STRESS

AND

OUR HOME

DR.
SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR
One of the major causes of SRTESS is our
multidimensional personality. We are not a monolithic
structure. We are not homogenous. We are; our physical
body, instincts, emotions, intelligence, perspective,
conscience and our soul. We live simultaneously; in our
house, our village, our town, our province, our country
and in the world and also in, past, present, and future;
and our imaginary world!

Since all this “living of ours” is interwoven and full of

multidirectional and shearing forces, pulls and pushes;
we experience STRESS.

This is why, we have all the STRESS, which the other

living beings have, which is further added with intricate
and complex issues; our STRESS has become a difficult
proposition to handle and conquer.

We simultaneously need harmonious functioning of our

body, we need fulfillment of our instincts, we need warm
and comforting emotional interactions and we need
clarity of thoughts from time to time in the form of
convincing answers. Since we also have ambitions; we
need achievements of creation, mastery, control, and
power over nature and others in other forms.
Thus we “feel at home” when we are free of physical
discomfort, we feel at home when our thirst is quenched
and our hunger is satiated, we feel at home we are
satisfied in terms of sexual urge and procreation, we feel
at home when we live in our habitat, we feel at home
when we get emotional warmth, we feel at home when we
are intellectually clear, we feel at home when we are in
positions of power and status we envisaged or aimed for
ourselves, and we feel at home when we are in our
village, town, state, province and our country.

But even after all this we are still incomplete and not
fully satisfied.

We do not get the ecstasy merely by well being of body,

fulfillment of instincts, by emotional gratification and
also after clarification of thousands of questions. We do
not get the bliss even after getting fame, money; gaining
control over matter and several natural phenomena; and
holding sway over people and other fulfillments.

What is it that is missing?

It appears that we suffer from STRESS even after all this

because; all these fulfillments are like different
components of an engine, which have to be assembled
and they are like different organs, which have to together
so as to achieve optimal functioning and homeostasis
respectively. Taking another analogy; they like the
different wires which have to be connected so as to
illuminate the room.

In simple words; all our achievements have NOT taken

us to the innate abode of ours, the innate home of ours,
where we can really “feel at home. Unless we reach and
experience the “feeling of being at this home”, which is
common to all the inhabitants of the universe; we can not
conquer the STRESS. However ever as we are on our
way to this home we keep getting glimpses of our home
and also the pinnacle or ecstasy of bliss “of being at
home” in true sense! This home of ours is not only deep
within us but is simultaneously present in the deepest
core of billions.

This is a glimpse of the richness of the experience of Saint

Dnyaneshwar who wrote in Marathi
HE VISHAVACHI MAJHEE GHARA
AISI MATI JAYACHI STHIRA
KIMBAHUNA CHARACHARA
APAN JHALA
(He himself; becomes the entire universe (the
omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent), whose
instincts, emotions and intelligence dissolve in; or get
bonded with the aphorism; “this whole universe is my
home”!)

Total Stress Management, which begins with the study of

meaning, causes, dimensions, effects, mechanisms, and
management of STRESS and practice and sharing of
Total Stress Management in terms of holistic perspective;
policies, plans and programs and actions; ultimately
merges in this state of being, through NAMASMARAN,
which reminds of “our true self” and “our home”; where
we really are victorious over STRESS and feel at home!

In “our home”; we (our self) are independent of

everything and yet in bond with the core of everything;
simultaneously! Here is the eternal and self generating
fountain of ambrosia.