MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS!

Mental health matters!

      Human creature is a wonder. People do wonders in this world which makes others to look at the innovations of their counterparts. Some love to find new theories, some were keen in exploring new technologies, some were keen readers, some works to send humans to the space, some were interested in art and they explore more in that field, somebody works to find new medicines for the incurable diseases and so on. People find their own world in which they have to live. They find their interest, develop their knowledge on their respective interests, Work on those interests and emerge as icons in the respective field. When their hard work took them to the unimaginable heights and if they look back on their journey, they wonder on the terrible trek they had. Some moments in the journey to the peak gives them irreplaceable happiness, some moments give them inevitable grief. All these happiness, grief, success, failures, achievements, are determined by a single causative factor “How we move on”.

      Success or failure people have to move on to their next journey. Here comes the role of Mental health. It is often heard that, one needs to keep flowing as the river not to stagnate as pond. Flow is determined by the mental health. In the present world, many youngsters get easily trapped by the poor mental health that they have. It is disheartening to read the articles in the media on the loss of life by the young employees and students due to work pressure.

      Mental health can never be fed in to one’s life. It can never be taught by someone but it can be learnt from instances. A man is healthy in his physique, strong in his education, wealthier than anybody but fears for his next day turnover in his business as he lacks the mental fitness. A street vendor, who is not sure about his income, he doesn’t have money to treat for his ailments, he doesn’t have any education qualification to prosper in his life, He doesn’t care about today’s turnover and he opens up his business for the next day which shows his mental ability. Mental Strength is not determined or should not be affected by the societal status, health, peer pressure, wealth or any other. If everything is perfect except mental health, it’s difficult to prosper; If nothing is perfect except mental health; it’s difficult to hinder the growth.

Where from it comes?

      This cannot be taught, cannot be learnt, cannot be consumed. Mental health can only be revealed from within. Our Indian philosophy speaks lot on this mental health. In this era of mechanized world, we run for catching up and meeting up day to day needs. This must be done and it is inevitable. When we run in search of wealth, we always run for materialistic benefits. A father takes his child to the school for the first day, Though the father may think that his son should become respectable and disciplined person in the society, His ultimate aim is that his son should complete all his education without any backlog and he should get a good job. He waits around 23 years for his son to earn money. The ultimate expectation of a father is materialistic benefit out of his child. This can never be misunderstood or mistaken as the needs of the family is inevitable. The emphasize here is on the means and many of us compromise the ways to achieve the means. Here starts the need of mental health. The Child should be taught not to compromise his morale or his inner qualities in order to get his material benefits.

      We start comprising our own ‘self’ in the race of meeting out our demands. When we read our puranas, sastras, ancestral stories, they always insist on the ‘Self’. Here, ‘Self’ should not be misunderstood as ‘selfishness’. In fact, the idea of ‘Self’ itself is to eradicate the selfishness. In Tiruvannamalai, lived a great Ramana Maharishi, He would never speak anything to the devotees who come to have his darshan. He would always insist on “KNOW YOUR SELF”. The idea of relishing our own atman which I was talking as ‘self’ is the core concept of all the Indian Philosophies. Spiritually speaking Advaita, Dvaita, Vishishtadvaita are the three core Indian philosophies. All these philosophies are based on the Atma (‘Self’).

      Our ‘Self’ can be the supreme tutor to ourself if it is tuned and understood properly. Every Indians had and have ‘Kula guru’ who embarks the family to realise their mental strength through realizing their ‘Self”. Indian Prayers, Meditation, Yoga, are all the ways to know the atman(‘self’). There are many atmagnanis in our country who have spoken widely on the ‘self’. The ultimate aim of the practices or Indian knowledge that are being discussed here is Mental health. Mental health and Inner voice are inseparable.

      Mental health is neither the amount of knowledge that a brain can hold nor the intelligent quotient of a person nor the blind confidence on a work nor the exaggerated spirit of the ability to complete a work.

      Mental health comes from within. It can never be outsourced from someone. Mental health can never be assumed or consumed. Everyone has it, but everyone is not able to fully tap its potential. This comes in the way how we feed the inputs to our ‘Self’. Everyone watches a movie in theatre but everyone can never have the same set of feelings as one. They consume what touches them more. The message from Bhagavath Gita or Bible or any good book for that matter may not reach everyone in similar kind, every individual has their own perspectives, needs and the knowledge consumed by them also varies according to their view. All this acts as a feed to the mental strength. These inputs mentioned here are not exhaustive, they are just representative. Our organs like eyes and ears acts as the inputs for our ‘self’. Every second our ‘self’ is being fed with inputs, it is the practice and virtues that we are brought up with, determines which input should stay with us and which should be filtered out. Here comes the work of the practices like Prayers, Chanting, meditation, Yoga and many others as shown by our rishis and mahatmas. We should be indebted to our Guru, rishis, Mahatmas for showing us this way to enhance mental health. This kind of practices enables our ‘Self’ to know which is right and which is wrong. Our inner voice which is embodiment of mental strength filters out the unwanted inputs and feeds us with more positives.

Mental health- The Sole driver of the life.

      This strength of decoding what is right/ wrong and the ability to do the right things without any fear, determined in the goals, being hard to our commitments, subscribing to our morales at all the tough instances, Keeping ourselves free from influence of material benefits, keeping ourselves free from peer pressure, Keeping ourselves aligned to the regular routines, not compromising personal routines in place of official engagements, allocating regular time for our ‘Self’, Keeping away our personal works during our work hours and concentrating on the work, Doing right things at right time instead of doing everything at a time, Prioritising the work, Not refraining from bringing out wrong if we are witness to it, Will power to stand for righteousness even if everything stands against the righteousness are some of the indicative virtues of the strong mental health.

No one in the present world can be away from this materialistic life, all of us need to run for gaining money, Materialistic needs should be fulfilled not at the cost of our life. Youngsters need to chalk out regular routine to have their work life balance. We are blessed to be born in this beautiful nation filled with incredible treasures. Growing kinds and youngsters should take interest in knowing our own Indian philosophies. Philosophies are not only for the philosophers; they were the result of experienced of our saints and rishis whose wisdom is immeasurable. They should be learnt and imbibed whenever possible by those who claim as the pillars of this nations.

Even If everything is lost in this materialistic world, hold on to your mental health with which everything can be retrieved.

 

-Lokesh K M S

On World Mental Health Day

10/10/2024