From time immemorial; life is inseparably associated with stress and therefore stress management. Various philosophies, ideologies, religions, traditions, customs, conventions; and in short; different ways of life actually constitute the process of traditional stress management.

In India (Bharat) the traditional path of progress (blossoming), which embodies the ancient wisdom manifesting in different semantics according to varying periods and socioeconomic situations; keeps us going in traditional stress management. This path identifies the four progressive stages in traditional stress management.

These four stages of our traditional stress management take us to the perfection, self realization, objective existence, eternal truth, sacchidananda, ishwar, paramatma or parmaeshwar.

Traditionally these stages are identified as baddha, mumukshu, sadhak and Siddha.

Baddha means completely oblivious to one’s true self and totally lost in one’s subjective or petty self. One can say, totally individualistic.

Mumukshu means one who gets ambiguous but haunting “wake up” calls promptings from the core of his or her heart. The restlessness begins. The search of the “self” though, without direction or clarity begins. There doubts, distractions, disturbances and frantic activity like that of a person who just begun to learn swimming.

Sadhak stage begins when the mumukshu gets the guidance and direction for the search. The efforts get rectified and refined. The pace, the swiftness and the momentum increase. The progress however is full of subtle, conflicting, confusing, harrowing, dreadful spells of ordeals in physical, instinctual, emotional and intellectual realms of an individual. These are often destabilizing, uprooting and violent in nature. These are essentially the ordeals which destroy all kind of subjective frameworks of an individual and bring him closer to objective state of existence.

Siddha is a stage; marked by the final and extremely subtle processes of dissolution of subjective or individual self into cosmic self. The struggles in this stage are often beyond the comprehension through language of digits and letters. These stages are beyond the comprehension of different levels of individual consciousness and also beyond three dimensions.

When we are in the first three stages of traditional stress management; we are tender and delicate within. We are amenable, accessible, vulnerable and susceptible to damaging and harmful influences and inflictions coming from within us; and from the people trapped in various phases of the stage of baddha, which manifest in many ways. But; possibly the most dangerous manifestations are the powerful inflictions or onslaughts of skepticism, cynicism and sarcasm. These manifestations of the baddha individuals are stupefying, disorienting, distracting, distorting, dragging and devastating in nature. The baddha individuals knowingly or unknowingly manifest these and energize, expedite, facilitate the process of dementia, amnesia i.e. loss of memory of our self or our soul consciousness; and suck us in the hell of VINASHA!

The meaning of VINASHA i.e. ghastly total destruction; can be compared to the fire setting is due to short circuiting. According to Geeta, Dnyaneshvari and Dasbodh; and in my experience also; VINASHA is obliviousness or forgetfulness of God i.e. our true self.

Hence it is said; “To prevent VINASHA; avoid the company of those, who forget, deny or denounce God i.e. self; and/or malign their motherland, guru, mother and father! Such avoidance; whether physical, mental or intellectual; is possible; only through the unshakable and steadfast persistence in the practice of NAMASMARAN.

Is it not possible to successfully tread through the four progressive stages of traditional stress management and prevent VINASHA in some other simpler ways and/or through some short cuts? In my experience; NO! It is not possible in any way other than NAMASMARAN!