Religious Text and Stress

[renuka]

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I wonder how many feel the same.. Reading religious text induces stress!

Might sound weird..but try reading Valmiki Ramayan and one might start to feel a bit stressed up cos its not really a very happy story.

Too much emotions..too much pent up emotions..too much obligation...too much playing pretend..Boy its really a stressful epic.

It has various twists and plots and subplots of a non peaceful kind that I am starting to wonder how many people claim that reading religious texts makes one calm?

Isn't there a happy religious text without fights and blood shed?


Reading a romance novel or a watching even a comedy of errors or watching something else that I can't type here might be less taxing to the human mind.

All these speculation that religious text are meant for us learn from it really holds no good..but the time we reach the last page our stress levels would have gone up so high that we would be glad we finally finished it instead of learning anything from it.

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

I have redesigned the website but the work on the course material is on.

You might be knowing most of the material on the spiritual section.

Kindly everyone, give me your feedback

Website is:
www.sravnatestprep.com

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

I have redesigned the website but the work on the course material is on.

You might be knowing most of the material on the spiritual section.

Kindly everyone, give me your feedback

Website is:
www.sravnatestprep.com

Sravnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,

How come my name is also mentioned as a contributor in one section along with 2 other members ...thank god the post I wrote is not there!LOL

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

Its not that I am not happy that my name as contributor was mentioned..but in forum I sometimes write some post for fun..some are bordering nonsense too..cos General Discussion can take any form of discussion.

But in the case of your website...you are serious about bring about change to youths and everyone..so only valid case studies should be there cos I do not want some of my unconventional posts here to influence anyone who is seriously looking for some change and discipline in life.

 

[sravna]

Renuka,

Are you angry?

 

[sravna]

Dear Sravna,

Its not that I am not happy that my name as contributor was mentioned..but in forum I sometimes write some post for fun..some are bordering nonsense too..cos General Discussion can take any form of discussion.

But in the case of your website...you are serious about bring about change to youths and everyone..so only valid case studies should be there cos I do not want some of my unconventional posts here to influence anyone who is seriously looking for some change and discipline in life.

OK I understand Renuka

 

[renuka]

Renuka,

Are you angry?

No...I am not angry..anger is an emotion I hardly feel.

Its just that I was really surprised to see my name mentioned.

But if you really want to use a name..then just mention my name as Ms.Ren...dont mention country of origin or profession.

 

[sravna]

No...I am not angry..anger is an emotion I hardly feel.

Its just that I was really surprised to see my name mentioned.

But if you really want to use a name..then just mention my name as Ms.Ren...dont mention country of origin or profession.

OK I will make the correction

 

[enthusiastix]

The Value of Scriptures in our Lives

Hi,

Religious texts in my understanding are not story books or bed time tales. They are not meant for you to feel good but they are meant to teach us about human values. Hence they take examples of plots and sub plots to show how humans (manushas) can falter and how they need to keep themselves afloat in an ocean of emotions.

Another mistake commonly made is that we tend to view scriptures with the current rules of society. So we probably wont digest the way Sita was treated in Ramayana, because we believe in women's liberation and she certainly didnt show any of those qualities. But the mistake we make with this understanding is that we cannot mix the social rules of Dwapara Yuga with that of Kali Yuga.

Ramayana is a lesson on self restraint. It is a lesson on how great human beings executed this approach. 14 years of exile meant Rama and Sita didnt live like a typical husband and wife. Lakshmana didnt look up at Sita's face ever, he always looked at her feet. These are impossible to do in today's times. Ramayana is a lesson on how we people, humans (manusha's) have fallen in principles, into convenience.

Scriptures are meant for awakening, they are not story books. They may be initially stressful because of the poetic language used and the meaning which can be interpreted in many ways based on your current spiritual evolution. As you mature, they will make a difference to you. Go slow, go patiently, they are worth reading and very enlightening.

Regards
Kavitha Kalyan
A Spiritual Vagabond

 

[renuka]

Hi,

Religious texts in my understanding

Scriptures are meant for awakening, they are not story books. They may be initially stressful because of the poetic language used and the meaning which can be interpreted in many ways based on your current spiritual evolution. As you mature, they will make a difference to you. Go slow, go patiently, they are worth reading and very enlightening.

Regards
Kavitha Kalyan
A Spiritual Vagabond

Hi..Thanks for a lovely detailed reply.

I do not face stress reading poetry cos I love Sanskrit and for each shloka I read in Ramayan..I do Sandhi Vichedanam and re arrange the stanza into prose form and then rewrite it in sentences for a clearer understanding.Yes...I go slow cos all these takes time to do.

That I really enjoy doing but its just the story that I find stressful.

I do not like fights,conflicts,violence and over dose of blind emotions.May be I am very soft hearted and find it hard to read an epic that isnt easy on the mind in terms of story.

Even when I see a TV movie for example a Tamil movie in which a guy suddenly is running with a machete in his hand to kill someone..the first thing I do is switch channel.
But if the guy happens to be very good looking..I might just watch a bit more of the scene before I switch channels cos I dont like to see death and blood shed or injury,

I like less stressful shows where its simple romance or something a bit tantalizing..cos its easier on the mind.

Am I too soft that religion is starting to feel violent for me?

 

[Vaagmi]

Hi..Thanks for a lovely detailed reply.

I do not face stress reading poetry cos I love Sanskrit and for each shloka I read in Ramayan..I do Sandhi Vichedanam and re arrange the stanza into prose form and then rewrite it in sentences for a clearer understanding.Yes...I go slow cos all these takes time to do.

That I really enjoy doing but its just the story that I find stressful.

I do not like fights,conflicts,violence and over dose of blind emotions.May be I am very soft hearted and find it hard to read an epic that isnt easy on the mind in terms of story.

Even when I see a TV movie for example a Tamil movie in which a guy suddenly is running with a machete in his hand to kill someone..the first thing I do is switch channel.
But if the guy happens to be very good looking..I might just watch a bit more of the scene before I switch channels cos I dont like to see death and blood shed or injury,

I like less stressful shows where its simple romance or something a bit tantalizing..cos its easier on the mind.

Am I too soft that religion is starting to feel violent for me?

renukaji,

My perception:

Human thought processes proceed on two major streams.

One is subjective. In this stream the major and dominating presence is that of the self which thinks or starts the process. However far the thought may go and whatever objects, events and players may come, stay, play or go the self always stays and continuously participates in all the processes. Like in a soap opera it joins the activity and sheds tears with every other player or jumps with joy when everyone does that. We can say the self is so lost in the processes that it has forgotten its identity completely.

The second major stream is objective. The self here remains always in complete control of itself. When like the earlier variety it participates and plays in the processes, it is deliberate. When it cries with the players it deliberately gives itself up to be swayed like others in the game. When it jumps with joy it is again what it has allowed itself. This does not hoeever mean that it is always cold and calculating and so deliberate. Once it gives itself up deliberately, except in the substratum it is a sincere, complete and enthusuastic participant. So it misses nothing. But in the substratum there is always this self ever ready to restore the status quo anti if the need arises.

People are usually in the first stream swimming with the time-now crying, now laughing and now chest thumping and now crest fallen. Evolution, if it happens on the right lines-read sAtvik,LOL-an individual learns by training to remain in the second category most of the time.

Now you may fit this into your personality to understand why you shuffle the channels in your tv and even why you are fixated to a six pack ab. You may even evolve to look at a six pack abs just the same way you look at a power packed formula contraption-completely at ease with yourself and yet with the mouth dropping wonderment of a child. LOL.

 

[renuka]

renukaji,

My perception:

Human thought processes proceed on two major streams.

One is subjective. In this stream the major and dominating presence is that of the self which thinks or starts the process. However far the thought may go and whatever objects, events and players may come, stay, play or go the self always stays and continuously participates in all the processes. Like in a soap opera it joins the activity and sheds tears with every other player or jumps with joy when everyone does that. We can say the self is so lost in the processes that it has forgotten its identity completely.

The second major stream is objective. The self here remains always in complete control of itself. When like the earlier variety it participates and plays in the processes, it is deliberate. When it cries with the players it deliberately gives itself up to be swayed like others in the game. When it jumps with joy it is again what it has allowed itself. This does not hoeever mean that it is always cold and calculating and so deliberate. Once it gives itself up deliberately, except in the substratum it is a sincere, complete and enthusuastic participant. So it misses nothing. But in the substratum there is always this self ever ready to restore the status quo anti if the need arises.

People are usually in the first stream swimming with the time-now crying, now laughing and now chest thumping and now crest fallen. Evolution, if it happens on the right lines-read sAtvik,LOL-an individual learns by training to remain in the second category most of the time.

Now you may fit this into your personality to understand why you shuffle the channels in your tv and even why you are fixated to a six pack ab. You may even evolve to look at a six pack abs just the same way you look at a power packed formula contraption-completely at ease with yourself and yet with the mouth dropping wonderment of a child. LOL.

Dear Vaagmi Ji,

I am neither objective nor subjective..that is I never get carried away and neither am I in a steady state of any kind.

Evolution in my opinion is just a perception of the human mind.

Actually the human mind is the most difficult to categorize..we assume its either Sattva or Rajas or Tamas or a combination of all three in varying proportions..but do we really have evidence for this?
Not really.

Sattva too if exists is merely a fixation..nothing more.
There is nothing really as spiritual evolution in my opinion.

In fact everything is just an opinion.

Even Acharyas call their school of thoughts as Matam(an opinion) and are never judgmental about another person.

May be my mind is as gentle as a flower that emits fragrance that attracts a butterfly that whispers sweet words as it carries away the nectar of my mind..spreading it everywhere its psychedelic wings carry it..droplets of nectar fall on the blades of grass..making it grow to wonder more about the fragrance that emits the atmosphere.

With a mind as gentle as mine..how can I read or see violence?

Yes...I know..just like Shankara said..do not get fascinated by the breast and the navel region of a woman for its nothing but a conglomerate of flesh and blood...same with six packs..having dissected it..I know its merely Rectus Abdominis.

Move beyond Sattva..Sattva is a fixation. It makes you feel 'High" and "Higher"...Sattva is LSD.

 

[renuka]

Actually it would be nice to conduct a study..a post mortem one too.

That is I need a data base of those who feel they are spiritual or permanently Sattva or Evolved Spiritually.

Reason is upon death the levels of DMT,N-Dimethyltryptamine increases in the brain.

DMT levels remain elevated for a while upon death and also seen to rise in near death experience and increases the feeling of spirituality experienced by a person in a near death experience.


DMT is also called the Spirit Molecule..may be nature has designed this DMT levels to rise upon death so that the transition of the soul to the next level would be less traumatic and soothing..many would be 'fooled' into thinking they are in heaven!LOL

So DMT effect sorts of deludes us in some way or the other.

Now the study would be good to know if those who claim to be Sattva,Spiritually evolved etc have a higher level of DMT that the rest of the non spiritual population.

May be even while living some might have more DMT than others..hence they believe they are spiritual.

Starting to wonder if a low protein diet causes increase levels of DMT in brain..hence most vegetarians or vegans feel more "spiritual".

After all if a lack of serotonin can cause depression..why cant a higher than baseline level of DMT make one believe they are Sattva or Spiritual?

There is a lot to be studied if anyone is willing to donate their brain for study!

So is Spirituality just an overdose of DMT?

Sravna...any answers?

 

[sravna]

Actually it would be nice to conduct a study..a post mortem one too.

That is I need a data base of those who feel they are spiritual or permanently Sattva or Evolved Spiritually.

Reason is upon death the levels of DMT,N-Dimethyltryptamine increases in the brain upon death.

DMT levels remain elevated for a while upon death and also seen to rise in near death experience and increases the feeling of spirituality experienced by a person in a near death experience.


DMT is also called the Spirit Molecule..may be nature has designed this DMT levels to rise upon death so that the transition of the soul to the next level would be less traumatic and soothing..many would be 'fooled' into thinking they are in heaven!LOL

So DMT effect sorts of deludes us in some way or the other.

Now the study would be good to know if those who claim to be Sattva,Spiritually evolved etc have a higher level of DMT that the rest of the non spiritual population.

May be even while living some might have more DMT than others..hence they believe they are spiritual.

After all if a lack of serotonin can cause depression..why cant a higher than baseline level of DMT make one believe they are Sattva or Spiritual?

There is a lot to be studied if anyone is willing to donate their brain for study!

So is Spirituality just an overdose of DMT?

Sravna...any answers?

Dear Renuka,

Why don't you consider the more plausible reverse hypothesis. That those who are spiritual have higher DMT. After all physical is the projection of the spiritual. So it has to be the reverse. What do you say?

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

Why don't you consider the more plausible reverse hypothesis. That those who are spiritual have higher DMT. After all physical is the projection of the spiritual. So it has to be the reverse. What do you say?

Dear Sravna,

Yes...why not?

Those who feel they are spiritual could be having a higher level of DMT.

Just like those with an over active thyroid gland have excess of thyroid hormones.

So both are treatable conditions.

May be the feeling of spirituality becomes evident in those whose brain produces an excess of DMT.

So could spirituality actually be a pathology?

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

No. Spirituality is not just in physical manifestations. It is a positive and healthy state of mind where you treat others in a fair and righteous way. It is farthest away from a diseased state.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

No. Spirituality is not just in physical manifestations. It is a positive and healthy state of mind where you treat others in a fair and righteous way. It is farthest away from a diseased state.

Dear Sravna,

As you have stated..its a state of mind.

Any state of mind is a play of neurotransmitters.

If I would remove a portion of the temporal lobe in a "spiritual" person..he would transform into a highly temperamental person and out goes his "spirituality".

His state of mind would be altered.

That proves your statement right..Spirituality is a state of mind..let me add to that.."Spirituality is merely a state of mind".

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

When you are talking of spirituality you are talking of permanence i.e, more or less the finishing stages of evolution. So once you get into the spiritual state of mind, you cannot force it back to a regressive state.

The problem with science is that it considers by tinkering with the effect it can solve a problem. Without understanding a problem and the cause you would be only opening a can of worms by doing that.

 

[CHANDRU1849]

Hi,

Religious texts in my understanding are not story books or bed time tales. They are not meant for you to feel good but they are meant to teach us about human values. Hence they take examples of plots and sub plots to show how humans (manushas) can falter and how they need to keep themselves afloat in an ocean of emotions.

Another mistake commonly made is that we tend to view scriptures with the current rules of society. So we probably wont digest the way Sita was treated in Ramayana, because we believe in women's liberation and she certainly didnt show any of those qualities. But the mistake we make with this understanding is that we cannot mix the social rules of Dwapara Yuga with that of Kali Yuga.

Ramayana is a lesson on self restraint. It is a lesson on how great human beings executed this approach. 14 years of exile meant Rama and Sita didnt live like a typical husband and wife. Lakshmana didnt look up at Sita's face ever, he always looked at her feet. These are impossible to do in today's times. Ramayana is a lesson on how we people, humans (manusha's) have fallen in principles, into convenience.

Scriptures are meant for awakening, they are not story books. They may be initially stressful because of the poetic language used and the meaning which can be interpreted in many ways based on your current spiritual evolution. As you mature, they will make a difference to you. Go slow, go patiently, they are worth reading and very enlightening.

Regards
Kavitha Kalyan
A Spiritual Vagabond

First of all, we have multiple Ramayanas, being followed by Hindus, Jains etc. The late Film and Drama actor, RS Manohar (Brahacharanam Iyer), a post graduate in History, successfully staged a drama on Ravana viz., Ilangeswaran, in which Ravana was shown differently.

How does it possible an epic relate to one yuga successfully maintain its status in another yuga? What is the periodicity of one yuga. How was it carried forward without any change?

In all probability, both Ramayana and Mahabharatha belonged to the earliest tribal civilizations. One can very explicitly see in Mahabharatha that both Polygamy and Polyandry were practiced - Krishna has many wives and Draupadi had five husbands. Whenever modification takes place at regular intervals, Polyandry seized to exist and Polygamy becomes a thing of the past, due to rational thinking and govt. intervention.

Coming to the point of scriptures are meant for awakening, the same cannot be accepted in toto, since kings are replaced by people's representatives and the people have the right to question or even replace the rulers.

As society has been changing a lot over the years, due to advancement of science, technology, medicine etc, and rational thinking., there are better case studies available for most of the problems. At the most, the two epics can be used as a tool to know the condition prevailed in the earlier civilizations for academic interest.

As, we Bs, have been talking about the two epics for centuries, we have no alternative but to maintain the status quo by giving different explanations at different times.

 

[renuka]

At the most, the two epics can be used as a tool to know the condition prevailed in the earlier civilizations for academic interest.

.

Dear Chandru ji,

Thank you very much for this analytical post.

You have solved my problem...I feel I was feeling a little stressed reading Ramayan cos I was subconsciously attaching some amount of Divinity to it and felt disturb with the screenplay,dialogue and direction that it was not really making me calm.

Now after reading this line that one can read it as a tool to know the condition prevailed in earlier civilization for academic interest I feel that will make my mind go into analytical mode and I wont feel too involved with the story and can remain technically detached without feeling stressed.

Thanks a lot for this helpful tip...really makes sense.

I am glad I found an answer.

 

[renuka]

Dear Renuka,

When you are talking of spirituality you are talking of permanence i.e, more or less the finishing stages of evolution. So once you get into the spiritual state of mind, you cannot force it back to a regressive state.

.

Dear Sravna,

Do you really feel spirituality is more or less the last stage of evolution?

I do not think so.

There are a lot of conditions that can appear like spirituality...eg:

1)Escapism
2)Depression
3)Delusion
4)Lack of opportunity for self development.
5)Denial

I do not really think there is an end point to evolution.

Also anything can evolve or devolve.

 

[yesmohan]

I wonder how many feel the same.. Reading religious text induces stress!

Might sound weird..but try reading Valmiki Ramayan and one might start to feel a bit stressed up cos its not really a very happy story.

Too much emotions..too much pent up emotions..too much obligation...too much playing pretend..Boy its really a stressful epic.

It has various twists and plots and subplots of a non peaceful kind that I am starting to wonder how many people claim that reading religious texts makes one calm?

Isn't there a happy religious text without fights and blood shed?


Reading a romance novel or a watching even a comedy of errors or watching something else that I can't type here might be less taxing to the human mind.

All these speculation that religious text are meant for us learn from it really holds no good..but the time we reach the last page our stress levels would have gone up so high that we would be glad we finally finished it instead of learning anything from it.

If one reads certain selective parts of Kamba Ramaayanam, one could find stanzas that are more interesting than reading OF romance novels. Even more than "kAmathup pAl " of ThirukkuRaL.

 

[CHANDRU1849]

Dear Chandru ji,

Thank you very much for this analytical post.

You have solved my problem...I feel I was feeling a little stressed reading Ramayan cos I was subconsciously attaching some amount of Divinity to it and felt disturb with the screenplay,dialogue and direction that it was not really making me calm.

Now after reading this line that one can read it as a tool to know the condition prevailed in earlier civilization for academic interest I feel that will make my mind go into analytical mode and I wont feel too involved with the story and can remain technically detached without feeling stressed.

Thanks a lot for this helpful tip...really makes sense.

I am glad I found an answer.

Madam,

Thank u for your compliment.

 

[sangom]

Most of our religious texts have been compiled (written or composed) with certain definite agenda or purpose. The common factor running across these various texts is to attract a group of gullible (religious) followers who will be adequately brain-washed to not do any independent thinking except what is prescribed in a particular religious text.

If one reads the religious texts with this background, there will be no problem of stress or BP increase, etc. Most people have read these texts in Sanskrit language without knowing any knowledge whatsoever of that language. And, they were "influenced" to develop bhakti towards a particular god or goddess.