Harsha Mohan Sarma
(harshasarma183@gmail.com)
‘‘It’s not stress that kills us; it is our reaction to it.” In other words, mental pressure alone cannot kill a person. It is only when one broods deeply over stress that the fear of death arises.
India’s renowned cardiologist Dr Mohit Gupta has also gained popularity for his motivational speeches. Through his life-orientated talks, he has been inspiring people to rediscover and celebrate life afresh. He has been able to clearly explain how modern lifestyles create a vacuum of human emotions within people and increase distances even between close relations. He has also presented a detailed analysis of how the complexities of modern life contribute to rising mental stress. Once, a young man was brought to Dr Gupta’s hospital in a near-death condition. He had suffered a severe heart attack.
Dr Mohit Gupta worked for nearly an hour with massage and artificial respiration to make the young man fit for surgery. After a successful operation, the patient was carefully placed in the ICU. Dr Gupta then began investigating the causes of the heart attack. The young man neither smoked nor drank alcohol, nor did he suffer from diabetes. His blood lipid profile was perfectly normal. Then why did he have a heart attack? The doctor began to think deeply. He wanted to discuss the matter with the young man’s relatives. His parents had come to the hospital. From them, the doctor learnt that the young man was married. He immediately expressed his wish to speak to the patient’s wife. However, the parents informed him that there was discord between their son and daughter-in-law and that they had applied for divorce in court. The divorce was likely to be finalized within a month. Therefore, they could not call the daughter-in-law at that moment. But Dr Gupta was insistent. He had to speak with the young man’s wife. Eventually, the parents conveyed the message to their daughter-in-law that the doctor wished to speak with her. She expressed no objection. By then, the young man had begun to recover gradually. His wife came to meet the doctor. During the conversation, Dr Gupta learnt that they had a four-month-old daughter. He also learned that the young man was a chartered accountant, and his wife was an IT professional. The doctor requested the wife to bring her husband for a check-up once a week for the next three months. She agreed. Holding her husband’s hand, she came regularly for check-ups over those three months. As days passed, the small misunderstandings and differences between them disappeared. The very mention of divorce vanished. The divorce papers were lost somewhere. Their daughter grew to be four years old. Thanks to the doctor’s timely intervention, their happy family life continued.
According to Dr Mohit Gupta himself, he performs around one hundred and fifty heart surgeries every week. Of these patients, nearly 33 percent are between twenty and thirty years of age. Though their biological age is between twenty and thirty, their genetic or body age resembles that of people between sixty and ninety. Mental unrest and stress are destroying human genes from within. As a result, the body’s age is increasing far beyond the actual age. Worry, insecurity, and discrimination keep a constant fire burning in the human brain. When the head remains overheated, anger rises to the surface. In anger, people lose their sense of right and wrong. They become incapable of judging good and bad. The power of understanding diminishes. Over trivial matters, even loved ones become strangers. Despair sets in. Many people, in a depressed state, lose balance. Unable to control themselves, they end up doing things they should not. Many others, unable to openly discuss their problems, become victims of heart attacks.
Today, many among us earn six-figure salaries. They have fine houses, expensive cars, and all the comforts of the modern world. Yet, the sacred purity of love that should exist within families has faded from their lives. Bonds with relatives have loosened, and many have forgotten the goals and purposes of life. Despite bringing many material possessions into their homes, people today spread very little happiness.
Those who have no purpose in life and no value for the sanctity of love in their hearts have become victims of social and psychological depression. Their genes are withering, and even at a young age, the exhaustion of premature old age has drained all the vitality from their lives.
In a world overflowing with technological conveniences, people today are wandering in search of happiness. Everyone thinks only of the destination and fails to enjoy the journey itself. Striving toward a goal is good, but sacrificing all happiness for the sake of achieving that goal is painful. Life is a journey, and it becomes meaningful only when it is enjoyed. Materialistic thinking can never make life enjoyable. To make life beautiful, spiritual awareness is essential.
A person who lacks a sense of compassion, who cannot feel another’s joy and sorrow, who does not try to understand others, whose heart is devoid of cooperation and filled with narrow-mindedness, can never be happy themselves nor make others happy.
From Dr. Mohit Gupta’s words, we can understand that people who have no purpose in life, no compassion in their hearts, who harbour jealousy and constantly think of harming others, who cannot easily accept defeat, and who break down mentally—such people experience progressive degradation of telomerase, eventually leading to complete breakdown and making them vulnerable to strokes. On the other hand, those who enjoy life, keep their minds cheerful, maintain good relationships with family and relatives, whose hearts flow with a living stream of love, who accept life simply without calculating wins and losses—such people can truly sing the song of life. The rate of telomerase degradation in them is minimal. Because their immune systems remain strong, diseases cannot easily overpower them.
No matter what shortages life may bring, one should never forget to smile. Only those who think of collective welfare, without focusing on personal gain or loss, can smile freely. Remembering that the purpose of life is the attainment of happiness, those who do good deeds themselves and inspire others to do good keep their genes strong. Medical research has shown that those who live with gratitude toward others have a pure heart and longer-lasting chromosomes.
Excessive stress can sometimes also make us mentally stronger. What we need is a positive outlook toward life.
What worries you masters you.