From the Desk of Coordinator, Bioinformatics Centre

The concept of   Soul – Mind – Body Medicine

          As a Biochemist, I am always perplexed about how to define life and death as we observe a very thin line between them. Now a days we talk of death of living man or organism and even we try to explain cell death by scientific experiments. Soon we shall understand the mechanism of molecular death as well. Otherwise how can one explain for the half  life of a molecule. A body dies, organs like eyes or kidneys are transplanted. The organs become alive in another body. On separation, liver tissue dies, but we isolate protein molecules like enzymes which are functional. They function similar to what they do in the living body. Further one can go on to atomic level and explain. It is only organization and reorganization and no such thing as death at atomic level.  Thus we may define that any organized structure with a function has life in it. That means we can talk of a man or a car having life in it. Thus you see life force or energy in every one, living or nonliving (measured by simple indicators of growth, movement etc). No wonder we do pooja to the tools we use.  While sensory perception zeroes to life force or energy, extra sensory perception leads to the presence of soul or spiritual energy which is omnipresent and all pervading without beginning or end. Thus we say death of the body but not the soul. 
                                 Soul (spiritual energy) is like electrical energy flowing through an electric wire, which can not be seen but can be experienced by knowledge or functioning of an electric bulb. Mind is thinking power / mental energy of the Soul. It has four components T.E.A.M.- Thoughts (T), Emotions (E), Attitudes (A) and Memories (M). Mind – body connection is very strong. Positive thought or emotion releases endorphins, encephallins, melatonin etc. and parasympathetic dominance which leads to feeling of well being, happiness and pooling of energy. Negative mental patterns (T.E.A.M.) lead to disease (Rai & Ram, Nisargopachar Varta, Oct 2001). The researchers using position emission tomography (PET) to measure brain activity have shown an extra blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the individuals showing negative effect – bad moods such as irritability, anxiety or anger. Positive mood or ‘relaxation response’ results in decreased blood flow. Body Mind Programming (Krishnaswamy & Dham, Bhavan’s Journal, Oct  2001) helps in transforming ourselves from what we are to what we want to become and success in our set goals. Thus the concept of Soul-Mind-Body Medicine emphasizes importance of Spiritual health for physical health and well being. Yoga is gaining momentum in management of stress related ailments. Possibly for this reason there is global demand of Complementary and Alternative Systems of Medicine by Health care providers. SEVAMED has rightfully given importance for advances in Traditional Medicine. Taking this opportunity we appreciate the support of Shri. Nadir Godrej for Sevamed by sponsoring advertisement.

                                                                                                                                                            
  April   1, 2002                                                                   Dr. B.C. Harinath

Shri. Dhirubhai Mehta, President, KHS, Sevagram addressing the participants at the Inaugural function of the International Symposium on Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy on February 1, 2002.