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© 2005 Sanatan Sanstha

Need for Spirituality

Importance of augmenting medical treatment with Spirituality

    Science-schooled doctors once regarded religious practices and spiritual belief with suspicion, but a recent survey says that more than eight in every ten Americans think that prayer or meditation can augment medical treatment. Nearly as many - 74 percent - feel that a doctor should either discuss a patient’s spiritual needs with him or her, suggest prayer, or offer to refer his patients to a spiritual counsellor. “The positive results from scientific studies on the clinical benefits of prayer and belief on health, combined with patients’ desire to acknowledge their Spirituality, have led more and more physicians and healthcare professionals to seek education in this area that, until recently, was unavailable,” says Dr. John Templeton, founder of a non-profit organization in New York that supports education and research on religion and medicine. In the public survey, 54 percent said that doctors should get special training during or after medical school on how to incorporate a patient’s spiritual needs into treatment.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of positive health in the physical, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions. Hence, to achieve a complete cure, therapy or treatment has to encompass all these dimensions. Spirituality, being the subtlest dimension, needs to be paid maximum attention. Aside from specific spiritual treatment for a specific cure, regular spiritual practice helps maintain basic good health by changing the destiny of man.

– Editor.

*If one is not currently doing any spiritual practice, or to complement one's current spiritual practice, one can begin with the simple, but powerful spiritual practice of chanting or constantly remembering God's Name according to one's religion. Chanting also acts as a useful complement to any spiritual path one may be already following. It is a practice recommended for the current times by Holy texts and Saints of all religions.

• Seekers in the initial stages of spiritual practice (less than one year) can repeat The Name of the Lord as per their religion (refer to Issue 3 Clarification of Doubts section for details).

• Seekers who have been doing regular spiritual practice for over a year or so can determine the appropriate chant for them from the experiment given in Issue 124, Message to Seekers section.