Introduction to Spiritual Health
by Dr. Shakuntala Manay and P. Krishna Madappa

A glimpse at Spiritual Health is reflected in this passage of epic poem “Savithri” by Sri Aurobindo

Some glory of knowledge and intuitive sight,
Some passion of the rapturous heart of Love.
A hierophant of the bodiless Secrecy
Interned in an unseen Spiritual sheath,
The Will that pushes sense beyond its scope
To feel the light and joy intangible,
Half found its way into the Ineffable’s peace,
Half captured a sealed sweetness of desire
That yearned from a bosom of mysterious Bliss,
Half manifested veiled Reality.
A Soul not wrapped into its cloak of mind
Could glimpse the true sense of a world of forms;
Illumined by a vision in the thought,
Upbuoyed by the heart’s understanding flame,
It could hold in the conscious ether of the Spirit
The divinity of a symbol universe.

Introduction
The World Health Organisation at its 37th World Health assembly has added the Spiritual Dimension to Health. The recognition to this dimension speaks of the importance of multidimensional well-being of Swasthya 2. This Spirit or Soul exists in different states. In the Vedic and Upanishadic writings, Brahman is described as the All Conscious ONE. This is the Spirit, the highest state which gets divided as Purusha and Prakriti, individual and universal, personal and impersonal, or Spirit and Matter. Therefore, the one or whole becomes parts and in the parts’ relation to the whole, lies the secret of Swasthya or well being. In the dictionary definition of Health as Heilida, Heilioz means “Whole” 3. Therefore, Health is not a static term but a dynamic one where the Being is becoming whole through parts of different states. To attain this in one’s life, one has to learn the skill to “Become” because “Becoming” whole is to experience ONENESS, which transcends parts. In experience one grows in “Consciousness”.

According to the Upanishads, the Purushas are: Annamaya Purusha (Food), Pranamaya Purusha (Life or Vital), Manonmaya Purusha (Mind), Vijnanamaya Purusha (Knowledge), Anandamaya Purusha (Bliss), Caitya Purusha (Psychic), and Sat Purusha (Divine Self). Purusha is also Consciousness. “Consciousness is a fundamental thing, existence – it is energy, the motion, the movement of Consciousness that creates the Universal and all that is in it – not only the macrocosm but the microcosm, nothing but Consciousness arranging itself”4. For global well being, man as a conscious being can contribute by becoming conscious of the highest Purusha or highest status of Consciousness. Purusha, therefore, means Being.
These planes of Consciousness, possess, powers, sense, capacities, which always are secretly acting in us, are connected with and impinge upon our physical organs and plexus, our physical life and mentality. “By self development, we can become aware of them, possess our life in them, get through them into “Conscious” relation with the life world and other worlds and use them also for a more subtle experience and more intimate knowledge of truths, facts and happenings of even the material world itself. We can by this self-development live more or less fully on planes of our existence other than the material, which is now in all of us”.

The fact of these planes needs to be explored by entering into them and experimenting in them and understanding how energy moves into them. Thus the Universal is created, by arranging these planes, the growing Spirit is experienced.
To organise the arrangement of energy, the energy centers as wheels or “Chakras” have to be studied. They are well-identified Seven Centers: Mooladhara, Swadistana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishudi, Ajana, Sahasrara. The quality of energy on these planes centers ranges from the gross (Annamaya Purusha, Pranamaya Purusha and Manomaya Purusha, to the subtle (spiritual planes between the Mind and Vijnanamaya), and from the subtle to the causal (Vijnanamaya)
Prakriti or Nature on the other hand consists of three kinds or three gunas: “Sattva is the force of equilibrium and translates in quality as good and harmony and happiness and light; Rajas is the force of kinesis and translates in quality as struggle and effort, passion and actions; Taimas is the force of unconsciousness and inertia and translates itself in quality as obscurity, incapacity and inaction.”

The highest manifested state of the Spirit of Brahman is Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. The state of well being of the whole or Swastya is to grow more and more into the Spirit and experience the highest.

The uniqueness of the experience of experimenting lies in arranging or organising both planes as Purusha with centers of Chakras, also understanding one’s nature of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. As a being enters into levels and centers Consciously, a state of union or Oneness develops, which is a Yogic State. An inner intelligence, inner sense-mind, inner subtle physical, develops and arranges itself. In this, energy also reorganises itself differently from the surface action. In reorganising, re-creation takes place as per the inner intelligence or intuition and as per the truth of one’s Soul or Spirit.
The above dimension of planes of Consciousness as Purusha, Nature as Prakriti (Sattvic, Rajasic, Tamasic), and energy centers as Chakras, was taken up for experimental study. The study was spread over four years. Postgraduate students studying Diet and Food Service Management of Smt. VHD. Central Institute of Home Science, Bangalore – 560 001, served as members of the Experimental and Control Groups.


Methodology
The Experimental Group was exposed to talks with slides, which gave them both theoretical, and practical knowledge as well as clues to enter into the inner subtle dimensions. The term “Intraconscient” and “Circumconscient” of Sri Aurobindo were explained to differentiate the subtle states from grosser states. These concepts, together with the concept of Yoga, Swastya, Arogya, etc., were explained, keeping the ancient Sanskrit language, context and depth as they take one to states beyond what the English language can handle. To explain the gross, subtle and causal and discriminate between the inner Yogic states, it was explained as follows:
“The terminology of Yoga recognises, besides the status of our physical and vital being, termed the gross body and doubly composed of the food-sheath and the vital vehicle, besides the status of our mental being, termed subtle body singly composed of the mind-sheath or mental vehicle, a third supreme and divine status of the “supramental”, termed as those of Knowledge and Bliss… And this Bliss is not a supreme pleasure of the heart and sensations, with the experience of pain and sorrow as its background, but a Delight also self-existent and independent of objects and particular experiences, as Self-Delight, which is the very nature, the very stuff, as it were, of a transcendent and infinite Existence.” 7
The experiment was so designed that each of the Purushas was projected to the Experimental Group to enter into and to distinguish and discriminate between the inner states of the Intraconscient and find their impact on the outer conscious states of the Circumconscient. In this experimental, the subjects of the Experimental Group were expected to observe there own inner states, record their reflection and then the changes that occurred within their own dimensions of conscious being by becoming aware of both the inner and other states. In this the subjects themselves experienced a living growth. This was recorded in three ways: One, by the prepared questionnaire that was supplied that elicited their physiological and psychological changes. Secondly, the openings that took place within them that gave intuitive direct experiences, where they were able to feel their psyche coming forward. Thirdly, entering into the inner dimension of the “Intraconscient” and discriminating between the three variables that was given as a tool or help. One was Sound, the sound of the silence (forest crickets), that was played which gradually turned into the sound of the sitar (Super imposed). Members of the Experimental Group were expected to go within and remember the effect of silence upon their inner dimension while listening to the music. The other was Prana, where the Experimental Group received special training to breathe consciously, awaken the Hand Chakras and discover the energy centers, and experiment between the impact of breath and thought. The third treatment was to inhale different Aromas and experience their impact on the inner states. These three treatments were given to the Experimental Group only but not to the Control Group. Whereas in the fourth year the Experimental Group received the benefit of Aroma-II, which was a blend of several aromas (perfumes). The highest states of Truth, Bliss, Peace and their impact upon the gross outer (physical pain, pleasure and indifference) and the subtle, inner state was studied.