Recent trends in Geriatrics and Gerontological Studies - State Level Conference

Who needs spiritual counseling?

From close introspection, as well as conversation with many a villager and some sacred specialists, it revealed that spiritualism in the form of counseling and therapy is very much important for those elderly who are:

1. Living alone due to loss of spouse,
2. Lonely and have less visitors,
3. Feeling in secured due to lack of care and sustenance
4. Under apprehension of being driven out of family by the care-giver due to inability to provide basic necessities of life,
5. Unable to cope up with the generation gap and fast changing roles and responsibilities,
6. Undergoing surgery,
7. Terminally ill, and
8. Pre-occupied with the relationship between religion and health.

It is interesting to note that while the commoners identified the 8 categories of elderly who might need spiritual counseling more, the sacred specialists like Swamiji, Maharaj, Monk, Chief priest of various religious centers expressed the view that ageing and spirituality are totally different entities and unrelated to one another. The former is a biological process of all living beings, while the latter is a process for upliftment of human mind in order to achieve salvation. One is a natural process, the other, a supernatural one. Spirituality enables a person to think that all material objects of the world are meaningless. The only truth is the Supreme Being. Anybody can purify his/her mind through the practice of chanting the name of God, having utmost faith, prayer, worship, listening to sacred books like the Srimad Bhagabat Gita / Quarana / Granth Saheb / Holy Bible, or through Dhyana (meditation) etc. In this way a person can detach himself from this mundane world and achieve spirituality. For older persons spiritualism acts a diversional therapy and helps them to face the inevitable calmly.

Who can provide Spiritual Therapy?

•  Family and Friends

The physician attending an elderly patient can urge family members and friends to spend more time with the elderly to demonstrate their love and concern. Family members can be included to encourage the elderly member for chanting the name of God, reading out favorite religious passages or prayer books. Always encourage an elderly to keep religious symbols nearby which may be a source of consolation and support. Elderly who can walk may be allowed to do so by visiting to the nearby holy centres in the evening with an escort for listening to the songs or speeches delivered by the religious leaders.

•  Religious leaders

Some hospitalized elderly may find consolation by the visit of their gurus (preceptors) or religious advisors. The attending nurse should enquire if the elderly would like such a visit and can make arrangements for the same. The nurse may be able to provide the religious advisor with information which can help him counseling the elderly.

•  Community

The elderly, whether living alone or with their family, need community support for their well-being, neighbors, community health volunteers and local religious leaders can provide moral and spiritual support to the elderly. An organized community support system for the elderly may be useful. It has been mentioned elsewhere how some NGOs in Kolkata and in rural areas of West Bengal are rendering yemen 's service to the elderly to overcome their misery through religious practices. A common place for meditation in the community will help in strengthening their religious beliefs.

Methods of providing spiritual help

The three different ways to provide spiritual course to the needy elderly

Method 1

The elderly should be made to believe that these earthly objects which we can feel through our sensory organs are all finite and illusory. None can overcome the sorrow and misery through mundane device. Citation of the examples of Siddhartha, Baba Loknath, Sri Nimai Chaitanya, Lalon Fakir, Kabir, Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh will be of much help. The elderly must know that there is a divine being known differently to different people as God/ Allah / Christ who can liberate a devout from these from these suffering and protect from further distress. He will guide us when we enter into his kingdom. The elderly shall, first of all, purify their body and mind through singing and chanting the name of God, offering prayer, practicing, meditation or reasoning, keeping concentration of mind, offering services to him, helping people for their well-being, listening to the holy texts and so on. These should be observed regularly with utmost devotion. He/She shall spend a good deal of time in transcendental thoughts, constantly pray to God to bestow upon his/her such power as to get full enlightenment to perceive the Almighty. An elderly should remember Shree Ramakrishna's advice of detaching oneself from the earthly matters and engage solely in spiritual exercise for salvation. For practical purposes, formal religion with its dogmas, myths and rituals must always be adhered to but simultaneously it should be kept in mind that morality, art, service and knowledge shall also be developed to their fullest extent. For, in this lies the path of the real salvation of most people. In the Hindu philosophy tamas (inertia) must be overcome by rajas (activity); rajas by sattva (tranquil joy). But sattva cannot be achieved instantly for, it grows only gradually.

Method 2

The next method is based on the doctrine of Karma and belief in the re-incarnation of soul. The elderly should be made aware that his/her present misery and sorrow owe their origin not due to the effect of his/her deeds of the present life but to the result of the deeds of previous life. His / her activities of the present life will determine the shape of his / her fate in the next life. So it would be the duty of the anguished elderly to refrain themselves from the worldly affairs and deeply concentrate on such activities which shall lead them to the path of salvation.

Method 3

One of the most vital lessons that need to be imparted on a needy elderly is to remind him/her of the illusory nature of the world as well as mortality of every living being as mentioned in the Srimad Bhagabat Gita or in the Holy Qurana. This body and mind are not real; the real is the atma (soul) which is neither perishable nor destructible. Beyond our body and mind there lies an infinite, omnipotent spirit known as Param Brahma which is eternal in nature. We all should thrive for arriving at that stage of eternal bliss.