore these ideas, much of the suffering consists of diseases of meaning. The search for meaning is evident in so many aspects of our lives, What is my life all about? What does my job mean? This relationship? What does it mean that I am going to die some day? People living in earlier societies would not even have asked such questions. Their lives were culturally embedded in a set framework. They had living traditions, living gods, living communities, functioning moral codes, problems that had known boundaries and fixed goals. But in modern times we have lost what some philosophers call the 'taken for-granted ness' of life, We are left with existential or spiritual problems and with the need to cultivate a kind of intelligence' spiritual intelligence that can deal with them. Effect of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices on health and wellness:
The Spiritualism is identified with something super conscious, super natural and towards divinity. Spiritual inspirations are considered as a rare blessing and it is believed that through the path of spiritualism a man attains perfection, immortality and ultimate fulfillment. Yogas had been a subject of great research. It is found that to attain super conscious state one is required to pass though various stages of yoga. Vahia 1973, Selvamurthy 1983 & De Souza 1984 report that yoga has a positive influence in stress management and relief of anxiety and mental tension. Orme Johnson (1973) found that meditation stabilizes the autonomic nervous system and make a person withstand environmental stresses better. As per Bhamgara (1990), spiritual dimension of health pervades all other dimensions of health i.e. physical, mental and social. The Vipasana meditation may also help in deaddiction. Naidu and Pande (1988) presented an interim research report on non- attachment and health. The results indicated that those who were non-attached, though they experienced as many events as their attached counterparts, did not get as distressed by these events. Non-attached persons, compared to less non-attached subjects, perceived lesser degree of stress, exhibit fewer symptoms of strain and show a smaller correlation between stress and strain. To that extent this data supports the assertions of the various commentaries on the Gita regarding the health endowing capacity of non-attachment.
Along with psychical research are the recent investigations in the area of epidemiology of religion and clinical studies of the effect of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices on health and wellness. There are now many researchers actively engaged researching in this area.
Religion of one kind or another has existed in all societies, and it has had profound effects on the lives of those who practice it. prayer is central to all
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Arhat Vacana, 23 (1-2), 2011
