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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

(1-29-2000)

Questions from an American student Social Worker/Counsellor

(first email)

Subj: would like to ask you some questions

Namaste.

I hope you do not find that I am being too forward in asking you some
questions. I obtained your e-mail address from a discussion board. I am a
student at a Florida. I am doing a short paper on Hinduism. I am a social
work major and the point of this paper is to explore certain aspects of
your culture that would be important for social workers to know in order
to work effectively with people who are Hindu. I would like to know how
mental health counseling is regarded by the Hindu community, as well as
Western medicine. This information would be very helpful to me, as well
as any other suggestions you might have as to how social workers could
be more sensitive to the needs of the Hindu community.

Thank you

================

(reply 2)

Subj: India, mental health, social work, health care

Date: 1/28/00 6:49:42 AM Eastern Standard Time

Of course years ago, I used to live in New York City, which is unique in
having so many books stores, and access to things that you might not find
in other parts of the country.

On Broadway and 12th st is Strands Used Bookstore, one of the largest
stores of its type in the country. About 5 years ago, I found a hardcover
book printed in India about mental health, social work, and statistics. I
thumbed through it to see if there were any particular mention of religious
beliefs, and there did happen to be one interesting paragraph. I couldnt
really buy the book, because I have so many, I must limit myself. And I
cant remember the name.

The contact that I have with people raised in India, or living in India
demonstrates to me that they are very much urbanized, and
Americanized in their outlooks on mental health, health care, etc. But of
course I dont get to make contact with people in remote villages, the
so-called "tribals" or aboriginal peoples who have not been absorbed into
modern western society, culture, and values.

One book you might enjoy is entitled 'Sadhu' (which means Hindu Holy
Man, or Ascetic, or Renunciate). It is a collection of photographs of Holy
Men throughout India, taken in the 1980s by a german photographer. It
has plenty of good reading too. India keeps track (a census, a register) of
Sadhus, and 5 MILLION were on record at that time, out of a population
of perhaps 700 million (im guessing at the figures). I have the book here,
and if you need me to dig it out and give you the ISBN, I will, but it will
take some time to find it.

===================================

(reply 3)

Subj: part 2, reflections on india, health care, mental health

Date: 1/28/00 7:05:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

A search on the internet using altavista.com, hotbot.com, or one of the
other numerous search engines may possibly yield much information, but
one must be clever in choosing search keywords and phrases, and then
be persistant and methodical following up on all browser pages returned,
and new keywords and links which are revealed....

A wonderful book for you to read, just on general principles is, "From Sad
to Glad", its about depression, with an excellent description of how
antidepressant and psychoactive medication works, and how it evolved
from the very first "reserpine" (from the plant rawolfia reserpina). I
believe its in that book that an example is taken of depression in other
cultures, such as india. The exact example may have been a village in
Indonesia, but the gist of it was that THAT culture considered it OK to go
through depression, a sort of natural phase, so when someone became
clinically depressed, then simply crawled into their hut for a few months,
and everyone would simply say "Oh, so and so it....(and I cant remember
what they would call it but it was considered a natural phase)".... and after
a while, they would be ok.....

You might very much enjoy Ghandi's autobiography (which he wrote in
english, so it is not necessary to read someones translation). This book
will give you a flavor and feeling for the Indian personality, from someone
who was born in the last century.

Another interesting book/author that comes to mind is Ekanath Easwaren,
who wrote "The Unstruck Bell", as well as many other books on Eastern
Spirituality. Ekanath Easwaren met Ghandi, and Rabindranath Tagore.
Easwaren is still alive, in california, though in his 80's .

He tells an interesting anecdote from his childhood. He questioned his
mother (or was it grandmother) about the process of death and dying.
She said, "here let me show you something". She said, "You sit in this
chair, and hold onto the wooden arms as tightly as I can, while I try to
pull you out". She succeded after a bit of a struggle, in pulling the boy out,
and he said "Ouch, that hurt!". Then she told the boy, "Now, lets do that
again, but THIS time, dont struggle or resist at all, just relax." He followed
her instructions, and she gently lifted him out of the chair.

"My!", he said, "that didnt hurt one bit!". Of course, her lesson to him is
that if we RESIST the physical reality of this body, we suffer, but if we
SURRENDER, and accept, then there is no suffering, as it is a natural
process.

==================================

(reply 4)

Subj: Part 3, reflections on india, and mental health

Date: 1/28/00 7:15:31 AM Eastern Standard Time

I personally see a great irony in modern society and medicine.

We are discovering all sorts of (expensive) ways to extend human life
even beyond age 100. Yet we are not discovering ways to make even the
lifepan which we now enjoy MEANINGFUL for the average person.

A bachelor degree from college is considered a bare minimum
pre-requisite to eek out a living. Such a bachelor's degree is VERY
expensive, perhaps placing an individual or family in years of debt. And
yet that bachelor's degree by itself is similar to a highschool diploma of 50
years ago. One must then earn an MBA or Masters, or some other type of
advanced professional certification.

And once we reach even the age of 50, society is no longer so anxious to
give us employment. Society values youth, people in their 20s. So the
individual is like a disposable commodity. Years ago, we were not well
dressed unless we had a nice clean white starched handkerchief in our
pockets. It is true, sometimes we actually blew our noses on it, but when
we did, we laundered and ironed it again for another use; we didnt
through it out. This is the age of kleenex. Use it once and throw it away.
In some sense, individuals have become like this; disposable. Companies
are constantly downsizing, out-sourcing, etc etc.

And even if one DOES manage to acquire a good education, and skills,...
well after 10 years, it is obsolete. So one must begin the education
process all over again.

In the 1950's, engineers studied vacuum tubes, in the 1960s, transistors,
in the 1970s, integrated circuites, and lord only knows what they are
studying right now.

Engineers speak of the "half-life" of their knowledge. The REALLY smart
ones scurry to enter sales and management, where rewards are HIGHER,
and one doesnt HAVE to worry about knowledge becoming obsolete,
because one no longer KNOWS how to do anything. One simply orders
around the new young crop of "kleenex" people, who DO know what to
do, until they are used up, at which point we can throw them out (lay
them off).

===================================

(reply 5)

In a message dated 1/27/00 3:49:19 PM

<< This information would be extremely helpful to me, I am writing a
paper about how social workers can be sensitive and helpful to clients of
cultures other than that their own, specifically the Hindu culture. >>

THE ABOVE sentence stands out in my mind, as I reread your email. I
guess what I am trying to say, is that all those "other cultures" are very
rapidly becoming Americanized, and turning into the great american
hot-dog/hamburger culture of consipcuous consumption.....

One is very conscious of this transformation, if they spend a lot of time
on-line using ICQ (from mirabilis.com) chat program to talk to people in
india.... if you download this free program... I will give you instructions..
you can interview many people in india....

=====================================

(reply 6)

Your question is a very interesting one.... I dont have as much free time
these days as I did previously, but I will try to send you little
observations...

With regard to counselling, or even determining what is mentally ill,
versus what is normal... the following should be considered...

Suppose you were transported to a different land, and you met some
doctors or counsellors in that land, and they wanted to advise you, help
you....

but it happens to be close to lunch time, and suddenly the doctors and
counsellors open their lunch pails, and pull out their lunch,... which to your
HORROR AND AMAZEMENT, are fried and roasted human infants.....

They notice that you are shocked, and they offer you a multitude of
reasons why you really shouldnt be shocked at all, that those infants felt
no pain,.... that it was really more or less God's providence which had
provided them or slated them for our consumption and enjoyment... that
they could not be considered human since they had not reached the age
of reason.... who knows what various and sundry reasons they might give
you in this strange land to justify their ghoulish eating habits...

No matter what justfications they give you, you are still horrified. It
appears to you monstrous, unfeeling....THEY are blind of the fact that their
personal gratification as robbed a soul/consciousness of the right to exist,
and experiences, to suffer and enjoy....

Well, my little hypothetical example is perhaps greatly exaggerated....

But my point is,.... in a land , or a village, where people will not light a fire
after dark, because the flame would attract an insect to its death, and
that insect possess a soul which is essentially no different from a human
soul, and the karmic consequences of having lite that fire, and cause that
souled being to die, would negatively impace the soul of the person who
lite the fire.....

Well... how greatly would you value the spiritual, or psychological advice
of those baby-munching physicians in that strange land....

How seriously would you take them, if they told you that perhaps you
were mentally ill, or that your way of life was somehow "wrong" or
"inferior"

And if you think that their notion of the insect having a soul is strange...
well open your Biblical Old Testament and read about he Prophet Baalam,
who had a talking donkey. The donkey was able to recognize the
presence of the fearsome angel with a sword, standing to block the path
of Balaam's journey. Balaam himself was blind to the angel's threat. When
God grants the donkey the ability to speak, the donkey complains, "Why
do you treat me so poorly, when I have been your donkey for so many
years and served you so faithfully." The angel chimes in, speaking in
favor of the donkey and censures Balaam saying, "You should not treat
your donkey so poorly." The bottom line of the story is simply that the
donkey was ALWAYS a good donkey, and did its duty, yet BALAAM DID
NOT HAVE sufficient FAITH in the faithfulness of the donkey to question or
suspect that there might be a perfectly good reason why they donkey was
refusing to budge in this one instance.

Similary, BALAAM DID NOT HAVE sufficient FAITH in the faithfulnes of
God. Balaam did not see that there was a good reason why God did not
want him to go on his journey. If we want to be REALLY clever and subtle
in our observations concerning this old testament story of Balaam, we will
notice that Balaam says, "IF I HAD A SWORD, I would kill (the donkey)".
This reveals to us that Balaam DID NOT take a sword on his journey
(even though journeys were quite dangerous), out of respect for human
life, lest he be tempted to take a human life... and yet BALAAM has no
respect for the donkey's life, admitting that HE WOULD kill the donkey if
only he had a sword...

Of course, I am not for one minute suggestion that everyone in India, or
any other country, is extremely religious, or obeservant, or vegetarian...

The religion of the great american hotdog/hamburger/capitalist culture
has been quite successful in preaching its culture....

I suppose what I am saying is that in many such countries, people might
welcome a pill or injection to control their diabetes, but they might not
necessarily accept counselling or values of some social worker....

You know, the west is so comical... we so cherish personal freedom,
democracy, and liberty.... we were so horrified when China instituted its
"one baby" policy....and yet I often see mention made of the undeniable
fact that, if China HAD NOT instituted such a policy.... they would NOW be
in much deeper environmental and overpopulation trouble

and it was only because they had the power of an absolute dictatorship
that China could succeed in enforcing what seems like such an inhumane
law....

Ecologists and environmentalists estimate that the planet earth could
comfortably support a population of ONE billion for an indefinite number of
centuries....

The earth did not reach a population of one billion until around 1860, and
yet by 1930, it had DOUBLED to TWO billion,.... and now it has
skyrocketed to SIX billion,... AND those ads for ADM (supermarket to the
world) project 20 billion by the year 2030...

Did it every occur to anyone that PARADISE, earthly paradise, IS
ALREADY within the grasp of mankind?? whatever do I mean by this
strange statement??

very simply this: If all 6 billion humans united and worked in harmony,
this very moment,..... and through self-control, abstinance... whatever
means (birth control, masturbation...whatever) ... if their goal was to
reduce the world population to ONE BILLION over the next 200 years...
SIMPLY by limiting reproduction....

Then in a short 200 years... the earths population would be at a
reasonable stable level from an environmental point of view.....

Now what do I mean by "earthly paradise is in our grasp".... I MEAN
THAT, AFTER THE EARTH HAD RETURNED TO THE ONE BILLION population
level,.....over the next 200 years.... technology, science, medicine, and a
united world democracy, would make EVERYONE independently wealthy,
and disease free....

It is very obvious to us , even now... that computers and robots and
modern technology makes possible a level of production (food and other
materials) which does not require such a work force as in previous
centuries... and CERTAINLY DOES NOT require the slave labor which was
employed so many times in history....

So, humanity has it totally within their power, to choose, to elect, to
transform human life into a paradise of wealth for all, free of disease...

But our own selfishness and greed, and our racial and ethinic prejudices
and nationalistic pride, will perhaps never allow us to co-operate with one
another, and to practice the personal asceticism and self denial, to
achieve such an end....

But even if humanity COULD manage to unite and discipline to create such
a UTOPIAN WORLD.... what would those people do with all their free time,
their leisure, their perfect health and incredible life spans extended by
genetic engineering and artificial organ transplants??

Would they write poetry and create works of art....???

Recite prayers and debate theology????

Or would they have too much sex, drink and smoke too much, and
become bored and depressed??

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