1. AGING
AND
TOTAL
STRESS
MANAGEMENT
DR.
SHRINIWAS
KASHALIKAR

2. Aging begins right from conception; but usually refers to the
changes; after the age of forty to fifty years. Thus; aging means
variable but distinct reduction in physical capacity and
performance; and the insecurity, anxiety, worry, tension and
depression resulting from the relative handicap.
What Total Stress Management?
Total Stress Management or Holistic health is an ongoing
progress in perceptions, feelings and actions; with increasing
accuracy, appropriateness, precision; and pleasure, power,
prosperity and profundity. Perception, feelings and actions are
also expressed by terms Cognition, Affect and Conation
(Productivity and Creativity); respectively.
A] Cognition:
In short, cognition means processing [appraisal] of a huge variety
of sensations impinging on us. We can appreciate the importance
of this faculty if we consider the two important facts viz. 24
hours of the day and twelve months of the year, every one of us
gets sensory inputs in the form of physical, instinctual, emotional
and intellectual stimuli, which may be painful or pleasurable in
the form of a variety of personal, familial, social, national and
international events. Cognition involves sensing, interpreting,
memorizing, questioning, pattern finding, analyzing, correlating,
synthesizing, contemplating, understanding, appreciating and
hypothesizing on the basis of this information input.

3. 2] Affect:
Affect means the effect of the variety of stimuli which, may
impinge on us. The affect is in a way, “sandwiched” between;
cognition or perception of stimuli and the conation or response.
In general it involves the activity of various parts of nervous,
endocrine and metabolic changes. The affect is usually
experienced as a] confidence, enthusiasm, excitement, pleasure,
happiness, love, attraction, patience, comfort etc. or b] sadness,
jealousy, hatred, depression, inhibition, diffidence, loneliness,
listlessness, impatience, discomfort etc.
3] Conation or action i.e. response (Productivity and
creativity):
Conation is the response of an individual. This can be in the form
of speaking, writing, singing, painting, dancing, fighting, and
other interactions usually referred to as behavior.
In Hindu tradition this response was aimed at fulfillment of life
and the precept for the life time activity was called
PURUSHARTHA. There were four sequential components; of
PURUSHARTHA viz.; DHARMA, ARTHA, KAAMA and
MOKSHA.
DHARMA refers to accuracy in perception, affect and conation.
This leads to ARTHA i.e. acquisition of material gains, followed
by KAAMA i.e. satisfaction of the mundane desires, which are

4. not against the principles of individual and universal blossoming)
and MOKASHA i.e. liberation from all sorts of bondages.
In short; Total Stress Management or holistic health; refers to
appropriate provision for the physical, instinctual, emotional,
intellectual needs; and fulfillment and happiness arising from it.
We can read several books on Total Stress Management available
on internet for free download and also read the articles on aging.
But in this article let us know about NAMASMARAN, which the
core of Total Stress Management.
Namasmaran means; remembering the name of God, Guru, great
souls; such as prophets and holy objects such as planets and stars. It
may be remembered silently, loudly, along with music, dance, along
with breathing, in group or alone, either with counting by rosary
(called SMARANI or JAPAMALA) or without counting. The
traditions vary from region to region and from religion to religion.
However the universal principle underlying NAMASMARAN is to
reorient your physiological being with your true self. In fact while
reorienting with true self you aim to establish and strengthen the
bond or connection; between; your physiological being; with your
true self. You aim at reunification with yourself!

5. Since remembering your true self is the pinnacle of or culmination
of individual consciousness, and individual consciousness is the
culmination of every activity in life, remembering any name of God
or Guru (any symbol of your true self) is equivalent to opening the
final common pathway for the individual consciousness associated
with every possible activity to get funneled into or unified with
objective or cosmic consciousness.
Thus NAMASMARAN is in fact the YOGA of YOGA in the sense
that it is the culmination of consciousness associated with every
possible procedure and technique in the yoga that you are familiar
with. It is the YOGA of YOGA because it is the culmination of
consciousness associated with all the activities in the universe,
which it encompasses as well! It is YOGA of YOGA because
everybody in the world irrespective of his/her tradition and the
beliefs; would eventually, ultimately and naturally reach it it in the
process of liberation. Even so called non believers also would not
“miss” the “benefit of remembering the true self through one
symbol or another”!
Just as NAMASMARAN is YOGA of YOGA it is meditation of
meditation also! It is the natural and ultimate climax of every form
of meditation.

6. These facts however have to be realized with persistent practice of
NAMSMARAN and not blindly believed or blindly disbelieved
with casual approach!
In short NAMSMARAN is super-bounty of cosmic consciousness
for every individual to realize it (cosmic consciousness)! This is
truly a super-bounty because a person, who experiences it, rises
above mercenary, commercial, professional and charity planes; and
manifests super-transactions in his or her life!
These are just few observations to give rough idea about what is
NAMASMARAN; it is an ocean of bliss and its true meaning is
beyond description!