Heart attack early in the morning

On 5th January 2009, Times of India Bangalore edition had a front page headline about heart attack in early morning hours. Doctors from Wockhart and Narayan Hridayalay hospitals said that most hart attacks happen between 4 to 6 am. In medical terminology they also explained many reasons. The article also mentioned that in Holland and Germany shops and office open at 11 am so people can get up relaxed; go to work without feeling rushed. There is a Hindi saying that when you invite the blind, an extra person, the helper, will also come. That is, an invitation to the blind is an invitation to two.

This (heart attack in the morning) is like that, it is not even a problem. It is a gift of the market and consumer focused culture. In normal office days, people are made to work so much and at times they do this willingly, that they don't even get time to breathe normally. They are overworked and under appreciated. The weekend partying with lot of drinking, food, and lack of sleep tires these pursuers of happiness. Then on Monday they have to be back on time, extra tired, the so called 'Monday morning blues'. This over working and extra tension becomes a reason of heart attack over years. If there is already any predisposition then rushing in the morning, jumping out of bed makes the possibility of a heart attack even more.

People look for all solutions only in the sheep mentality of money-earning and money-spending market driven economy, because they have lost faith on the time tested and ancient life wisdoms of Indian culture. And whatever little they have then consumerism focused media shakes them again and again. Otherwise Brahma Muhurt (1.5 hours before sunrise) is an auspicious time for nature to be fresh, active and awake!

You go to work on time, come back on time, eat timely and sleep and get up o time - then there is no problem! From Friday evening till Sunday evening don't torture your body or daily routine. On a holiday also, get up on regular time and follow the same schedule. Then you will have all then 8-10 hours that you would have worked on other days. This extra time, spend with family, take care of extra chores left over together, follow some hobby - arts, gardening, dancing, singing, anything. Or go on a family outing and return in reasonable time to not stress the evening. Without extra time, money or being separate, you will enjoy the company of the family which will strengthen the family bonds and the day goes by without rushing. Why should joy require excessive eating, drinking, and waking? Enjoyment is not something you can cramp seven days worth in a day!

Lets talk about the heart attack in the morning. If you remain normal, calm there will be no rush. There is a simple solution to this in the Indian tradition. In the morning, upon waking up, one should sit on the bed and recite these two shloks -

कराग्रे वसते लक्ष्मी, कर मध्ये सरस्वती ।
कर मूले स्थिता गौरी, मंगलं कर दर्शनम् ॥
(karAgre vasate lakshmI, kara madhye sarasvatI |
kara moole sthitA gaurI, mangalaM kara darshanam ||)

i.e. At the tip of the hands (finger) resides lakshmI (the divinity of prosperity), on the palm - saraswatI (the divinity of knowledge).At the base resides gaurI (shakti, the divinity of power and energy), it is auspicious to see the hands in the morning. Which means, that all the power, knowledge of the divinities resides n your own hands, make prosperity with your own hands, as long as you have your hands, you will make the day, it will be fine! [explanation by Shashikant]

समुद्रवसने देवि, पर्वतस्तनमण्डिते ।
विष्णुपत्नि नमस्तुभ्यं, पादस्पर्शं क्षमस्व मे ॥
samudra-vasane devi, parvat-stana-maNDite |
viShNu-patni namastubhyam, pAdasparsham kshamasva me ||

i.e. O Wife of viShNu (the all pervasive divine force), with ocean as the garments and mountains as the breasts, please forgive me for I am going to step on you with my feet.
This is a humbling request to the earth, the provider, nourisher, caretaker like a mother, that without stepping on you, I can't go about my daily business, so even though you are like my mother, forgive my stepping on you. Contrast this with the arrogance of 'you have dominion on this earth and its resources'. [explanation by Shashikant]

If recited at normal pace these will take about a minute and a half, which is sufficient time for the blood pressure to get normal from a lying down position to a sitting up \position. Lying down all night brings the heart and brain at the same horizontal level and quickly rising causes a sudden pressure drop in the brain and a surge on the heart which has to now pump to a vertical body. One who practices this in the early morning hours will have no fear of heart attacks in the morning. Similarly, every major step of the day is riddled with these speed bumps - there are shloks to be recited during bath, before food, at morning, noon and evening and one before sleeping.

Pondering upon the meaning of these shloks will reveal that it will also make your determined to work hard and be humble to the 'Life Giver'. Only if the doubt goes away! We are living in a fundamentalist time when Yoga is getting religious diktats of being detrimental to the religion from Christianity and Islam religions. For such people it is aptly said - the one without any faith is destroyed.

5 January 2009

Original Post

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Translated from the original works of Ramesh Joshi from the following blogs - Jhootha Sach (True Lies) and Joshi Kavi (Poet)
Original (c): Ramesh Joshi. Translation (c): Shashikant Joshi