Long
term (1 1/2 years) practice of Saral meditation for 20 minutes a day without
mantra has been shown to significantly improve intelligence, performance
and reduce tension. However, Saral Meditation reduces the reaction time
at 2 months without significant change in other parameters.
Consciousness of breathing when mind is free might contribute to early
mental alertness. |
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INTRODUCTION
Saral meditation is the fi rst known meditation without mantra1 with universal
a c c e p t a n c e . 2 It has been demonstrated that practice of Saral
meditation for nearly 1 1/2 years significantly improves intelligence and
academic performance as well as reduces tension and improves confidence.2-4
There were also considerable changes in psychomotor ability and cardiopulmonary
functions.3 practice.
Purpose of present study was to compare short term effect of Saral meditation
with long term practice.
METHODS
All the 2nd year students (42) of Nursing College of Bombay Hospital were
included in this study with prior consent during Sept. 2001. Following
parameters were studied among the students aged 17-19 years - reaction
time, mental status
questionnaire and cardiopulmonary functions along with assessment of examination
results so far. This was followed by 3 days of training of saral meditation,
recording step by step progress. Details procedure had been reported earlier.3
In short, students were asked to sit in a comfortable position in a chair
with doors closed in a quiet room. They were instructed to close eyes
with back straight and asked to offer prayer with total submission to
the God almighty, according to their own belief and express their own
desire to be achieved for a minute. Then they were instructed to observe
their
breathing and remain conscious of it to reach a stage where the individual
is unaware of breathing but conscious within, a stage of complete silence
and absolute tranquility. This stage will come after years of practice
of saral meditation. This is a state of self awareness, once this state
is reached mind is elevated from gross level to finer aspect. Since body
is veda5,6 when mind is elevated body will take it up and both body and
mind will be regulated by Law of nature whereby all regular and normal
impulses will be received by body and mind and abnormal or harmful impulses
will be eliminated.
Every individual so awakened acts by Law of Nature to achieve perfection
in all aspects of life including decision making. Consciousness of breath
is a constant process to be practised even at other time when mind is
free.
RESULTS
Results show that there is significant increase in intelligence, based
on general knowledge and academic performance after 18 months of practice
of saral meditation. However, short term practice for 2 months does not
produce any significant change in these parameters (Table 1 and Figs.
1 and 2). Cardiopulmonary functions did not alter significantly either
with short or long term practice of meditation (Table 2). Pulmonary function
(PEFR) also did not show any significant difference. No such study has
been reported elsewhere. We had also reported effect of Saral meditation
on reaction time.2 Present results show that there is significant improvement
even after short term practice of Saral meditation (Table 3). |
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Fig. 1 : Development
of intelligence (GK). |
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Fig. 2 : Academic performance.
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DISCUSSION
Present results show that short term meditation for 2 months does not
produce any appreciable change either in terms of increased intelligence
as well as academic performance compared to 18 months of practice. We
had earlier studied long term practice of Saral meditation for 18 months
showing significant improvement in above parameters. Cardiopulmonary functions
were also studied without any significant change.
Transcendental meditation (TM) had been shown to improve intelligence,
performance and tension after 11 months of regular practice of meditation.
Blood pressure and pulse rate had also been shown to be significantly reduced.
However, in our study, we could not find any significant change either
in BP or heart rate. OM meditation also has been shown to reduce pulse
rate but not BP.7,8 It seems that BP and pulse rate were reduced when
they were elevated. In the present study, subjects were normal and healthy
young girl with absolutely normal BP and pulse rate which were not expected
to be reduced markedly although marginal change was observed. Effect of
meditation on pulmonary function (PEFR) has been studied for the first
time by us and no data is available for comparison. However, there has
not been any significant improvement after short and long term practice
of Saral meditation. It may be explained on the same basis as in BP
and pulse rate. In young subjects, without suffering from any ailments,
PEFR was not expected to rise significantly although there has been marginal
improvement. From the trends it appears that if BP and pulse rate are
raised and PEFR is reduced due to any reasons, Saral meditation will bring
these parameters towards normal. Plan has been made to study these aspects
in patients suffering either from hypertension and/or tachycardia and
pulmonary disorders. Reaction time however, has been significantly reduced
in our study even after 2 months of practice of meditation. Insignificant
change after 18 month’s meditation in earlier study was due to less
number of subjects (N=10) against (N=42) in 2 months study. Mental alertness
based on simple reaction time has been reported with TM.8 Indirect evidence
of mental alertness in terms of wakefulness has also been shown both by
TM and OM meditation based on alpha wave changes in EEG.5,9 Mental alertness
might be a contributory factor for increased intelligence and performance.
Unlike other meditations Saral meditation is practiced once a day for
20 minutes, however, one has to be conscious about breathing whenever
mind is free. |
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REFERENCES
1. Dhar HL. Saral meditation. BHJ 2000; 42 : 605-7.
2. Dhar HL. Saral meditation - a unique technique for health, intelligence,
performance and confidence. BHJ 2001; 43 (3) : 357-60.
3. Shah AH, Joshi SV, Mehrotra PP, Naina Potdar, Dhar HL. Effect of Saral
Meditation on intelligence, performance
and cardiopulmonary function. Ind J Med Sc 2001; 55 (11) : 604-8.
4. Dhar HL. Meditation, health, intelligence and performance. APICON 2002;
202 : 1376-9.
5. Tony Nadar. Human physiology, expression of veda and vedic literature.
Maharishi vedic University press, Vlodrop,
Holland, 1993.
6. Dhar HL. Veda in relation to human physiology and health. BHJ 1996;
38 (2) : 354-7.
7. Shirley Telles, Nagarathna R, Nagindra HR. Autonomic changes during
‘OM’ meditation. Ind J Physiol Pharmacol
1995; 39 (4) : 418-40.
8. Appelle S, Oswald LE. Simple reaction time as a function of alertness
and prior mental activity. Perceptual and Motor
Skills 1974; 38 : 1263-8.
9. Shirley Telles, Nagarathna R, Nagindra HR. Autonomic changes while
mentally repeating two syllables - One Neurology, 2003; 2 : 375-78. |
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CONSENT
TO THROMBOLYSIS IN ACUTE ISCHAEMIC STROKE
The process of obtaining consent informs patients about the
treatments and their risks and respects the patient’s autonomy’
The use of intravenous alteplase to treat acute ischaemic stroke
has recently been approved in the EU and is already approved for
use in the USA. The patient’s consent to the treatment is
needed before it can be used. There are, however, only poor guidelines
on how consent to this treatment should be obtained. In a Personal
view in the June issue of The Lancet Neurology, Alfonso Ciccone
tackles several important issues, such as the difficulties of informing
patients about a medical therapy and obtaining their consent in
emergency treatment, substitutive and waiver of consent in life-threatening
situations,and advance directives.
Lancet Neurology, 2003; 2 : 375-78. |
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