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LODHA : DAWN OF THE 21ST CENTURY AND RETURN TO RELIGION 105 in and out of the churches. Religion has staged a return with full vigour. There is a strong disenchantment towards the materialistic secular philosophy and people are growing leery with political systems. Behind this predicament, religion beacons, as it accords meaning to temporal existence. Mirza Asmer Beg observes that notwithstanding the drift toward hedonism and consumerism, where the mad race for survival and material success eats up an individual's time and leaves him totally exhausted, religion remains an important factor in life. It helps in the generation of values that produce integrated character and culture.
Scientists are now getting closer to theology and are convinced that body is not the be-all and the end-all of our existence. The clinical ecology is an example, which ascertains that environment, climatic conditions and changes, earthquakes and storms do affect human behaviour. Dr. Macdugul of America is doing research to establish that soul is certainly an entity. Dr. Gates also persues his experiments in the same direction. Neurons in human body are getting a close look by physiologists. Neitssche proclaimed the death of God and nihilism of all values, but they are now resucitated with full force. The mind and body connection once discarded and dismissed as New Age Polemics, is now a tenet of medical science. Mindfulness meditation eases pain, kabat zinn hypothesises, by enabling persons to concentrate and get relief from chronic headaches, depression, lack of conviction, feeling of nothingness, lonliness and schixophrenic tendencies. Jainism has emphasised on Sāmāyika, Svādhyāya, Preksā dhyāna. Pratiksamana, pratyākhyāna etc. as a definite cure to these maladies. It is necessary to mention Dr. Herbert Benson's Theory of the Relaxation Response. Dr. Benson asserts that invocation of prayers and mantras over and over can lower the rate of breathing and brain wave activity, sometimes healing that ails you and averting the need for an invasive surgery. He says that the mind could work like a drug, especially among people who have strong faith in God or a higher power. An 'OMMM' (Om) bears a healing touch. He further avoches that the supposed gulf between science and spirituality in healing does not always exist. With increasing frequency, mental techniques like meditation, imagination, relaxation, and biofeed are being used to treat physical ailments and mind is increasingly becoming a source for physical healing. This is another aspect in which religion or spiritual tones have found their way in our life. One well-known but little understood mechanism of mind/body medicine is 'placebo'. Similarly meditation has provided relief to thousand of patients suffering from diabetes, cancer, cardiac ailments (the Rotarian December 1996). This also points out to the declaration of the Delhi Six (1985) which
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