Theme: Yogism
Convocation Address
BY Dr. B.C. Harinath
Dr. B.C. Harinath did his PhD from Oklahoma State University (1964-68) and his post doctoral fellowship from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis (1968-70) under Fulbright programme. He joined as Associate Professor of Biochemistry in 1970 at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, started as Gandhi Centenary project in 1969. He became Professor & Head, Dept. of Biochemistry in 1976, was Director – Professor & Head from 1992 to 2002 and Dean from 1993 - 94, Silver jubilee year of MGIMS. He has been felicitated with many prestigious Awards & Recognition, few include Dr. B.C. Roy National Award for development of specialty, MCI in 1992; Awadesh Saran Memorial Oration award, ACBI in 1992; PA Kurup Endowment Award for Biomedical Research, SBC in 1991; and AJ Thakur Award for Distinguished Clinical Biochemist, ACBI in 2009.He has guided 17 Ph.D and 8 M.D students with more than 170 research publications. He was President, Indian Immunology Society (1990-92) and Association of Clinical Biochemist of India (1994-95).His research interests are Infectious Disease Diagnostics, Life Style Health Problems and Medical Informatics. Currently he is Director, Jamnalal Bajaj Tropical Disease Research Centre established on the campus and Coordinator for Bioinformatics Centre (Supported by DBT) and Arogyadham (supported by KHS and CCRYN) with Yoga & Nature Cure Centre and Herbal Garden. In addition to diagnostic research on filaria and tuberculosis, Dr. Harinath is actively involved as Editor of Sevamed, Quarterly Update on Infectious Disease Research and Traditional Medicine and developing Medical Informatics and Arogyadham on medical campus.
Address:
Distinguished Vice Chancellor Dr. H. R. Nagendra, dedicated Physician and Dean Dr. R. Nagarathna, committed faculty, invited dignitaries, Dr. Goel, Shri. Karthickeyan and the distinguished guests, graduating students and friends.
My Hearty Congratulations to the accomplished outgoing graduates, faculty, administration and other staff and students of SVYASA on this Seventh Convocation of SVYASA University.
When I received the invitation to be the Chief Guest on this occasion, I wondered for a minute whether is it not a computer error in the e-mail message. I am still a beginner in Yoga science and all the time trying to explore on how to make it as primary intervention by the treating physicians in management of health problems. Possibly that may be one reason for inviting me to this function. I feel honoured to participate in this prestigious SVYASA Convocation as Chief Guest. I am delighted to be here and share my experience on how I got into Yoga and meditation.
Paying Back to Motherland:
From humble village, I could go to UNITED STATES under Fulbright programme in 1964 and completed my Ph.D. on Chloropromazine metabolism at Oklahoma State University and Post Doctoral study on Aryl sulfactases in human brain at Washington University School of Medicine in 1970. Under Fulbright grant regulation, I had to leave United States at least for two years and then reenter if desired to become immigrant. I was keen to come back and see what I can do in our country. Dr. Sushila Nayar, Gandhiji’s associate started Institute of Medical Sciences which was started as Gandhi Centenary Project in 1969 at SEVAGRAM as the first rural medical college in Kasturba Hospital started by Mahatma Gandhi. It was a big contrast from St. Louis to Sevagram. Excepting for a small colorimeter and balance, the department had no sophisticated equipment. Hospital biochemistry laboratory was yet to be established. Filaria was endemic in the villages surrounding Sevagram. I decided to work on filariasis. During the last forty years, Biochemistry department was developed into advanced Research Centre with sophisticated biomedical equipment resulting in establishment of Jamnalal Bajaj Tropical Disease Research Centre on the medical campus. We could get patents for filarial and tuberculosis excretory – secretory antigen proteins and introduced two diagnostic tests: SEVA FILA CHEK for filariasis (only Lab in India) and SEVA TB ELISA for tuberculosis for benefit of patients. When people ask how do you interact with scientists in a rural setting, I narrate Eekalavya story. I like to tell this story to young friends to show that with faith in God, Commitment and Devotion always pays in return. SVYASA is another fine example. During process of development against odds, one develops blood pressure. This is natural phenomenon, in particular if one is not used to yoga way of living. In 1991 I had blood pressure and then was advised to do Meditation. In 1992 I attended Vipassana meditation course and thus entered the arena of yoga and meditation. Thanks to Dr. Naveen, I visited SVYASA in 1996 or so. Since then I have great admiration for Dr. Nagendra and Dr. Nagarathna and associates for creation of this excellent Institution. I used to witness favourable consideration of grant application of SVYASA for advanced centre in ICMR-SAG meetings. I am very happy that it resulted in establishing a prestigious University for advancement of Yoga research.
Yoga - the Complete Diet for Peaceful and Successful Living:
Yog is union of individual self with the universal self. Basically yoga is spiritual with noble goal of liberation, but it also takes care of earthly needs of man, namely physical, mental and emotional health. Rishi Patanjali has beautifully presented Asthanga-Yoga to the entire world. Yoga is art and science of living. In International context, it is Holistic Living – simple living in harmony with Nature and thinking as part of and with concern to the whole universe. The spiritual oneness of the whole creation helps the world for ushering in universal brotherhood. I recall visiting Russia behind iron curtain in 1981. God is replaced by fear of ‘Secret agent’ and loss of freedom in communism. As Marxist ideology was diluted with time, corruption and selfishness became rampant, people could not tolerate and revolted when the moment arrived. Similarly God is replaced by consumerism and greediness in commerce driven capitalism. It is not a sustainable model. The world is experiencing the down turn in the economy bubble, boosted by ‘excess syndrome’ of Western world propagated by aggressive marketing. No wonder Peace has deserted the world. Spiritual globalization is only the weapon for all the ills of universe and insecurity. Yoga way of living or we can call Yogism with inbuilt spirituality is the right way to the new generation of youth abroad saturated with affluence and consumerism searching for new direction.
Dr. Pranav Pandya, Dr. Nagendra and Dr. Deepak Chopra will agree that India should lead the world in spiritual globalization with ushering of ‘Yogism’ – yoga way of living in West’s New Age Movement awakened by mass consciousness to deeper realities. In a conference on ‘Holistic Living’ at Sevagram, Swami Dayananda Saraswati questioned the audience that when Coca cola can reach mountain tops of Himalayas, how is that Yogism can not spread in all corners of the world for betterment of humanity.
Yoga Research:
SVYASA University under guidance of Dr. Nagendra has been doing excellent work in Yoga research and therapy at its advanced research centre in yoga and neurophysiology and yoga therapy home in collaboration with national and international institutes. Similarly Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya under guidance of Dr. Pranav Pandya, doing advanced research on various aspects of Divine Indian culture for three decades. Recently Patanjali Vishwavidyalaya (Yogpeeth) under guidance of Swami Ramdev has been doing research on beneficial effects of Pranayam.
Yoga way of living is strongly preventive by promotion of innate immunity. Innate or nonspecific immunity refers to the basic resistance to disease, the first line of defense against infection involving inflammation, complement system, mast cells, phagocytic cells namely macrophages, neutrophils, dendritic cells, granulocytes, natural killer cells etc., by various mechanisms.
Business of Vaccines:
Natural immunity occurs through contact with a disease causing agent, when the contact was not deliberate, where as acquired immunity develops through immunization by vaccine.
It will be of interest to compare Drugs Vs vaccines. Drugs, the specific killers or inhibitors of microorganisms are used once the infection is set in. However the vaccine is proposed to be used to boost specific immunity against anticipated entry of infective organism. In other words we are intravening with natural and subtle defense system, that too knowing that microorganisms may develop resistance due to inept handling. Similar to drug, vaccine may be used as therapeutic intervention alone or in combination in treatment of disease. It is important to consider whether indiscriminate use of variety of vaccines, aggressively marketed by multinationals will be beneficial in the long run in the prevention of the infections without causing new health problems. No wonder we are already facing the challenge of new and reemerging infectious diseases due to changes in life style, environmental pollution and climate change. Intravention with Nature’s defense system should be as minimum as possible, restricting to death causing microorganisms.
With problems of drug resistance and inhibitory costs of development of new drugs, multinationals are moving towards billion Global vaccine market expected in 2010 by creating fear of disease and other aggressive marketing techniques which is a danger signal affecting the intricate immune balance with dangerous consequences to human health such as a Autism. In the interest of disease management, research may be directed towards development of therapeutic vaccines.
Number of infections have been identified as vaccine-preventable diseases for biomedical research and development of vaccines for intravention. As soon as new infection appears in the community, business interests create fear and push for a vaccine such as Bird flu, Chikungunya etc. as if it is simple solution, without concern of disturbing subtle mechanisms of defense system. The FDA says that 15% of the 1,23,000 adverse events reported since 1990 involved life threatening conditions, hospitalization, permanent disability, or death, which may or may not have been truly caused by an immunization. Hence for monitoring of vaccine safety, Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as a post-marketing safety surveillance programme in United States is collecting information about adverse events (possible side effects) that occur after administration of vaccines. There are also efforts to increase funding to push forward vaccination programmes in developing countries by borrowing money from international markets to provide under development aid and charging interest.
Vaccine intervention should be more carefully implemented in developing countries in particular, due to the problems of storage and transport (cold chain), poor economic status and malnourished poor children. Large population and market potential should not be criteria for pushing vaccines by market forces without rigorous monitoring of the efficacy trials and significant beneficial effects. Yoga way of living will decrease the need for vaccination.
Life Style Medicine:
Thanks to automation in the name of convenience and comfort, living style in modern times has become detrimental to human physical, emotional and spiritual health, giving rise to new branches of Medicine known as Life Style Medicine and Mind-Body Medicine. With fast-paced life and excess use of junk foods and modern electrical and electronic gadgets namely the car, TV, cell phone, air-conditioning, microwave oven, refrigerator etc. and cordless & remote controls and environmental pollution distanced the man away from nature, causing number of lifestyle health problems causing life threatening morbidity and even death. Lifestyle factors such as tobacco smoking and chewing, alcohol, stressful living and electromagnetic radiation seem to cause clinical infertility.
Lifestyle Medicine is the use of Lifestyle interventions such as nutrition (diet), exercise, stress management, smoking cessation and a variety of other non-drug modalities in the treatment of disease. The field of Lifestyle Medicine (LM) has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. LM is becoming the preferred modality for not only the prevention but the treatment of most chronic diseases, including type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, hypertension, obesity, insulin resistance syndrome, osteoporosis and many types of cancer. While LM interventions typically do not emphasize prescription medications, they frequently require re-titration and/or reduction of medications prescribed before the lifestyle intervention. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the first national professional society for clinicians specializing in the use of lifestyle interventions in the treatment and management of disease. Recent clinical research provides a strong evidential basis for the preferential use of lifestyle interventions as first-line therapy eg. The Lifestyle Heart Trial. The research is moving lifestyle from an intervention used to ‘prevent disease’ to an intervention used to ‘treat disease’. The presence of morbidity constitutes a sufficient medical indication for applying an intervention proven to improve, reverse or ameliorate the disease or its symptoms. Recently published articles illustrate the abundance of scientific evidence that lifestyle intervention can be as effective as pharmaceutical interventions, but without the risks and unwanted side effects of more invasive interventions eg. a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and low fat dairy foods in lowering blood pressure in stage I hypertension. Comprehensive lifestyle changes may be able to bring about regression of even severe coronary atherosclerosis after one year, without use of lipid-lowering drugs.
Mind-Body Medicine is an approach to healing that uses the power of thoughts and emotions to positively influence physical health. Most ancient healing practices, such as Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic medicine emphasize the important links between the mind and the body. Today, there is renewed interest in age-old traditions such as Yoga and Meditation. No longer viewed with suspicion, mind-body programs are now established at prestigious medical schools in the United States and around the world. The key to mind-body technique is to “train” the mind to focus on the body without distraction. Most commonly practiced techniques are 1. Biofeedback for tension / migraine headache and chronic pain, 2. Cognitive behavioral therapy for changing dysfunctional thought patterns, 3. Relaxation techniques (mindfulness meditation for stress reduction), 4. Hypnosis for treating people with addiction, anxiety disorders, phobias etc. and 5. Spirituality (qualities like faith, hope, forgiveness and prayer) on improving health and healing.
The goal of mind-body techniques is to activate the relaxation response and reduce the stress response. When relaxed, the levels of stress related hormones are reduced and immune system becomes more efficient improving resistance to infection. Thus the mind-body medicine is helpful in treating High Blood Pressure, Asthma, Coronary heart disease, Obesity, Cancer (pain and nausea / vomiting related to chemotherapy), Insomnia, Anxiety, Diabetes, Stomach and Intestinal disorders, Fibromyalgia and Depression
Wellness Institute of Cleveland Clinic has started Life Style 180 programme addressing 25 million Americans with a chronic disease, to reclaim their health and vitality by making positive changes in their lifestyle. The program lasts six weeks with shared learning and support for a fee of . Groups of 10 to 16 people meet and engage in four-hour sessions twice a week taken by medical wellness experts on nutrition education, exercise and stress management with setting specific achievable goals for personal health and well being.
Medical schools abroad are establishing division of Integrative Medicine which is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (mind, body and spirit) including all aspects of Life style to provide customer oriented, preventive services and medical care in a healing environment by integrating conventional and complementary medicine and by nurturing the intrinsic healing whole person-body, mind and spirit. Our Government is proposing to start Rural Medical Course of three and half years. Why not we take one step further and associate doctors trained in yoga therapy and develop integrative medicine units.
I also wonder at the research and standardization work gone into, to make Osteopathy and Chiropractice as degree programmes abroad. Yoga for Health and Education Trust in association with the University of Bedfordshire in UK has started first Yoga degree course, mainly self study, still to be validated. We should study the modalities to make yoga therapy a degree programme abroad if not done already. Considerable research work is being done on meditation as mindfulness with number of research studies in health care programme. It is heartening to note that SVYASA has done pioneering work in starting degree courses in Yoga therapy. These doctors should be employed by Government in rural areas in integrative medicine units.
We established Arogyadham, a Centre for promotion of positive health on medical campus in 2001. We are trying to associate doctors in allopathic medicine with doctor of Yoga and Naturopathy in management of life style health problems. There is considerable inhibition in allopathy medical practitioners to explore complimentary systems of medicine in our country. As integration is happening abroad, considerable effort has to be made by Yoga centres to motivate allopathy medical practitioners to associate with CAM doctors in providing best heath care to the patients.
With increasing incidence of life style health problems, we have started web portal on Life Style health problems at our Bioinformatics Centre. Our objective should be to explore yoga therapy as a primary intervention in disease management as soon as the health problem such as hypertension, diabetes, depression is detected so that life long administration of drugs may not be required, which saves from enormous costs and side reactions of the drugs.
National Youth Day and Heritage Day:
Swami Vivekananda’s Jayanti is observed as National Youth Day since 1984. It is heartening to note that SVYASA is having convocation on this day each year, reminding Swami’s teachings and our duty to the Nation. Further UGC has asked universities to observe January 12 as Heritage Day from this year to sensitize the students for protection of cultural and archaeological monuments. It is also important that we become spiritual and protect our culture.
Lastly I like to say one word to the outgoing graduates. During study period it is always comfortable with in four walls. Once you enter the wide world, the road will not be smooth sailing. You have been given training for facing obstacles if any. I can only say that you have enormous potential to make your life a success. Whenever you think of a plan and your potential, just remember that a tiny seed of mustard size giving rise to large Banyan tree. I always quote to my students about Dr. David Baltimore, molecular biologist getting Nobel Prize at the age 37 years. It is also pleasure to inform you that my Professor’s son Dr. Venkataraman was awarded Nobel Prize last year. He switched from Physics to Biology. In 60s when I was doing research at Baroda, he was young boy of 10 years playing in front of us. It makes you to think that nothing is impossible. However I like to caution here, that the more important is that you should be excited and enjoy the work. That gives great satisfaction making the life a happier one.
I am sure you would meet these challenges with self-confidence and determination and carve a name for yourself and your alma-mata SVYASA.
My best wishes to you all for a bright future in the spirit of Karmayoga.
Thank you.
