8
Introduction
In India, especially in South India, if somebody sarcastically comments as “it is time for you to put hibiscus flower on your ear,” it indicates that a person is mentally not average. We can see such characters in Indian movies and dramas. Here; hibiscus is the incarnation of worship, and the mind of that person is unusual or disordered. In other words, there is a relationship between the two. It is difficult for a devotee to agree with this. Because belief is like that. This is an indication that their subconscious mind is tuned or conditioned in that manner.
Mental attitudes and Religion
In mental illness like obsessive-compulsive disorders, one of the significant obsessions is related to worship and matters related to religion. Such people always carry with them the books pertaining to their own religion. They spend their whole time with the devotion to faith, spend their time in temples, mosques, and churches, etc. The whole time is allocated for counting the beads of rudraksha. Mohammedans are trying to spend time in niskaram (salah) just like a punishment but, before that; to perform Vulu, i.e. cleansing with water, some of the obsessive people take a lot of time to please Allah; just like the advertisement in the Lifebuoy soap. This could be a mental disorder.
Man worship different kinds of gods for different needs. For namesake, all of us say that God is one intended for communal harmony. However, there is no unity between the methods of pleasing each God. Different types of things are given for satisfying the god. In South India Sabarimala; devotees say in Malayalam ‘Neyyabhishekam swaamikk’ to please and attract the attention of God Ayyappan. Christians promise and offer to their god ‘we will light candles.’ Muslims say we will give Zakat. In all these contributions to the god, decisions are taken by the worshippers without the consent of God. Man is responsible for all these contradictions. Hence in the mental condition man is responsible for this. As per the psychologist Carl Rogers, a mentally healthy person expresses his opinion independently, and he shows a willingness to experiment with his mental condition. In man’s worshipping pattern, there is no such independent opinion. Obedience and submission are the criterions for worship. It is just like a herd of sheep.
In Kerala, Brahmin houses are known as Mana’s, Mosques and Churches, etc. have played some role in treating mentally ill people with the background of superstitious beliefs. Very rarely it used to have some right side also. In other words, before the emergence of modern medicine, they were of some help to the mentally ill; to a certain extent. Old methods of treating mentally ill can be considered as an aid for modern treatment very rarely. In the Malayalam cinema Manichithrathazhu, as per the wish of the Karanavar or the head of the family, Brahmadattan Namboothiri is called to perform witchcraft. However, when Dr. Sunny the renowned Psychiatrist came, he gives way to Sunny and helps him to do the treatment in a combined form. The famous rationalist, the late Dr. A. T. Kovur from his case diary wrote an article in which he could cure a female patient having a belief that she had a ghost in her body. Dr. Kovur tied a string on the chest of the lady and the other end he linked to a matchbox. He kept a distance from the lady and told her that the ghost was being evacuated from her body through the string into the matchbox. He performed some rituals to have a mental satisfaction for the lady, and finally, Dr. Kovur said that the entire ghost has been evacuated from the body of the lady and occupied the matchbox. He lit fire to the matchbox and affirmed that the spirit had been burnt off. The lady got cured of her problem. This is a case where the therapist traveled with the patient with empathy.
As a part of mental illness treatment, there used to be a method known as a trephination. Trephination is the removal of a circular piece (“button”) of the cranium by a trephine. It is said that the people who underwent such process lived even up to 15 years even after making a hole in their skull. It is evident from the old heads from countries like China, Columbian Mizzou, America, and Greece, who are not behind in superstitious beliefs.
As per modern science, whether the behavior of a person is normal or abnormal, the character and conduct depend upon the quality and content of chemical substances in the brain, whether he is a believer in god, atheist or mentally ill person. The chemical substances are norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. In a mentally ill person, there may be an abnormal increase or decrease in these substances. Dopamine is essential because that is responsible for happiness, mania, sadness, anger, depression, etc. These chemical substances are known as neurotransmitters.
When we come across the word transmitter, it comes to our mind as something related to radio, etc. Yes. Here what happens is that just like radio or TV waves, it transmits impulses from one cell to another. These cells are known as neurons. The transmitters are situated in between the brain cells. The brain cells are not touching each other. That is why neurotransmitters are required to transmit the impulses. As per modern science, the mind is not in the chest as a common man demonstrates it. It is inside the brain between the neurons. The parents should appropriately route such a kind of thought in children. They should be given an independent thinking attitude by the parents in choosing the god or not, the pattern of worship, etc. Better not to tell them ‘this is your god, you worship this god only, and this is the method of worshipping’ in most of our families. Such types of attitude by the parents induced in children are leading to fanaticism later. Just as Persian Poet Omer Khayyam and the Indian poet Harivamshray Bachan, the worshipping places should be destroyed to have a harmonious human relationship.
Religion, a myth:
Most of the psychologists consider religion as a myth; a myth created by man. In the faith, one man said, “I am a prophet and God’s beloved disciple.” Another man said “I am the son of God” “I am entrusted with the job of making you better by washing off your sins. In some religion like Hinduism, responsibilities, and portfolios are divided by themselves or the believers, or ancient writers divided the portfolio. Each god of Hindu says that the whole administration of the universe is in their hands. Whether it is a god, prophet or son of God; the so-called world is imagined as the place around them. Even though sin or good deed are within the god’s control, God makes his devotees and other people to do the crime again and again. Why not he makes a man do only punyam or good deed instead of sin or paapam? According to a psychologist’s point of view all these, sons of God, prophets or other, gods are myths created by man and such men are slaves of delusion or hallucination. As mentioned earlier, neurotransmitters are responsible for behavior. According to the condition, such persons may need treatments. Apart from all these, there are pervasive disorders known as personality disorders which are difficult to correct many a time. In our world, we can see many people with personality disorders and in fact to some extent such disorders help us to question many of the things happening in the world and maintain the balance. All the people are not like many of the politicians and social culprits, and it should not be so.
The Reflex of worship:
Reflex is a thoughtless process of mind. There was a behavioral scientist by name Ivan Pavlov in Russia. He used a dog to study the reflex. He trained the dog in such a way that before giving food, he used to ring a bell. The process continued for several days, and on one day he just rang the bell, and no food was given. When examined the mouth of the dog, a good quantity of salivae was produced even without seeing the menu. The same thing happens when a person reaches in front of a temple, church or mosque. Devotees perform their mode of actions such as opposing the palms, drawing the cross, etc. In the Malayalam cinema Rasathanthram, there is a classic example of this. The housewife beats and pinches the poor maidservant girl while there was a group prayer in front of Jesus going on in their home. She was not paying attention to the prayer. Just as a reflex the housewife is performing the prayer. This type of automatic prayer is an example of classical conditioning. There was another Behavioral Scientist by name Watson. He proved that the behavioral pattern is due to our conditioning and can be changed by reconditioning. After reading and thinking, a believer becomes a non-believer. Our thoughts are becoming words; words are becoming actions and actions are becoming habits and habits become destiny. Our gods are those which our parents had taught us. From that day onwards the reflex of conditioning works. There is no place for thought. If anybody says against that, he will be labeled as disobedient. That fear instigates us to fear the god. Proverbs like ‘Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom’ stabilize such worships in childhood itself. This is the basis of our religious worship.
Competitions between the worshiping places:
This is a vicious cycle. If devotional songs or lectures are coming from a temple or for that matter any holy place; through loudspeakers which disturbs the public alike, there will be a tendency from the mosque or churches do the same with a competitive spirit to make a loud baank or adhan. Christians especially Pentecost Christians counter with loud songs like “enthathishayame daivatthin sneham’, Hallelooyya, etc. Several years ago there used to be a large massacre of domestic fowls in Kodungallor, Thrissur District in Kerala which is a temple of Kaali goddess. This was started to curtail the spread of Buddhism who’s one of the main principles is ahimsa. In those days there used to be a lot of Malayalees from that area who were employed in Cylon where one of the significant religions prevailing was Buddhism, and Buddhism started spreading in their native places. This is what history says. In short, without the help of God, when a religion preached ahimsa, the same religion didn’t exist there for a long time where fowl massacre is performed as part of belief.
There are mainly three types of mental disorders. They are psychosis, neurosis and personality disorders. Majority of the worshippers are having some degree of psychosis and personality disorders. In psychosis, the major complications are affective disorders related to emotions and moods. There are elevated mood disorders which are known as maniac disorders and depressive disorders which are related to elevated mood and depressed mood respectively. Keeping hibiscus flower on the ear could be an example of slight maniac disorder. Psychosis is linked to feelings. Irrational way of worshipping could be due to this. When the person is performing unreasonable worshipping methods throughout his life, the same could be a personality disorder.
In some ladies, the aged husbands were unwanted creatures. For the same lady, gods like Sri Krishna are more important than husbands. Husbands when alive had only the place of a security person or unwanted creature. More affection is given to gods like Krishna by Hindu ladies. After menopause, there will be a hormonal imbalance in ladies, and they don’t care about the biological or physical needs of their husbands. By spending more time in the worshipping place, they get satisfaction. They don’t remember their young age in which they were cooperative and obedient wives who had received the husbands with modesty in their bedroom. Now they shout at their husbands for silly things. Here the wife is not considering the human feelings of the husband. The same wife is happy when she is among several people crowded in the temple to hear a devotional talk by the priest or devotional songs, forgetting the needs of the husband. Even after hearing such talks, character improvement seldom happens. If it happens, all the ladies going to the worshiping place would have changed as loving wives.
Religious delusion:
Some of the psychologists consider religion as a delusion. The human beings who are transformed and pretends as the incarnation of god are prey for such a mental condition. Abraham who was prepared to sacrifice and assassinate his son, Moses who led the masses to Sinai hills and said to have heard the Ten Commandments were prone to delusion or hallucination. The people who claim that they heard gods voice are found to have the problem of auditory delusion. In auditory delusion, one hears what is actually not said by the god or by any other character. In dreams or without dreams some even see the god. This is known as visual hallucination.
In 1907 Sigmund Freud the father of psychology said that religion is an obsessional neurosis. He also said that even believing the god is a delusion. Many of the human gods have the problem of the delusion of grandeur. Such people think that they are great. Obviously or not they ask their disciples to worship them. Coward disciples follow them as obedient servants. Whatever such human god does, whether it is a magic or not, the disciples think that it is because of godliness. The disciples won’t be having any self-confidence.
Group Prayer
There is a mental condition known as glossolalia which is an unintelligible jargon or babbling. An example of this is Hallelujah. Here the worshippers get pleasure by saying it together in a group. If anybody asks the meaning of this word, they don’t have a definite meaning to say. They will say this is a word to praise the god. This word was originated from the Hebrew Bible. While going to Sabarimala in Kerala, the pilgrims repeatedly say Swamye Ayyappa, Ayyappa Swamye in a rhythmic way. Here also the same pleasure; the devotees are getting.
Jerusalem Syndrome:
This is a mental condition seen in people who came back from Jerusalem. This happens to anybody in any religion after visiting their respective holy places. In the Malayalam cinema Chinthavishtayaaya Shyamala, the same thing happens to the hero Srinivasan after coming back from Shabarimala. Before going to the holy place, the person would be normal. Mecca, Rishikesh, Rome, all these places give the same effect. In mental conditions like schizophrenia after the reasons such as stress and genetics, the third may be related to religion or god. Irrational believers are prone to this condition. Even the announcements and songs through loudspeakers will make them stimulated and may also work as a triggering factor for mentally ill people.
When a person is having all the achievements in life, his aim is to go to the next stage and ultimately what he aims is to achieve the godliness. This achievement has some relationship with the theory of Abraham Maslow, the psychologist. The psychology in India is known as Oriental Psychology. The Indian concept of Brahmacharya, Grihastha, Vanaprastha, and Sanyasa have some relationship with Maslow’s theory. Nishkaama karma has a distant relationship with Maslow’s theory.
There is a mental condition known as Primary Obsessional Stenosis. People having such condition will hold religious rituals without any compromise. This influences his daily routine. His desire is to be perfect with all rituals. They are prepared to sacrifice even their job to have perfection in religious works.
Worship for the sake of Status:
Persona is a mask. The word personality was originated from this. We use this to mingle with people outside. A person who wears a persona properly is a man with a good personality. In our society, a person with religious beliefs will have a good status. Our Kerala’s past chief minister Karunakaran’s Guruvayoor visit is known for the public. On the day of his visit, all poor people should give way to him. This is due to his persona or personality. There was a story about Meppathur Narayana Bhatathirippad who used to come to Guruvayur just like Karunakaran. Another poor poet Poonathanam Namboothiri also used to come there. It is said that one day, Guruvayoorappan told Meppatthoor that I like Poonathanam than you. But, it seems that the same Guruvayoorappan is not there today.
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The Strength of Persona
In a circus tent: The dwarf clown comes and announces that the tent is under fire. Because the clown said, nobody minded. Then a normal height clown comes and says the same. Nobody cared. So many clowns came and repeated the same. No response. Ultimately the circus Manager came in full suit announced the same. Then the audience took it seriously. However, by that time the tent was almost burnt. Many people say that there is a rebirth for human beings many educated people do not believe that also. However, when Justice V R Krishna Ayer said it, many people believed, and that is because of Justice Krishna Ayer’s persona. The recognition of a saint coming to the house for begging and the saint sits at a decorated place; delivering a good speech is different. This is another example of a persona.
It is believed that Veda books are originated from God and the points and instructions what the gurus and prophets or son of God say are said to them by the god and each of the religion says that theirs is the right path. The man should think about these contradictions patiently.