Whole Dude – Whole Spirituality – Page 30 – Whole Spirituality describes the Unity of God, Soul, and Matter using a Ground Substance of Spiritual Nature.

Sixth-Day Adventism – God’s Work for Six Days precede God’s rest on the Seventh Day

I can describe my essence (What I am) if and only if it is preceded by my existence (What I do). While existing in the earthly realm, my claims about my true essence, that which makes what I am, true substance underlying my physical manifestation, most important quality of my human form, may exist only in the language it is expressed, or in the mind in which it is conceived. My claims about my essence will be valid if it has correspondence with an external reality.

In my view, the ‘Essence’ and ‘Identity’ of a thing can be described if, and only if the thing had a past ‘Existence’, or is existing in the present, or has the potential ability to exist in the future. Essence and Identity are predetermined by the requirement called ‘Existence’.

Existence’ becomes the defining feature or chief attribute of all things. And, without the fact or reality called ‘Existence’, no truth can be known, and things have no Identity or Essence.

The word ‘Essence’ (Latin. Essentia) describes that something which makes an entity what it is; intrinsic, fundamental nature, the most important quality of something to constitute its essential being. Essence is used to describe the inward nature of anything that is important to know its manifestations that can be physically observed. The word ‘Spirit’ or ‘Soul’ are often used to describe the ‘true’ or unchanging principle of man for man’s physical identity is not constant.

The term ‘Identity’ (Latin. idem) means the same (Sanskrit. idam). The Latin word identitas is related to Latin. essentitas and hence Identity and Essence are always related and they help to know the thing or entity that they describe. Identity is about the condition or fact of being the same, or exactly alike, sameness or oneness.

In modern times, identity is about the condition or fact of being a specific person or thing. Whereas the term ‘Individuality’ describes the sum of characteristics or qualities that set one person or thing apart from others. Individuality is the condition of the Individual who exists as a single, separate, or particular thing. For man, his Individuality sets him apart from all other men. The term ‘Existence’ (Latin. existere, or exsistere) is about the act of existing, the state, or the fact, or the reality of actual being. Existence demands that the thing or entity must come forth, stand forth, to manifest, living, or being alive. The term ‘Unity’ implies the state of being united to make something complete in itself, the quality or fact of being a totality or ‘Whole’. Unity is used to signify a Complex, the product of a Union of related parts, or an arrangement of parts that will produce a single, harmonious effect. Unity is thus concerned about the ‘Effect’ it generates while a thing could be made up of diverse elements or individuals. For human body is constituted by trillions of Individual, and Independent Living Units called Cells, the ‘Effect’ called ‘Unity’ is of fundamental importance to know man’s ‘Essence’, or ‘Identity’ that is manifested by his ‘Existence.

Existence (What you do) always precedes Essence (What you are). What God did for Six Days is the fundamental basis for knowing God’s Essence.

Sixth-Day Adventist integrated plan for physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual wellbeing of all classes of workers

Professional Wellness Month is celebrated each year in June and it throws light on the workplace’s role in creating a holistic environment for employees. It also focuses on how organizations that place emphasis on professional wellness are largely successful, attract top talent, and drive employee retention.

I ask my readers to reject the assumptions and the criteria described by the Fair Labor Standards Act as they contribute to Unequal Employment Opportunities at the American Workplace. As such the Fair Labor Standards Act is not consistent with the Natural Law principle of Equality that formulates the Supreme Law of this Land. We need just one plan to promote the wellness of all workers without making any distinctions such as the hourly wage earners and the salaried class imposed by the US Labor Law FLSA.

Holistic Wellness at Work:

In order to undertake a holistic and personalized approach to care, this will require that employers look beyond the immediate or perhaps visible needs of their employees, and instead seek to offer care that will support them as a whole person, including their

Cultural needs (i.e. expression of self, sense of identity, values, beliefs, practices; cultural capability or competency, awareness, and safety; linguistic support)

Financial needs (i.e. money for housing, transportation, utilities, food, tuition, health care)

Mental and emotional needs (i.e. mindfulness, self-efficacy and self-esteem, coping strategies, resiliency, hope)

Physical health needs (i.e. exercise, nutrition, sleep, drug use)

Physiological needs (i.e. air, water, food, shelter, clothing)

Safety needs (i.e. security of body, employment, and resources; law and order, and stability)

Social needs (i.e. strong social networks, friendship, love, intimacy, family planning, home, and family maintenance)

Spiritual needs (i.e. connection to others, sense of belonging, meaning, and purpose)

Self-actualization needs (i.e. self-fulfillment, personal growth)

An integrated approach to Physical, Mental, Social, Moral, and Spiritual Wellbeing

**This painting the Vitruvian Man( c. 1492 ) by Leonardo da Vinci displays a spirit of scientific inquiry. What is Man? The understanding of human nature will help to promote man’s well-being.** **Sixth-Day Adventist integrated plan for physical, mental, social, moral, and spiritual wellbeing of all classes of workers**

Our efforts to support the well-being of Man get affected by our understanding the ‘real’ or ‘true’ nature of Man. I recognize Man’s Existence with Seven Forms or Dimensions. These are, 1. the Physical Being described by Human Anatomy, Human Physiology and other Medical Sciences, the human being in health and sickness, 2. the Mental Being, the intellect, thoughts and emotional states of Man described by Psychology and Psychiatry, 3. the Social Being described by Social Sciences, 4. the Moral Being described by Moral Science and Ethics, the power of discernment used by Man to make distinction between good and evil, and right and wrong, 5. the Spiritual Being described by Vital Power, Animating /Sensible Properties, and Conscious/Cognitive abilities of Man’s Corporeal Substance that develops and builds the cells, tissues, and organs of Human Body, 6. the Created Being which is reflected in the existence of man as an Individual with Individuality without any choice, and 7. the Rational Being which directs man to reconcile his behavior with his true or real nature that makes the man to review the actions performed in the external environment.

The Six Dimensions of Man contribute to six kinds of Behavior of Man; the physical, mental, social, moral, spiritual and creative facets of Behavior. For example, muscle cell displays the behavior of contraction in response to a stimulus; it is able to contract because of its contractile nature which gives it the power of contracting.

I account for Spiritual Dimension of Human Nature as that of generating a Singular, Harmonious Effect in the working of trillions of cells giving Man power or ability to perform his living functions such as Respiration and display his characteristic Behaviors like Feeding, and Reproduction.

The Diagnosis of Good Health is better than the diagnosis of ill-health

The Diagnosis of Good Health is better than the diagnosis of ill-health: The Diagnostic Process must begin before a person experiences a health problem.

To diagnose ill-health is easy. The sick person may describe his ailments. In addition to a person’s subjective symptoms, ill-health shows objective manifestations. The art of clinical diagnosis in sickness and disease involves the use of signs and symptoms attributable to specific conditions that affect the state of health of an individual. However, the mere absence of ill-health does not necessarily mean that the person is positively healthy. Health, like beauty is often a matter of subjective impression. But, while beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, the diagnosis of perfect and positive health is a verdict rendered after a carefully executed medical examination. The Diagnostic Process must be applied to the evaluation of the man to diagnose the condition called Good, Perfect, and Positive health. Medicine is not merely the Art of Diagnosing ill-health and it is equally the Art of Diagnosing Good and Positive Health.

The Rudi Connection at Whole Foods arrives at the Concept of Whole Medicine

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – WHOLISTIC MEDICINE: THE DEFINITION OF WHOLE PERSON. 1. CONSCIOUS BEING, 2. PHYSICAL BEING, 3. MENTAL BEING, 4. SOCIAL BEING, 5. MORAL BEING, 6. SPIRITUAL BEING, and 7. CREATED BEING. This entire Human Organism is derived from a Single, Fertilized Egg Cell.

I define the phrase “Whole Medicine” as a systematic study of the Physical, Mental, Moral, Social, and Spiritual aspects of Man’s Well-Being in relation to health and disease while the man exists as a Created Being.

**The Rudi Connection at Whole Foods defines the Concept of Whole Medicine**

Yes indeed, Life is Complicated. The complexity of Life includes not only the complicated problems of shopping for healthy foods but also the problems of shopping for Wholesome Health Care.

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – WHOLE MEDICINE: If man is viewed as a “WHOLE” Organism, the organism is derived by the growth, multiplication, and development of this “Whole Cell”, the fertilized Ovum. I am advocating a systematic study of the Physical, Mental, Moral, Social, and Spiritual aspects of man’s well-being in relation to health and disease. Such as study must include the concept of this “WHOLE CELL” which has all the attributes that can be observed in man

In my view, Medicine must be concerned with the status of man in the universe, in his natural environment, in his social community while the man exists as an individual with individuality. In other words, Medicine as a Science must primarily be concerned with the biological basis for the reality of man’s physical existence in the world. A systematic study of the biological basis of human existence would demand the study of Soul and Spirit as the vital, animating principle found in all living things. I seek the existence of Soul and Spirit in a substance that is basic to life activities. Spirit or Soul must be found in a living material substance that is responsible for all living processes. The term Soul and Spirit belong to the materialistic realm where the physical reality of man’s biological existence is established. Further, I do not intend to use the term Soul or Spirit as a metaphysical or transcendental reality independent of the living organism. I define the phrase “Whole Medicine” as a systematic study of the Physical, Mental, Moral, Social, and Spiritual aspects of Man’s Well-Being in relation to health and disease while the man exists as a Created Being.

Sixth-Day Adventist Work Culture vs Seventh-Day Adventist Sabbath Culture

**Sixth-Day Adventist vs Seventh-Day Adventist. The formula for Positive Work Culture**.

The Seventh-Day Adventists believe that the Sabbath should be observed on the seventh day of the week, i.e. from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. I coined the phrase Sixth-Day Adventist to give my highest priority to God’s Commandment asking man to perform labor or work for Six Days. In my analysis, God ordained a Six-Day Work Schedule without which man cannot seek the blessings of Sabbath. The Rudi-Grant Connection at Whole Foods follows the Six-Day Weekly Work Schedule.

**June is Professional Wellness Week – The benefits of Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture**. **This article is dedicated to the loving memory of Jessica Cole of Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Bangalore (Bengaluru), India.**

This article is dedicated to the loving memory of Jessica Cole, my relative who lived in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India as a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She inspired me to formulate the Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture.

**June is Professional Wellness Week – The benefits of Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture**.

The U.S. Working Week

As in most industrialized countries, the Standard Work Week in the United States begins on Monday and ends on Friday. During the Depression, President Herbert Hoover called for a reduction in Work Hours in lieu of layoffs. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a five-day, 40-hour workweek for many workers.

Benefits of a Healthy Work Culture

The benefits of a healthy workplace culture are innumerable. Some of the most astounding benefits that a strong culture has to offer include

Highly engaged and productive teams—Research shows that when employees view their organization’s culture positively, they are 3.8 times more likely to be engaged at work; in fact, a staggering 89 percent of “highly engaged” employees claim that the culture in their organization is positive.¹ Some of the markers that are associated with increases in employee engagement rates include workplace connections²; clear communication around organizational goals, objectives, and plans for implementation or execution³; community, inclusivity, and teamwork; learning and development opportunities⁴; frequent feedback; commitment to wellbeing and wellness programs; and above all, trust in senior management.

Improved retention and recruitment—In a study conducted by Deloitte, organizations that had the strongest workplace cultures were much more likely to attract and keep talent, including 59 percent less attrition. Given that corporate culture is now more important than compensation or material benefits when employees decide whether to work for a certain organization, organizations with high employee satisfaction rates and employee experience stories testifying to a strong workplace culture are likely to have a larger pool of potential hires to choose from compared to their competitors, and are likely to hold on to new talent for the long-term—a needed perk amongst mounting evidence that suggests that Gen Z, on average, is spending significantly less time at a given job compared to older generations.

Healthier employees—While toxic work cultures are linked to poor health outcomes, the opposite is also true. Research shows that employees who think positively of their workplace culture tend to have lower heart rates and blood pressure, as well as stronger immune systems. As this makes employees less likely to get sick, organizations that tout healthy workplace environments also observe 41 percent reductions in absenteeism and presenteeism.

Fewer accidents, injuries, and mistakes—In addition to fewer absences and less sick days, founder and CEO of Choose People, Kris Boesch, reports that organizations with people-centric or “people-first” cultures boast 26 percent fewer mistakes, accidents, and work-related injuries.

Greater customer satisfaction and higher profitability—When employees feel healthier and happier in the workplace thanks to a positive work culture, research shows that such feelings tend to rub off on the customers they interact with, making for an improved customer service experience. Consequently, PwC insights reveal that organizations with strong cultures are a whopping 89 percent more likely to report higher customer satisfaction.—but not only that, they are also more likely to report revenue increases up to four times that of their competitors (with an average increase of up to 682 percent for organizations with thriving cultures compared to just 166 percent for organizations with poor cultures).

Organizational resiliency and adaptability—Managers almost unanimously agree that a positive workplace culture creates more resilient teams. In fact, a strong company culture is responsible for helping nearly 70 percent of organizations adapt better to the pandemic. According to new insights from PwC, 67 percent of senior leaders cited a strong culture as the tool that helped change initiatives happen and helped them to maintain and drive successful outcomes.

The Concept of Positive Sixth-Day Adventist Work Culture is inspired by God’s Work Week:

The details of God’s Work Week are vividly described in Genesis, Chapter 1.

Six is a number perfect in itself. God created the world and the man in Six Days because this number is perfect. For that reason, the man must also choose a Six-Day Work Week.

**June is Professional Wellness Week – The benefits of Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture**. **The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California inspires me to formulate the Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture.**

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is fundamentally flawed for it is not inspired by the Sixth-Day Adventist Positive Work Culture

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is not consistent with holistic workplace environment

**The American Employer-Employee Relations are fundamentally flawed for want of holistic workplace environment**. Hourly Wage vs Salaried Employee is the symptom of the lack of holistic environment for employees.

Cultivating a Healthier, Happier Workplace

Despite the vast advantages of a healthy workplace culture, new insights from Gallup show that only about a quarter of U.S. employees strongly agree that their organization delivers on its mission and promises, say that they can apply their organization’s values to their work, and actually believe in those values. This once again goes back to the employer-employee disconnect driving attrition and toxic workplace environments: When leaders attempt to unite their workplace around a common goal, value, or mission without taking into proper account the needs, concerns, or values of their employees, such efforts ultimately fail.

Instead, the cultivation of a healthy, harmonious workplace culture happens only when everyone in the organization is involved, and not just those at the top. That said, some of the best practices that can help organizations to improve their environment and enhance their workplace culture include those listed below.

Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Daily Operations

First and foremost, building a healthy work environment and a strong culture requires that organizations reimagine what diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace looks like (or the alternative acronym, EDI). Without ensuring that discriminatory, oppressive, or limiting policies, practices, and biases are absent or disbarred from the workplace (i.e. without ensuring that the workplace is equitable), toxicity in the workplace will prevail, as will its numerous costs and consequences.

That said, employers need to look beyond diversity recruitment and pivot their focus toward creating a sustainable environment that treats all employees as equals, helps them to reach their full potential, and motivates them to stay. This may include ensuring that all groups present in the workplace (namely, all ages, genders, races, ethnicities, etc.) are accounted and spoken for before any important decision is made, that everyone has a chance to be heard during meetings, that everyone has the same opportunities for growth and promotion within the organization, and that everyone is treated with the same level of respect.

Providing Training Opportunities for Leaders and Managers

While healthy workplace cultures revolve around the equitable treatment and involvement of all members of an organization, establishing that workplace culture starts at the top. How leaders communicate, behave, and defend or explain their behaviors in the workplace inevitably influences employee behavior, sentiment, and their experience at large. That said, many experts on corporate culture underscore the importance of providing training opportunities to teach leaders from all levels of the organization about the signs and characteristics of toxic workplace cultures, the role they play in determining workplace culture, and how they can prevent toxic cultures and, alternatively, foster positive cultures. This includes encouraging leaders to seek out cross-cultural experiences that help them to enhance their awareness of other cultures and really connect with the needs, interests, and values of their employees; allowing them the time and opportunity to help them build key skills, like empathy, active listening, and recognition; and organizing workshops dedicated to teaching leaders how they can be supportive of employees’ workplace mental health and wellbeing needs, and be accommodating toward their personal and professional goals.

Offering Educational and Professional Development Opportunities

As leaders are trained to be more empathic, inclusive, and accommodating. One of the best ways in which they can show support to their workforce, according to employees, is by offering career-enhancing education and continual development opportunities that tie them to their organization’s key missions or purpose, reassures them that their work and talents matter and are valued, and motivates them to look for new and improved ways of contributing to their organization. Research shows that employees who feel as though their employer not only values their work but cares about their long-term career prospects and individual success are likely to feel happier and more secure, creating a culture of celebration instead of cutthroat competition. Some of the most sought-after professional development opportunities include management and leadership training, certification programs, technical and interpersonal skills training, and employer-subsidized degree programs. By incorporating development opportunities into daily operations, leaders establish an equitable and inclusive culture in which all believe they have the potential to rise to the top, regardless of connections, backgrounds, or other unfair advantages that, when advantageous, perpetuate toxic cultures.

Prioritizing Holistic Wellbeing; Implementing Wellness Programs and Flexible Benefits

When employees feel as though their leaders look down on their health and wellness needs as a detriment or burden to the organization, they are more likely to feel detached from their leaders and peers, disinterested in their work, and overall, less committed to their roles and employment with the organization. In fact, a new study has found that the majority of today’s workforce (86 percent) would be more likely to leave a job if it did not support their wellbeing, while 83 percent say they are more attracted to organizations that demonstrate a “progressive culture” that cares about workers’ holistic health and wellbeing. In order to create such a culture, numerous studies point to the importance of maintaining workers’ work-life balance and upholding their “right to disconnect”; prioritizing flexibility and autonomy when designing benefits offerings, such as by offering work-from-home and choose-your-own-hours opportunities, unlimited paid time off (PTO), as well as health and wellness stipends; and incorporating stress-reduction, mindfulness, and meditation practices into the workday. When employees are given the okay to relax, recharge, and recover, they’re protected against chronic or excessive stress, which not only improves their performance, but also improves their mood, which in turn creates a happier, more cooperative, and good-natured culture.

The Hourly vs the Salaried Employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is fundamentally flawed

The Hourly vs the Salaried Employees.In my analysis, FLSA is fundamentally flawed for it divides workers into categories such as the Hourly and the Salaried without understanding the basis for the man’s existence in the natural world.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was signed into law on June 25, 1938 claiming that it will provide protection to people working in the US.

Knowledge Work vs Manual Work.In my analysis, FLSA is fundamentally flawed for it divides workers into categories such as “White Collar” and “Blue Collar” without understanding the basis for the man’s existence in the natural world.

In my analysis, FLSA is fundamentally flawed for it divides workers into categories such as “White Collar” and “Blue Collar” without understanding the basis for the man’s existence in the natural world.

**The Blue Collar vs the White Collar Employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is fundamentally flawed.**

There can be no distinction such as the Skilled and Unskilled among the workers as Life can only be defined as ‘Knowledge in Action’. All human beings process similar kind of information and use chemical energy to perform similar kinds of sequential, guided, purposeful and goal-oriented actions described as ‘Metabolism’. In fact, no man can perform Unskilled work.

In my analysis, FLSA is fundamentally flawed for it divides workers into categories such as “White Collar” and “Blue Collar” without understanding the basis for the man’s existence in the natural world.

I ask the US Congress and The US Department of Labor to discard the flawed Act and dump into the dustbin to put an end to the division of workers into White and Blue Collar. As such, each employee and his or her employer must make the determination about compensation or remuneration and agree upon the terms for wages and benefits for performing any kind of labor.

In my view, the Natural Sciences and the Medical Science in particular does not validate the concept of the White-Collar or the Managerial Class as no human being performs executive, administrative, or professional service while operating the metabolic functions of human bodies of their own. No man lives as the boss, the manager, the administrator, the executive officer, the ruler, the governor, or the controller of his own body.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE-ESTABLISHMENT NO. 22-VIKAS REGIMENT

FACT SHEET – WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION (WHD) – U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Clipped from: https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/whdfs17s.htm

Fact Sheet #17S: Higher Education Institutions and Overtime Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

The FLSA requires that a non-exempt employee receive minimum wages for his or her work, as well as overtime wages whenever he or she works more than 40 hours in a workweek. Section 13(a)(1) of the FLSA, however, exempts certain employees who perform bona fide executive, administrative, professional, and outside sales duties from minimum wage and overtime requirements. These exemptions are often called the “white-collar” exemptions. This fact sheet discusses the applicability of these exemptions to jobs that are common in higher education institutions.

**The Exempt vs the Non-Exempt Employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is fundamentally flawed.**

General Requirements for Exemptions

To qualify for a white collar exemption, an employee must generally satisfy three tests:

1. The employee must be paid on a salary basis that is not subject to reduction based on the quality or quantity of work (the “salary basis test”), rather than, for example, on an hourly basis;

2. The employee must receive a salary at a rate not less than $455* per week (the “salary level test”); and

3. The employee’s primary duty must involve the kind of work associated with the exempt status sought, such as executive, administrative, or professional work (the “duties test”).

4. Additional information concerning these exemptions is available in Fact Sheets 17A-G. See https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdcomp.htm.

Exemptions for Common Higher Education Jobs

Teachers

A teacher is exempt if his or her primary duty is teaching, tutoring, instructing, or lecturing to impart knowledge, and if he or she is performing that duty as an employee of an educational establishment. See 29 C.F.R. § 541.303. Educational establishments include elementary school systems, secondary school systems, institutions of higher education, and other educational institutions. See 29 C.F.R. § 541.204(b). If a bona fide teacher meets this duty requirement, the salary level and salary basis tests do not apply. See 29 C.F.R. §§ 541.303(d), 541.600(e). Given these standards, professors, instructors, and adjunct professors typically qualify for this exemption.

A faculty member who teaches online or remotely also may qualify for this exemption. The regulations do not restrict where bona fide teaching may take place, to whom the knowledge can be imparted, or how many hours a teacher must work per week to qualify for the exemption. The exemption would therefore ordinarily apply, for example, to a part-time faculty member of an educational establishment whose primary duty is to provide instruction through online courses to remote non-credit learners. The exemption could likewise apply, for example, to an agricultural extension agent who is employed by an educational establishment to travel and provide instruction to farmers, if the agent’s primary duty is teaching, instructing, or lecturing to impart knowledge. To determine a teacher’s primary duty, the relevant inquiry in all cases is the teacher’s actual job duties. Job titles or full/part-time status alone do not determine exempt status.

A teacher does not become non-exempt merely because he or she spends a considerable amount of time in extracurricular activities (such as coaching athletic teams or supervising student clubs), provided the teacher’s primary duty is teaching.

Coaches

Athletic coaches employed by higher education institutions may qualify for the teacher exemption. After all, teaching may include instructing student-athletes in how to perform their sport. But a coach will not qualify for the exemption if his or her primary duties are recruiting students to play sports or visiting high schools and athletic camps to conduct student interviews. The amount of time the coach spends instructing student-athletes in a team sport is relevant, but not the exclusive factor, in determining the coach’s exempt status.

Professional Employees

The FLSA provides for several kinds of exempt professional employees—such as learned professionals, creative professionals, teachers, and employees practicing law or medicine. In higher education, employees eligible for the professional exemption are often either teachers (as discussed above) or learned professionals (as described below). To qualify as a learned professional, the employee must satisfy three requirements:

1. The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of work requiring advanced knowledge;

2. The advanced knowledge must be in a field of science or learning; and

3. The advanced knowledge must be customarily acquired by a prolonged course of specialized intellectual instruction.

See 29 C.F.R. § 541.301. Unless the employee is a teacher or practicing law or medicine, he or she must also satisfy the above-referenced salary basis and salary level tests to be an exempt professional.

In higher education, examples of exempt non-teacher learned professionals generally include certified public accountants, psychologists, certified athletic trainers, and librarians. Postdoctoral fellows, who conduct research at a higher education institution after completing their doctoral studies, likewise generally meet the duties requirements of the learned professional exemption, and they may additionally qualify for the teacher exemption if teaching is their primary duty. Of course, an employee’s qualification for the exemption depends on his or her actual job duties and education. Job titles alone are not sufficient for determining whether an employee satisfies the duties test.

Administrative Employees

Various employees at higher educational institutions may qualify as exempt administrative employees. The administrative exemption applies when the following requirements are met:

1. The employee’s compensation must satisfy the above-referenced salary basis and salary level tests;

2. The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and

3. The employee’s primary duty must include the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

See 29 C.F.R. § 541.200. Such administrative employees in higher education might include, for example, admissions counselors or student financial aid officers. An employee’s qualification for the exemption depends on his or her actual job duties; job titles alone are not sufficient for determining whether an employee satisfies the duties test.

Notably, there are specific regulatory provisions for certain administrative employees—known as “academic administrative employees”—whose primary duty is performing administrative functions directly related to academic instruction or training in an educational establishment. To be exempt as an academic administrative professional:

1. The employee must satisfy the above-referenced salary basis and salary level tests or receive a salary of at least the entrance salary for teachers in the same educational establishment; and

2. The employee’s primary duty must be to perform administrative functions directly related to academic instruction or training in an educational establishment.

See 29 C.F.R. § 541.204. Employees who work in higher education but whose work does not relate to the educational field (such as work in general business operations) do not qualify as exempt academic administrative employees. See id.

In higher education institutions, exempt academic administrative personnel generally include department heads, intervention specialists who are available to respond to student academic issues, and other employees with similar responsibilities. Exempt administrative personnel would likewise generally include academic counselors who administer school testing programs, assist students with academic problems, and advise students concerning degree requirements. Again, whether an employee satisfies the duties test for these exemptions depends on the employee’s actual job duties, not just the employee’s job title.

Executive Employees

To qualify for the executive exemption, an employee must satisfy the following tests:

1. The employee must receive compensation that satisfies the above-referenced salary basis and salary level tests;

2. The employee’s primary duty must be managing the enterprise or a customarily recognized department or subdivision thereof;

3. The employee must customarily and regularly direct the work of at least two or more other full-time employees or their equivalent (for example, one full-time and two half-time employees); and

4. The employee must have the authority to hire or fire other employees, or in the alternative, the employee’s suggestions and recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, promotion, or any other change of status of other employees must be given particular weight.

See 29 C.F.R. § 541.100. Various positions in higher education institutions might qualify for the executive exemption, including deans, department heads, directors, and any other manager or supervisor whose job duties and compensation satisfy the above criteria.

Student-Employees

As a general matter, most students who work for their college or university are hourly non-exempt workers and do not work more than 40 hours per week. The following, however, are examples of students who often receive a salary or other non-hourly compensation:

· Graduate Teaching Assistants. Graduate teaching assistants whose primary duty is teaching are exempt. Because they qualify for the teacher exemption, they are not subject to the salary basis and salary level tests.

· Research Assistants. Generally, an educational relationship exists when a graduate or undergraduate student performs research under a faculty member’s supervision while obtaining a degree. Under these circumstances, the Department would not assert that an employment relationship exists with either the school or any grantor funding the student’s research. This is true even though the student may receive a stipend for performing the research.

· Student Residential Assistants. Students enrolled in bona fide educational programs who are residential assistants and receive reduced room or board charges or tuition credits are not generally considered employees under the FLSA. They therefore are not entitled to minimum wages and overtime under the FLSA.

An employment relationship will generally exist when a student receives compensation and his or her duties are not part of an overall education program. For example, students who work at food service counters, sell programs or usher at events, or wash dishes in dining halls and anticipate some compensation (for example, money or meals) are generally considered employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime compensation.

Compensatory Time at Public Universities

Public universities or colleges that qualify as a “public agency” under the FLSA may compensate non-exempt employees with compensatory time off (or “comp time”) in lieu of overtime pay. A college or university is a public agency under the FLSA if it is a political subdivision of a State. When determining whether a college or university is a “political subdivision,” the Department considers whether (1) the State directly created the entity, or (2) individuals administering the entity are responsible to public officials or the general electorate.

If the public university or college qualifies as a public agency, non-exempt employees generally may not accrue more than 240 hours of comp time. However, employees engaged to work in a public safety activity, an emergency response activity, or a seasonal activity may accrue as much as 480 hours of comp time. See 29 U.S.C. 207(o)(3)(A). Private higher education institutions may not pay employees comp time in lieu of overtime pay.

Where to Obtain Additional Information

This publication is for general information and is not a regulation. For additional information, visit our Wage and Hour Division Website: http://www.wagehour.dol.gov and/or call our toll-free information and helpline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone at: 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).

Note (added January 2018): *

The Department of Labor is undertaking rulemaking to revise the regulations located at 29 C.F.R. part 541, which govern the exemption of executive, administrative, and professional employees from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. Until the Department issues its final rule, it will enforce the part 541 regulations in effect on November 30, 2016, including the $455 per week standard salary level. These regulations are available at: https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/regulations.pdf.

**The American Workplace lacks a holistic environment for employees**

World Brahmin Day, June 01, 2023. Who am I? Why am I like this? The Discovery of Self

Brahmin, also spelled Brahman, Sanskrit Brāhmaṇa (“Possessor of Brahm”), highest ranking of the four varnas, or social classes, in India.

Brahmin is a varna as well as a caste within the Hindu society. In Vedic- and post-Vedic Indian subcontinent, Brahmins were designated as the priestly class as they served as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and spiritual teachers (guru or acharya)

The term Knowledge is intimately associated with Brahman. Hence, the person identified as Brahmin is the Seeker of Knowledge, is the Teacher of Knowledge and the discoverer of his own true or real Self with the guidance of Knowledge.

**World Brahmin Day, June 01, 2023. Who am I? Why am I like this? The Discovery of Self. Animate vs Inanimate Dualism. The separation of Man into perishable Body and Imperishable Soul is flawed.**

The Discovery of Real or True Self:

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. The Great Banyan Tree of Kolkata has lived for over 250 years. This tropical fig tree known as Ficus benghalensis is native to India; ‘adventitious’ roots that grow from its branches go downwards and take root to form new trunks over a relatively wide area. In the Sanskrit language, the Sacred Fig or Ficus religiosa is known as ‘ASVATTHA’. In my opinion, Hindu Scriptures refer to Banyan tree as ‘ASVATTHA’. It is cherished for its everlasting or imperishable nature. If the tree is living, we need to know the nature of its substance that keeps it living.

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. The Banyan Tree offers an unusual appearance. It has roots that appear growing from its branches and the roots are located up in the air and away from the ground; it has trunks and branches growing downwards apart from the normal branches that grow upwards and outwards. Because of its adventitious roots, Banyan Tree spreads to cover a wide area and lives for a long time. Knowing and understanding this Asvattha Tree is important to gain the Knowledge of Vedas, the Hindu Scriptures that reveal the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self or Adhyatma Vidya.

The Knowledge of the Banyan Tree:

The Hindu Scripture, The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter XV known as Purusottama Yoga speaks about the nature of the Supreme Person. It metaphorically compares the Supreme Being to the popularly known Fig Tree or Asvattha.

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Ficus religiosa or the Bodhi Tree is often worshipped in India. The tree is also described as “Sthaanuu” which means immovable.**

I ask readers to visualize the Banyan tree called Ficus benghalensis rather than the holy tree called Ficus religiosa, or the Bodhi tree under which Lord Gautama Buddha experienced Enlightenment.

PRAYER BANYAN TREE sri-bhagavan uvaca urdhva-mulam adhah-sakham asvattham prahur avyayam chandamsi yasya parnani y... — **Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of Spiritual Self. The Knowledge of Banyan Tree.**

The first verse reads as follows: Sri Bhagavan Uvacha: “Urdhva-Mulam adhah-sakham Asvattham prahur avyayam, Chandamsi yasya parnani yas tam Veda sa Veda-vit.”The Supreme Lord Krishna said: There is a (Banyan) Asvattha Tree which has its roots upward and its branches down and metaphorically it is imperishable, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this Tree is the Knower of the Vedas (the person attains the Knowledge of the Ultimate Reality or the Supreme being).

When we know the Banyan Tree and its apparent imperishable quality, we may understand the true nature of man. The man is a spiritual being. The truth or falsity of this proposition depends on the fact of man’s having a substance that is of spiritual nature. Such a substance of spiritual kind is perceptible to the senses, is amenable to direct observation, and could be subject to verification by experimental science. To establish the fact of man’s spiritual nature, it needs reasoning based upon scientific validity.

The structure and the behavior of things contribute to their individual being and function. If the man has a set of defining features based upon his structure (Human Anatomy), function (Human Physiology), and behavior (Human Behavioral Science), the spiritual nature of man could be proved on theoretical and practical reasoning and could be verified by scientific experiments. I am not seeking to discover a soul or spirit that could have an existence independent of man’s physical being. However, it will be important to note that it is not possible to conceive of a soul or spirit if it is never associated with its human body. My purpose is that of describing the spiritual nature of the human organism and of other living beings. To understand the true nature of human being, we need to ascertain the validity of Knowledge that pertains to the Spiritual Self.

Man is a Mortal Being:

The man’s greatest need is not only to know the world around him but also to know himself better. The man must understand what it is to be a substance and what it is to exist. The man is a physical being or thing with matter and form. The corporeal body of man is composite of two principles; matter, and form. What is called matter is a potentiality, and what is called form is the actuality. The corporeal substance or matter called protoplasm becomes an actuality and is recognized as a living person because of the uniqueness of its genome that operates its living functions and defines its size, shape, color, and external form or morphological appearance. However, life comes into existence only when matter or substance has the ability to acquire energy from its external environment. The human being comes to life when his corporeal substance uses its ability and power called ‘Nutrition’ to acquire energy and matter from its environment.

Life begins with fertilization, the union of sperm with an egg cell, and this event called conception proceeds to develop a human being after an important event called implantation. The life journey after conception continues if there is a connection between the energy seeking embryo and its maternal energy provider. To exist means that the living entity is maintaining a relationship, a partnership, a connection, or association with its source of energy.

The man leads energy-dependent existence deriving energy and matter from nature which supports other living forms with a similar corporeal substance called protoplasm. The mortality of man must be understood as the dissolution of man’s physical form. The dissolution of a living man into non-living molecules and chemical elements would not alter the potentiality of protoplasm to acquire energy and matter to create its own substance.

Things in Nature change with Time, but what is called Human Nature remains unchanged even under the influence of Time. As per the Laws of Conservation of Mass and Energy as described in classical Physics, mass or energy remain constant. The potentiality of living substance to acquire energy and matter to form its own kind of substance has remained unchanged or unaffected by major natural calamities and other cataclysmic events. Life forms perish and yet life continues as new life forms. During the billions of years of existence, planet Earth has experienced several minor, and major Extinction Events described in its geologic history.

The Science of Paleontology offers information to support a hypothesis based upon theoretical and empirical evidence to propose that the substance called protoplasm is eternal, immutable, and indestructible as the Chemical Elements that constitute protoplasm have those defining attributes such as immutability and imperishability. At a fundamental level, it could be stated that the man is a mortal, physical being who derives his physical form because of its association with an imperishable substance. During any stage of its existence, the form called man cannot be separated from the eternal, immortal, and imperishable nature of its chemical elements.

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. California State Tree known as Redwood includes Sequoia sempervirens and the Giant Sequoia is known as Sequoia gigantea. The Redwoods are the most massive trees in the world and could attain a trunk diameter as large as 30 feet. They also include the tallest trees in the world averaging about 300 feet high. They include the oldest known living trees and may reach ages of over 3,000 years. What is that corporeal substance that is living apparently in an imperishable manner?

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.Sequoia sempervirens. The man has officially designated this tree as the State Tree of California State. What is the connection between man and plants or trees? What is the corporeal substance shared or common to all living entities?

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Sequoia gigantea is a massive tree. A living thing has a form and has matter. We often recognize the form and give it a name. What about the “MATTER” that constitutes the substance of this living thing? We need to understand the ‘potentiality’ of the Matter to know the nature of the Form. The Form has no independent existence of its own. The Form lives if and only if it has Matter that is living.

What is Soul or Spirit?

Traditionally, man has been divided into two parts; body, and soul. In common usage, the term soul represents the immaterial aspect of a human being. The soul is further defined as that part of the individual which is considered to survive the death of the body. The term spirit is often used to describe a disembodied soul. On separation from the human body, the soul or spirit has a life of its own, a capacity for independent existence or self-subsistence which describes its immortality. I inform my readers to evaluate the possibility of immortality by understanding the immutable attributes of the Chemical Elements constituting the Living Matter.

The conceptions of Soul:

There are a variety of conceptions about the soul or spirit. Some of the traditional conceptions of the soul are the following:

1. The soul is the immaterial substance, form, or principle of self-motion, vitality, life force, or life in living things. The insentient body is completely distinct from the sentient soul.

2. Soul describes the Doctrine of the Self and is considered to be synonymous with the True-Self. In a human being, the soul confers the Individuality and its Human Nature.

3. The soul is often described as a thinking substance and is often equated with the mind. The soul has knowledge of itself by the reflection of its acts. The soul is the knower and it knows the physical, and mental acts of the human body where it resides.

4. The soul is important to maintain and to preserve life. The soul may not directly participate in the activities of the human body. However, the activities of the human body may have a polluting effect on the soul. If the soul is tainted or contaminated by the sinful acts of the body, the soul may obtain purification by its release from the body. Some form of human effort, activity, attitude, and behavior is essential to keep the soul in its natural, pure, and perfect condition.

5. The soul that has experienced the polluting effects by its association with a human body would be forced to experience perpetual reincarnation by a process called transmigration. The soul continues to reside as a prisoner in different bodies until such time it attains its original state or condition of purity and perfection.

6. The soul is a transcendental or noumenal object that is real but not visible and could not be detected by human sensory perception. The human body that is visible is, in fact, unreal or is a product of sensory illusion.

I ask my readers to attach a simple meaning to terms such as the soul or the spirit. It would be sufficient to describe the soul or the spirit as the vital, animating principle found in all living things.

The relationship between Soul and Human Body:

Most religions and cultures speak about the soul and describe it as some incorporeal or immaterial substance/principle of human life that is distinct from the body. Despite the frequent acceptance of the existence of a soul, different religions and philosophers have developed a variety of theories as to the nature of the soul and its relationship to the human body. There are divergent views about the origin of the soul, when and how it gets implanted into the human body, and the mortality or when and if the soul dies. I would like to share the view that is attributed to Lord Krishna, the avatar or reincarnation of Hindu God Lord Vishnu.

Adhyatma Vidya – The Bhagavad Gita:

The word ‘vidya’ is related to acquired knowledge or learned experience derived from studies or from instructions given by a teacher. The term ‘adhyatma’ pertains to the individual soul, Atma, or atman which describes the Spiritual Self. The phrase ‘Adhyatma Vidya’ could be described as the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.

The legendary Indian Sage Veda Vyasa known as Krishna Dvaipayana was the author of the epic poem ‘The Mahabharat’ (Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty). Veda Vyasa is recognized as the compiler of ancient Hindu texts known as the Vedas. The Book VI of Mahabharat narrates Lord Krishna’s conversation with Prince Arjuna while the warring parties of Pandavas and Kauravas had assembled at the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Lord Krishna reveals His views about the soul, the human body and their relationship in “The Song of the Lord” known as ‘The Bhagavad Gita’. These poems of The Bhagavad Gita give a synopsis of the religious thought and experience of Indians through the ages.

**Spirituality Science. The Knowledge of Spiritual Self. Adhyatma Vidya. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10, text 39.**

Chapter X of The Bhagavad Gita is titled ‘Vibhuti-Vistara Yoga’ and it describes the divine or transcendental attributes of the Supreme Lord. In verse #39, the Lord claims, “I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being, moving or unmoving( “Chara-acharam” ) that can exist without Me.

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.**

Verse #32, the Lord proclaims, “….of all the branches of Learning and Knowledge, I am the Knowledge of the Spiritual Self (Adhyatma Vidya).

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. In all living beings, I am consciousness.**

In verse #22, the Lord describes the nature of His connection with the living beings that He has generated, “…. and in living beings, I am Consciousness (“Bhutanam Asmi Chetana”).” He also clarifies that Consciousness or Chetana as a different characteristic and separates it from the mind, intellect, and organs of sense perception. The mind is traditionally viewed as the major organ of sense perception, the seat of thoughts, intellect, emotions, feelings, and self-ego. Consciousness or Chetana is associated with the characteristics of a living being.

The Lord also cites The Vedanta Sutra to make the distinction between the body, the soul, and the Supersoul. The Vedanta, the insights from Vedic Scriptures describe three manifestations of the Supreme Lord’s Energy. These are 1. Annamoya or dependence upon Food for existence, 2. Pranamoya or the manifestation of the living symptoms and life forms, and 3. Jnanamoya or the Knowledge of the distinction between the body, the field of activity and the Knower who resides in the body. If a living being needs food for its existence and performs its living functions in a state or condition called awareness or consciousness, it could be described as the manifestation of the Supreme Lord’s Energy.

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. I am ‘LIFE’ or “JEEVANAM” in all Living Entities.**

In Chapter VII titled ‘Paramahamsa Vijnana Yoga’ or Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth, in verse #9 Lord Krishna claims: “I am the life (“Jivanam”) of all that lives.” He demonstrates a connection between life and consciousness to describe the spiritual nature of Self.

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self.Tat Asmi Prabhu – Fifth Mahavakya – Existence Precedes Essence.**

The Chapter XIII of The Bhagavad Gita titled ‘Kshetra – Kshetrajna Vibhaga Yoga’ deals with the dichotomy or distinction between the material body, immortal soul, and the Supersoul. It states the view that the material body is called the field of activity or Kshetra. One who knows this body, the field of activity is called the Knower of the Field or Kshetrajna. The Knower of the Field is the Owner of the body. The Supreme Lord is also the Knower of the field of activity in all bodies( verse #3 ).

श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
इदं शरीरं कौन्तेय क्षेत्रमित्यभिधीयते ।
एतद्यो वेत्ति तं प्राहुः क्षेत्रज्ञ इति तद्विदः ॥ १३-२॥

śrībhagavānuvāca
idaṃ śarīraṃ kaunteya kṣetramityabhidhīyate
etadyo vetti taṃ prāhuḥ kṣetrajña iti tadvidaḥ

The Blessed Lord said: This body, O Kaunteya is called KSHETRA (the Field) and he who knows it is called KSHETRAJNA (the Knower-of-the-Field) by those who know them (KSHETRA and KSHETRAJNA) i. e. , by the sages .

In this human body, there is another indwelling Observer, a Sanctioner, a Preserver, an Enjoyer, and indeed ultimate Controller called ‘Paramatma’ or Supersoul. The Supreme Lord or Paramesvaram is residing equally in all living entities (verses # 23, 27, and 28).

**Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Body, Soul, and the Supersoul.**

The final Chapter XVIII of The Bhagavad Gita titled ‘Moksha-Upadesa Yoga’ comes to an interesting conclusion about the Single Reality that pervades all existence that is divided into innumerable forms. Verse #20 reads as follows:

“Sarva bhutesu yenaikam bhavam avyayam iksate avibhaktam vibhaktesu taj jnanam viddhi Satvikam.”

Understand that Knowledge by which one undivided, imperishable (Avyayam) reality is seen within all diverse living entities is in the nature of goodness (Satvikam).

**Adhyatma Vidya, the Knowledge of Spiritual Self. The Self is constituted by a Spiritual Substance, Matter, or Material that is found in all living things.**

What is that undivided reality that is imperishable that connects all the diverse, living entities?

The Body-Soul Dichotomy:

In the Indian tradition, the individual soul is known as Atma or Atman. The Supreme Soul or the Supersoul is known as Paramatma, Paramesvaram, or Brahman, the Ultimate Truth, and the Reality. However, the concepts about Atma or individual soul vary and the Hindus belong to different schools of thought. While the concepts about the individual soul are different, there is general agreement among various Indian thinkers and philosophers about the distinction between the material, insentient, and perishable human body and the immaterial, sentient, and imperishable or immortal soul. The soul is independent and is not attached and it still requires the substance of the corporeal body.

However, I am not able to make the distinction between the Body and it’s embodied Soul as I am not able to make that separation from the substance and its function. To describe a function, I need the substance. Man lives and functions with consciousness because of the fundamental nature of the corporeal substance called protoplasm, and this substance is apparently imperishable, indestructible, and immortal. We could destroy the physical form of man and of several other living forms, but man or nature and the influence of Time have not demonstrated an ability to destroy this living substance which has survived on planet Earth continuously over billions of years. Man cannot create life and man cannot destroy life. Man can only live or exist because of the spiritual nature of his corporeal substance with which he can not seek separation until the time of dissolution of his physical form after an event called death. After physical decomposition, the chemical elements get eventually taken up by other living things. The substance has a life of its own and continues to create the new substance of its own kind and becomes visible as a living life form with a different identity or morphological appearance.

Man is a Created Being:

The status of man in nature describes the man as a created object; a new object, one of its own kind, distinctive, and unique which cannot be duplicated by using any known reproductive technology such as cloning. Genetically identical twins can still be separated as Individuals with Individuality.

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality:

Adhyatma Vidya. The Knowledge of the Spiritual Self. Ajanta Caves near Aurangabad, Maharashtra State, India, Fresco-type wall paintings. Man’s spiritual dimension describes man’s humanity, moral nature, individuality, and Consciousness.

Religious thinkers have further defined Soul as that part of the individual which partakes of divinity. People of all races, cultures, and religions would like to investigate the nature of this God-Connection as they perceive the world and the universe in which they exist as a fact of Creation. I have not discovered evidence that would fundamentally deny the fact of Creation.

Man is a Social Being:

French philosopher Auguste Comte(1798-1857) coined the term Sociology. He believed that the scientific study of social organization would make possible a reconstitution of the social order based on principles of moral progress.

Apart from being a created Physical being, the man is recognized as a Social being as he displays social instincts and social behaviors in all of his activities. A rudimentary understanding of Sociology or Theories of Social Science would clarify this matter. Social instincts and Social Behaviors are seen in all animals including bacteria.

At a cellular level, the social function is called ‘Association’. Man is an association of trillions of cells. Each human organ and organ system represents an association of cells that display functional subordination to perform selective tasks. Life is just impossible without social structure and organization.

Matter, Energy, and Knowledge:

The Greek philosopher Aristotle had observed that corporeal substances are composite of two principles, form and matter. What is called matter is a potentiality, what is called form is an actuality. The totality of things has been divided in various ways. The three fundamental distinctions are 1. the distinction between the natural and the supernatural, 2. the distinction between the material and the spiritual, and 3. the distinction between the lifeless and the living. When we make the distinction animate/inanimate, living/non-living, and inorganic/organic, a question arises about the nature of that distinction. The difference, is that one of kind or degree? The Mechanistic View claims the continuity of nature in terms of the universality of purely mechanical principles.

I define Life as the organization of matter with implanted supernatural Knowledge. The establishment of supernatural Knowledge in matter describes the operation of ‘God Principle’, Spirit, or Soul. Life comes into existence when matter and energy come together with the establishment of ‘God Connection’.

Life and Consciousness:

Amoeba proteus, the unicellular, protozoan organism is conscious or aware of its own state of existence. It has the abilities of Motion, Nutrition, and Reproduction. All of its living functions are goal-oriented. It responds to its environment and survives adverse environmental conditions by a process called encystment.

The basic characteristic of a Living Cell or organism is the presence of consciousness. I recognize a cell as a Living Cell if it displays functions that characterize the presence of awareness or consciousness. The Living Cell or Living Object need not be aware or conscious of the Subject who may be investigating or observing the properties of that Object. The Living Object needs to be aware of its own existence and its condition called Living. Atoms and molecules display their properties and interact according to the Laws of Physics and Chemistry. Living organic molecules show individualistic behaviors under experimental conditions that could be repeated and be verified. The Living Cell is very selective and it responds in a variable manner to physical and chemical stimuli. It can communicate or send signals to other Living Cells present in its environment. It responds according to its internal condition in relation to the environment in which it exists. The interactions of non-living physical matter are not goal-oriented. The interactions of Living matter are goal-oriented and they specifically achieve the purpose of sustaining, preserving, defending, and continuing the Living functions.

Life and Death is a continuous process:

When does Life begin? When does Life end? Life always comes into a state of existence from a previously existing Living Cell. Life and Death is a continuous process and is recognized by the presence of Consciousness and Individuality.

When does Life begins? When does Life ends? Every Living Cell is derived from a previously existing Living Cell. Life has not experienced the final event called DEATH. Life continues its act of Living through a function called Reproduction. A given species is considered to be totally extinct only if there is no surviving member to represent that particular species. In spite of numerous major and minor extinction events, Life exists on planet Earth as if Life is imperishable.

The Soul and God Connection:

All types of Living Cells with or without nucleus represent thermodynamically unstable systems. Without a continuous input of energy, a Living Cell will degrade spontaneously into a nonliving collection of molecules. Biological existence is possible because of an association or connection, or partnership between energy seeker and energy provider.

There has been no clearly defined and universally accepted metaphysical conception of the term Soul. It is a term often used without a precise definition in philosophy, religion, or routine conversation. In this discussion, I face the problem of using words to which no definitive meaning is attached. If I make an attempt to define the word ‘God’, my readers may even speculate that I may belong to a new religious order. We need to come to a consensus even if an entity called ‘God’ does not exist.

**Life is a condition that describes Synchronized Existence, the synchronization of activities, the connection between energy dependent life functions and its Source of Power.**

A majority of life forms have synchronized their state of existence with an event that produces alternating periods of light and darkness while that source of light is not being turned ‘on’ and ‘off’. Rather we are forced to experience the effects of an illusion. Sunrise and Sunset is the reality that governs a majority of Biological Rhythms that control the life processes. The illusion is the necessary condition for the biological existence of Life.

WHO HAS ESTABLISHED THE CONNECTION BETWEEN AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS? The creative mechanism to trap Solar Energy describes implanted Knowledge to formulate the connection between autotrophs and heterotrophs.

In mitochondria, many substances(food) are oxidized and ATP, the energy-storing chemical of the Cell is produced. The most important equations for living things are mutually inverse. Respiration of humans and Cellular Respiration represents the reverse of Photosynthesis.

Soul and Death:

The idea of ‘Soul’ always comes in the context of Death. If the man is immortal, we will not be spending our time and energy to verify the existence of an immortal principle.

Red Blood Cells display functional subordination to serve the purpose of the Whole Organism. Functional differentiation and Functional Unity are important to support the existence of the Subject or Individual who is, in reality, an association of trillions of cells.

In a multicellular organism, the consciousness works both at the level of each individual cell and to establish the functioning of the organism as an individual unit. Without functional unity, the organism cannot maintain its biological existence. Cell differentiation is the process by which the individual cells use adaptation to perform specific tasks. Red Blood Cells perform specific tasks.

The neurobiological aspects of Consciousness:

Reticular Formation of Brain Stem has connections with almost all other parts of the Central Nervous System and it helps to coordinate and integrate actions of different parts of the CNS. It is important for Behavioral Arousal and the Capacity for Consciousness.

In the Human Brain Stem, several neurons, and nuclei which are in an area called Reticular Formation are functionally adapted to compose the contents of human consciousness. The Reticular Formation gives the Capacity for Consciousness. The contents of this consciousness are read in the cortical areas of the cerebral hemispheres and described as Cortical awareness.

Consciousness is awareness of existence, the facts that relate to the state or condition of existence. Behavioral Arousal and Cortical awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations is an important component of total Biological Existence.

Identity and Individuality:

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 12. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna: “Na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme JanadhipaH; Na chaiva na bhavisyamaH, sarve vayam ataH param.”

For each of us, our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

Image result for bhagavad gita chapter 2, verse 12 — The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality is described in The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse 12. Lord Krishna spoke to the Pandava Prince Arjuna: “Na tv evaham jatu nasam na tvam neme JanadhipaH; Na chaiva na bhavisyamaH, sarve vayam ataH param.”

For each of us, our Individuality existed in the past and our Individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Certainly, never did I not exist, nor you, nor all these Kings and certainly never shall we cease to exist in the future.

The issue of spirituality, the nature of Soul and consciousness must be explored in the context of arriving at an understanding of man’s Identity and Individuality. If the man is viewed as an association of trillions of cells, we need to know the Identity of that Subject who lives because of the functions of the trillions of cells.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

Bhavanajagat

SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – THE KNOWER – THE KNOWING-SELF: THE MAN, THE ENTIRE HUMAN ORGANISM IS DERIVED FROM A SINGLE FERTILIZED EGG CELL . HOW IS THE IDENTITY AND INDIVIDUALITY IS ESTABLISHED AND IS KNOWN IN THIS COMPLEX MULTICELLULAR ORGANISM ?

Mental Health in the Age of Stress

May is Mental Health Month, a time to shine a light on the importance of mental health to personal wellbeing and overcome reluctance to seeking help. Mental health is key to positive relationships and feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment in life. Mental health is also closely linked with physical health. Just as with physical health, mental health problems can be successfully treated. Mental Health America, the sponsor of Mental Health Month in the U.S., offers information and tools on its website: https://www.mhanational.org/mental-health-month. You’ll find helpful information on maintaining mental health and dealing with mental health issues on this website, too, including the following:

Mental Health Is Real

What Is Good Mental Health?

Mental Health Support Is for Everyone

Take Care of Your Mental Health

1 in 5 people will suffer from some form of mental illness in any given year. Break the Silence, Break the Stigma.

Mental Health in the Age of Stress

The Age of Stress

We live in an age of “Stress” and the Indian traditions refer to the present times as the age of “Kali Yuga” and describes the human behavioral disorders as the effects of pollution both mental and physical.

The accelerated tempo of life brings forth stimuli of high velocity of action, magnitude, and impact that they stimulate a chain of psycho-physical reactions strong enough to cause manifest effects in the human body. A person experiences ‘strain’ when his life’s demands exceed his ability to meet those demands. Prolonged high intensity intellectual and emotional strain which involves fixation of motives to do hard work, achieve high standards, carryout a task against opposition, and aspiration for high professional, prestigious, economic and social career and status would produce ‘stress’. Stress is produced not so much by the efforts which have been rewarded by success but more often by the ones not ending in satisfactory achievement. The impact of modern living has a significant bearing on the genesis of stress-associated declines in health. Prolonged stress may result in increased levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, a decline in certain aspects of immune system which contributes to a decline in the immune system surveillance against viral infected and cancer cells, increases the rigidity of the vascular system which produces hypertension (high blood pressure), thickening of the coronary arteries that impacts cardiac health, aggravate breathing difficulties, disrupts gastrointestinal microbial balance, and a host of other problems. Depending upon the physical, psychological, and social environments under which the person has been brought up and is presently living; and depending upon the genetic and constitutional factors, stress affects a particular target organ or system. The problems associated with the use of alcohol, tobacco, and a variety of mind altering drugs and substances could be considered as an extension of a response to stressful stimuli and substance abuse further aggravates the ‘stress syndrome’.

The Biological Concept of Stress

The word ‘stress’ or ‘strain’ should be understood as a Stimulus-Response-Complex produced in an individual by hostile physical, psychological, or biological invasion. It also leads to the development of resistance to the stressful stimuli. Depending upon the nature of the hostile or invasive factor, the resistance produced may be physical, psychological,biological, or a combination of all. Thus ‘stress’ includes the chain of reactions which constitute the process of development of final resistance to extrinsic strains. Resistance produced may be general or specific. The reactions of stress may produce the ‘General Adaptation’ and ‘Specific Adaptation’ syndromes. Stress precedes and promotes all the resistance phenomena. Final resistance produced by any biological, physical, and psychological stress producing stimulus detremines the survival, or defeat/death of the man under the strain. Stress could be viewed as beneficial when it is produced in tolerable quantum and is spread over a tolerable period of time.

The types of Stressors

The biological stress is caused by pathogenic organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, animal bites and stings.

**Human Existence in the Age of Stress. During the height of COVID pandemic, the US reported a high incidence of stress-related problems.**

Physical stress is caused by physical factors like heat, cold, burn, injury, radiation or privations.

In modern times the most important stress producing cause is that of sleep deprivation. Our biological existence is synchronized with the cosmic event that causes alternating periods of light and darkness. A biological clock manages a variety of biological activities such as the production of stress hormones. Body needs periods of relaxation and should stay tuned with the 24 hour biological rhythm which is popularly known as the ‘circadian rhythm’. We very often disrupt the functioning of this biological rhythm to accomplish one task or the other. Many of us just stay awake for the sake of enjoyment of life. If not at work, or preparing for an examination, we stay awake in front of TV, listening to music, watching sports, playing games, drinking alcohol, partying with friends, and in a myriad of other ways which would provide a sense of euphoria. While we are enjoying our time, the body still experiences stress and reacts to the stress of being in a wakeful stage when it should be resting without receiving any mentally exciting stimuli. Our desire to get away from the stress at work place or daily life, may actually enhance the effects of stress upon our body.

The psychological stress is produced by an adverse situation, proximity of an aggressive or overwhelming personality, or an intellectual, emotional (such as anger or worry), or social challenge. We could therapeutically combat the stress due to biological agents and physical conditions. But the psychological stress is not amenable to an easy therapeutic approach. Stress as a disease producing factor very often refers to the psychological stress.

The Genesis of Stress

**Human Existence. The Age of Stress. Hypothalamus, Pituitary and Adrenal glands play a central role in the Stress response.**

The part of the brain known as hypothalamus, and the organs of the endocrine system, particularly the pituitary and adrenal glands play an important part in the body’s adaptation to stress. The hormones such as epinephrine (Adrenalin) and cortisol produced by the adrenal glands help to protect the body and raise its resistance against stress irrespective of the nature of the stimulus.

After sudden exposure to stress stimulus, in times of anger, fright, fight, and flight, the initial ‘Alarm Reaction’ produces epinephrine that increases the heart rate and blood pressure. When the stress continues, the adrenals are again stimulated via the hypothalamus-pituitary axis and release hormones such as cortisol which is important for providing glucose, a source of energy for the body. If the stress further continues, body tends to develop resistance against prolonged stimuli. If the stress stimuli are very aggressive and are sustained over a very long period, the ‘General Adaptation’ mechanism of the body could fail, a ‘Stage of Exhaustion’ may follow and the individual could be overwhelmed. Pre-existent resistance against stress reduces the requirement of immediate response of an “Alarm Reaction.” Stress is reduced by pre-existing resistance. The defeat, imperfect production of resistance, or premature arrest of the process of its production gives rise to disease. Heredity, environment, physical and mental health, and social support detremine our ability to resist stress situations. The development of a well integrated personality to face life squarely determines the extent and quality of the resistance. By proper education and training, the threshold for physical and emotional stress could be increased.

Resistance to Stress

A psychological stress stimulus may not cause a similar reaction in all individuals. All individuals have different capacities to perform and adapt when faced with stress. People will react differently depending upon the preformed resistance they have. Five different types of reactions are possible. 1. The stress stimulus acts like an inspiration and becomes a source of healthy pursuit. 2. The stimulus is accepted as a reasonable strain and the individual takes it up as a healthy challenge. 3. The situation appears to be overwhelming and the stimulus becomes either a source of depression, and breakdown or a source of ‘stress syndrome’. 4. It may cause anxiety and becomes a source of an anxiety state or neurosis. 5. The stimulus does not elicit any reaction at all as the individual is apathetic.

Depending upon their response or reaction to stress, we can distinguish five different categories of people.

GROUP I: Persons highly resistant to stress. They have superior preformed resistance and often display an ability to develop resistance within a short time of exposure to stress. They master the stressful event and overcome the stress triumphantly. They do not suffer from any negative consequences while they carry out the task even while under great stress. They have dominant will power and have a great power of endurance.

GROUP II: These persons have enough preformed resistance to overcome the stress partially. They do not show overt ‘stress syndrome’ but suffer to a lesser extent in their attempts to master the stressful situation and achieve success. The task does not suffer. Such persons are likely to suffer from precipitation of internal conditions such as hypertension, coronary artery disease if they have other predisposing risk factors.

GROUP III: These persons have very low preformed resistance. If a stressful situation continues such persons may develop resistance which carries them through for some time but sooner or later they succumb to the situation and show evident ‘stress syndrome’. The task may not always suffer but the individual suffers from physical manifestations of stress.

GROUP IV: These persons have no preformed resistance and their ability to create immediate resistance is low. These persons abandon the task and tend to get away from the stressful situation. The task suffers and the individual could be punished for failing to perform his task.

GROUP V: These persons are Non-Resistant to stress. They have no preformed resistance. They are not capable of favorably reacting to a stress producing situation at all. They succumb and become psychiatric casualties and cease to exist as an organized entity. Sometimes, they may not be able to maintain their biological existence.

Armed Forces consistently strive to select and recruit only Resistant personalities and weed out the vulnerable ones by careful monitoring of the health of the troops.Over fifteen years of military service, I had conducted several thousands of medical examinations to assess the physical and mental fitness of people and was actively involved in preserving their health and promoting the quality of their health.I recruited several thousands of young people for service in the Indian Army and also recommended the removal of people whom I had detected to be falling short of our expected standards of fitness. With proper nutrition, physical training, personal hygiene, clean habits, and immunization, without any doubt we could make people ‘resistant’ to a variety of biological, and physical stress stimuli. The stress imposed by psychological stimuli is also important and the resistance to such ‘stress’ could also be improved. Understanding the phenomenon of stress is important for our existence in the modern times. By improving ‘Stress Resistance’, we keep the men ready for a batlle at all times, maintain the level of Stress Resistance during the most stressful moments of the battle, and protect their well being after the stress of the battle is over. The psychological preparation for batlle includes an effort to increase the stress resistance level by proper motivational techniques used routinely in the medical fitness examinations of men. To sustain productivity in education, and at work, we need to lay emphasis on the concept of stress resistance.

Dr. R. Rudra Narasimham, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, A.P., India.,

M.B.B.S., Class of April, 1970.

Mental Health demands the knowledge of Body, Mind, and Spirit Connection

Mental Health Is Real

What Is Good Mental Health?

Mental Health Support Is for Everyone

Take Care of Your Mental Health

1 in 5 people will suffer from some form of mental illness in any given year. Break the Silence, Break the Stigma.

I ask my readers to add the knowledge of Temperance to promote their Physical and Mental Health.

What is Temperance?

The Law of Temperance

John Milton (1608 – 1674), in his greatest poetic achievement of ‘PARADISE LOST’ describes Man’s First Disobedience of God, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein Man was placed. Adam, the first Man who was created in God’s image and likeness brought Death into the World. God declares that Adam and Eve could no longer abide in ‘Garden of Eden‘, the Paradise. God sends Angel Michael with a Band of Cherubim to dispossess them. Michael reveals to Adam the ‘Law of Temperance’ which could help him to live for many long years.

**The Law of Temperance: The Rule of Not too much**

Angel Michael also comforted Adam by assuring him that if he observes the ‘Law of Temperance’, Death would be like the gentle act of gathering a ripe fruit when fully mature.

Paradise Lost, Book XI ( 520-540):

In John Milton’s epic poem of Paradise Lost, angel Michael explained ‘The Law of Temperance’ to Adam, the first created man to face the threat of death.

I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.

But is there yet no other way, besides

These painful passages, how we may come

To Death, and mix with our connatural dust?

There is, said, Michael, if thou well observe

The rule of not too much, by temperance taught

In what thou eatst and drinkst, seeking from thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,

Till many years over thy head return:

So maist thou live, till like ripe Fruit thou drop

Into thy Mother lap, or be with ease

Gathered, not harshly pluckt, for Death mature:

The Nature of Temperance

The essence of Temperance is choosing moderation and deliberately avoid excess. In Indian Culture and Tradition, living in moderation and living in virtue are almost identical. Socrates suggests that one should “choose that which is orderly and sufficient and has a due provision for daily needs.” He compares the intemperate man “to a vessel full of holes because it can never be satisfied.” Socrates describes the temperate man as able to satisfy his limited desires, whereas the intemperate man of boundless desire, can never pause in his search of pleasure. According to Freud, when “the ego learns that it must inevitably go without immediate satisfaction, postpone gratification, learn to endure a degree of pain, and altogether renounce certain sources of pleasure”, it “becomes ‘reasonable’, is no longer controlled by the pleasure-principle, but follows the reality-principle”, which seeks, “a delayed and diminished pleasure, one which is assured by its realization of fact, its relation to reality.”

Temperance and Courage

**What is Temperance? SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274), ITALIAN THEOLOGIAN, PHILOSOPHER, AND FATHER OF CHURCH, ANGELIC DOCTOR CLAIMED THAT HUMAN LAW THAT VIOLATES NATURAL LAW IS NOT TRUE LAW.**

Saint Thomas Aquinas and ‘The Law of Temperance’.

Thomas Aquinas defines Temperance as “a disposition of the soul, moderating any passions or acts, so as to keep them within bounds. Temperate refers to a man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact. A man not only acts temperately but is temperate in character, when his desires are themselves habitually moderated to be in accord with reason. A temperate man is not pained at the absence of pleasure or by his abstinence from it. Temperance contributes the virtue of Fortitude which strengthens men against “the enticement of pleasure” as well as against the fear of pain. A man who is able to stand firm against the onslaught of pleasures is more able to remain firm against the dangers of death. And so “Temperance can be said to be Brave.” The endurance of pain is central to the nature of Courage. Temperance and Courage are not distinct virtues as both are based upon an ability to stand firm against pain and danger.

Nine Years Long Service Medal – A Salute to the Law of Temperance:

**What is Temperance? The Flag of the Indian Army Medical Corps**

During my service in the Indian Army Medical Corps, I learned the values of Temperance, Fortitude, Courage, and delaying gratification of desires, and avoid seeking physical comforts and pleasures.

**What is Temperance?** **9 Year Service Medal to Salute the Law of Temperance**

**This Nine Year Long Service Medal was awarded to me in July 1979 and I salute the Law of Temperance for this Award.**

During the first nine years of my Indian Army Service, apart from taking part in the War of Liberation of Bangladesh, I participated in a variety of Army Operations that keep the men ready and prepared for a battle. Military Training and Service can be best described as habituation for a temperate character.

**What is Temperance? Nine Year Service Medal to Salute the Law of Temperance.**

The nature of Army Operations and Tactics always demand to overcome the onslaught of sense pleasures and voluntarily delaying the gratification of personal desires. A lifestyle based upon physical ease and comfort and indulgence in food and alcohol is not compatible with the Army way of life.

The nature of Army Operations is influenced by terrain, climatic conditions, distances and the availability of transportation. There is no scope to cater for physical comfort, relaxation, and entertainment. The supply of rations and food provisions is limited because of the problems of their bulk and weight. Army Rules and the Code of Conduct would emphasize that men should honor their commitment to serve more than anything else. Such commitment to Serve with Honor would only be possible only when the man in uniform lives in accordance with the Law of Temperance.

Bharat Darshan. The Celebration of Narasimha Jayanti or Narasimha Chaturdashi on Thursday, May 04, 2023.

Bharat Darshan. Defining Indian Identity What’s in a Name? My personal name was decided under the influence of the Date, the Time, and the Place of my birth. Even the LORD’s incarnation was decided under the influence of the Date, the Time, and the Place predetermined for the killing of the Demon King Hiranyakashipu.

Narasimha Jayanti is an important festival of the Hindu community. This auspicious day is grandly celebrated on Vaisakh Chaturdashi (14th day) of the Shukla Paksha or the Waxing Phase of the Moon. Also known as Narasimha Chaturdashi, this sacred festival will be marked on Thursday, May 04, this year.

As per scriptures, on this day, Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of Narasimha, (half lion and half man) to kill Demon Hiranyakashipu. He appeared with the face and features of a lion but the body of a man. Lord Narasimha is the fourth incarnation or avatar of Lord Vishnu.

**Bharat Darshan. Defining Indian Identity. What’s in a Name? The Celebration of Narasimha Jayanti, Narasimha Chaturdashi on the 14th day of the Waxing Phase (Shukla Paksha) Thursday, May 04, 2023.** **The Date, the Time, and the Place of birth are predestined.**

Narasimha Chaturdashi Tithi Begins – 11:50 PM on May 03, and Ends – 11.44 PM on May 04, 2023

Bharat Darshan. Defining Indian Identity. What’s in a Name? The Celebration of Narasimha Jayanti, Narasimha Chaturdashi during the Shukla Paksha or the Waxing Phase of the Moon on Thursday, May 04, 2023.

Defining Indian Identity - What is in a name? — **Bharat Darshan. Defining Indian Identity. What’s in a name?** My personal name was decided under the influence of the Date, the Time, and the Place of my birth. What is Predestination? The Date, the Time, and the Place of Lord’s Appearance was predetermined by the choices made by the Demon King.

The name ‘ Indian ‘ is related to the great river SINDHU which is also known as Indus. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed westwards towards setting sun to reach the shores of India. He discovered people living on islands whom he had mistakenly named as Indians. Apart from those island dwellers, the natives of the entire American continent, the so-called NEW WORLD, were named Indians. In spite of concerted efforts to rename them as ” Native Americans ,” the name Indian is still in use.

Name is a very important tool to describe personal identity. The word name as a noun, describes a person, place or thing. It is also a word or words by which an object of thought is known. Indians did not choose the name India or Indian. However, the people of our Land of BHARAT, are extremely fond of choosing names. This fondness for selecting, using and remembering names is an important Cultural attribute which defines our identity.

THE TRADITION OF GIVING NAMES:

Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore, Chennai. — Lord Kapaleeswara Temple at Mylapore, Madras City, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The birth of a Brahman Spirit at House Number 2/37, Kutchery Road, Mylapore, Madras City is known to this Lord Shiva or Rudra. He presides over the Life and Death of this Brahman Spirit both in good health or ill health, and in Freedom or Captivity.

Lord Shiva is known as Rudra, Neela Kantha, Pasupati and several other names. This fondness for selecting, using, and remembering names is an important cultural attribute which defines Indian Identity.

The name “RUDRA” is one of the earliest names known to humanity. According to legend, the Vedic God Rudra acquired His name from His Creator Brahma. As per the story, a boy was seen crying and wandering. The Father asked the boy the reason for his ‘howling’. The boy answered that he was ‘weeping’ for he was not given a name. So, the Father created a name by bringing together two Sanskrit words, Ru and Dra which mean ‘crying’ and ‘wandering’. Thus the name Rudra was born. This legend is an example of our emotional dependence upon the need for names. The major Deities such as VISHNU and SHIVA that Indians worship are known by thousands of names and remembering those names is deemed as an act of devoted worship. The use of these names is a fundamental right and I understand the term religious freedom in the context of my freedom to choose the name that I would worship. The religious experience that I gained while growing up in India relates to the use of names as an act of worship. Worship would have no meaning or purpose and would not give me a sense of direction if I do not remember the beautiful names that I have come to know.

A PERSONAL NAME AND A PERSONAL STORY:

This landmark Temple of Kapaleeswara binds me to my birthplace of Mylapore, Madras(Chennai). The Presiding Diety of this Temple is chosen as my personal Protector and hence I am given the name of "RUDRA". — This landmark Temple of Kapaleeswarar binds me to my birthplace of Mylapore, Madras(Chennai). The Presiding Deity of this Temple is chosen as my personal Protector and hence I am given the name of “RUDRA.”

My personal name is very much a part of my personal story. The name is chosen entirely due to the circumstances of my birth and I remain connected to the persons and the places for the rest of my life. I describe MYLAPORE of MADRAS City (CHENNAI) as my birth place and I describe RAJAHMUNDRY of East Godavari District as my native place.

Bharat Darshan. Defining Indian Identity. What’s in a Name? My personal name was chosen under the influence of the Date, the Time, and the Place of my birth. A view of Kutcher Road, Mylapore, Madras, Chennai.

My mother gave birth to me at my maternal grandfather’s residence on KUTCHERY Road in Mylapore. I spent the years of my early childhood at my paternal grandfather’s mansion in INNISPETA of Rajahmundry. As per the traditional belief and the practice of Vedic Astrology known as ‘ JYOTISH ‘(Science of Light), my birth star predicted and warned about some forthcoming inauspicious events. The astrological calculations suggested that remedial action is needed to counter the negative aspects of the birth star. Accordingly, my father performed a ritualistic worship popularly known as ” RUDRA ABHISHEKAM ” and worshiped SHIVA at the beautiful KAPALEESWARAR temple of Mylapore. To ensure that I would always enjoy the blessings from SHIVA, my father decided to name me as RUDRA. Hence,this name of Rudra instantly connects me to my birth place of Mylapore and to KAPALEESWARAR as my personal protector. The birth star also forewarned about consequences that would impact my paternal grandfather. There was no easy escape from the influences and the second part of my personal name was carefully chosen to please my paternal grandmother, Srimati. Lakshmi Narasamma. Because of the gender variation, the name Narasamma transformed to Narasimham. This name immediately connects me to the “LAWS OF KARMA.” These names are well-known and particularly in the southern States of India, the name Narasimham or variations of that name are frequently used. As long as I remain a conscious entity, my grandparents live in my consciousness. Astrology or Jyotish may not be a perfect Science. Horoscopes may not predict the future course of events in a person’s life. I exist in this world and I am known by a name which was specifically selected for me because of the predictions cast by my horoscope and the prediction came true and I find enough justification for this Indian Cultural Tradition called Jyotish.

My paternal grandfather. The family astrologer who had prepared my horoscope predicted an inauspicious event and the prediction came true five months after my birth. But the prediction did not deter my grandfather in any manner. My grandmother whose name I had acquired told me that my grandfather had loved me with all his heart without any concern about the astrological prediction. — My paternal grandfather. The family astrologer who prepared my horoscope predicted an inauspicious event and the prediction came true five months after my birth. But the prediction did not deter my grandfather in any manner. My grandmother whose name I acquired told me that my grandfather loved me with all his heart without any concern about the astrological prediction.

A UNIQUE NAME AND A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE:

In 1965, I joined Kurnool Medical College after I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad. At Kurnool, a batch of B.Sc., degree students were directly admitted into the Second Year of the medical education program that awards the M.B.B.S degree. Professor Rama Murthy of the Anatomy Department was very fond of knowing and recognizing each of his students by their personal names. On the first day of our Anatomy Class, the attendance register was not ready and Professor Rama Murthy decided to call out names from the list of selected candidates. He very solemnly announced to the Class that the roll call begins with a very angry and fiery name. We were intently listening to know what that name could be. Apparently, the list of selected students was prepared according to merit and my name was placed at the top of the list. He called my name and expressed his sense of disbelief. He asked me to verify my name and told the Class that it was the first time in his life that he encountered a person with the given personal name of Rudra Narasimham and both of those names are personifications of extreme anger and fiery temperament. You can easily visualize the angry personality depicted in the images of Lord Narasimha. His statement appears to be right and I have not known any other person who may have the same name. It is one of its own kind and is unique and special.

Socrates implored people to ‘know thy self’. He had stated that the unexamined life is not worth living. Understanding life involves understanding personal identity and name is a word by which an object of thought is known.

The name Rudra is related to SHIVA who is recognized as the God of Learning. Shiva is like Socrates. Socrates of 5th century B.C. is claimed to be the father of western thought. He implores people to “know thy self”. Socrates states that the ‘ unexamined life is not worth living ‘. Shiva guides me to reflect upon life. Shiva encourages introspection, reflecting upon one’s own mind and thoughts. Shiva defines that the purpose of learning is to acquire the ability to think for oneself. The name Narasimham represents to me a person who defends my right to select the Name for my God whom I choose to Worship. The story about Prince Prahlad represents the Cultural importance attached to personal choice in matters of religious worship. Names of persons, places and the legends form a part of Cultural legacy of our Land and define Indian Identity.

A view of the eastern Gopuram from inside the ... — Defining Indian Identity. What’s in a Name? Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore, Madras. A view of the eastern Gopuram from inside the temple. My personal name was decided under the influence of the Date, the Time, and the Place of my birth. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dr. R. Rudra Narasimham, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

***Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India,* *M.B.B.S., Class of April 1970.***

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India

Essence and Existence in the Land of India:

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India: On August 15, 2012, Indian people are celebrating the 66th Independence Day in commemoration of 65 Years of Independence. The Red Fort in New Delhi is the traditional venue for this celebration and the Indian National Flag is hoisted by the Prime Minister of India, the elected representative of People of India. In this context we have to explore the relationship between Spiritualism and Nationalism.

Today, on August 15, 2012, people of India also known as ‘BHARAT’ are celebrating the 66th Independence Day in commemoration of 65 Years of Independence. In this context, we have to examine the relationship between Spiritualism and Nationalism. In the ancient Land of India, human beings have lived continuously for thousands of years. But, it was a Land divided into several hundreds of small and large kingdoms until Indian people joined together in a Nationalist Movement to win their Freedom from foreign rule and occupation. Indians won this Freedom on August 15, 1947 when Great Britain ceased its occupation of India.

What is Nationalism?

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India: This National Flag of India known as ‘Tricolor’ has infused a sense of new ‘SPIRIT’ called Indian Nationalism, a sense of Devotion to one’s Nation.

Nationalism is the state of mind in which the individual feels that everyone owes his supreme loyalty to the Nation-State. Nationalism is a modern movement and it belongs to the modern world. Before the 18th century, people gave their loyalty to their communities, tribes, feudal lords, princes, or religious groups. The historical sense of attachment to the native soil, to social and cultural traditions, and to established territorial authorities has changed by the end of the 18th century when Nationalism began molding public and private life. Since then, Nationalism has become an important factor of modern history. The American Revolutionary Wars (1775-1783), and the French Revolution (1789) could be regarded as the first manifestations of Nationalism. It led to the formation of modern National States in Europe. The 19th century has been called the Age of Nationalism in Europe. The World War I, and World War II resulted in the spread of Nationalism in Asia and Africa and has manifested itself as a struggle against European Colonialism.

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India: Indian Nationalism won Freedom at a huge cost in human lives. The British Empire while leaving India during 1947 had divided the Land creating new National entities. The disorder that followed the Partition of India caused the loss of over one million human lives. The concept of Cultural Nationalism cannot and will not defend and preserve human life in the Land of India.

Nationalism began to appear in India after World War I. The Indian National Congress founded in 1885 began a new political process in the private and public lives of Indian people. It had produced leaders such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) who joined the Nationalist Movement for Indian Independence during 1915. The people of India started replacing the king as the center of the Nation. The State had become the people’s State, a National State, and a Motherland.

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India: Mahatma Gandhi is correctly recognized as the Father of the Nation called the Republic of India. This concept of Nationhood emerged in the 19th century. He won a huge political battle and won Freedom for millions of Indian people. Did he secure Peace, Harmony, and Tranquility in the living experience of the People of India? The Past is Never Dead. Spiritualism is the potency generated by Consciousness; the Consciousness or Awareness of the fact of existing in a given physical environment. Spiritualism demands the existence of a Living Soul or Spirit.

Nationalism is not a political program or ideology; it is a perspective on such programs or ideology. Nationalism can be described as a sentiment that places the existence and well-being of the Nation highest in the scale of personal loyalties.

In political terms, it signifies a person’s willingness to work for the Nation against foreign domination. It reflects a person’s willingness to resist foreign political, economic, and cultural domination. Nationalism implies a group’s consciousness of shared history, language, race, and values. Its significance lies in its role in supplying the ties that make the Nation-State a cohesive, viable entity. The terms such as nation, state, or country describe a political entity in which people are united under a particular political organization and are occupying a defined territory. However, the term ‘Nationalism’ demands more than the existence of boundaries or political institutions. Nationalism includes the feelings or thoughts of patriotism, zealous love of one’s country, advocacy of national unity or independence and it involves the creed that fidelity to one’s State or Nation is more important than fidelity to individual interests.

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Land of India. The Cultural Unity of the people of India was not enough to stop the foreign aggressors who ruled over India

We, the people of India and of Indian origin have to truthfully examine if ‘Nationalism’ has ever existed in the Land of India. We have to truthfully explain as to why the Land of India exists as an easy target for foreign invasion, foreign conquest, foreign occupation, and foreign political, economic, and cultural domination. The Cultural Unity of the people of India or the Civilizational Unity is not enough to stop the foreign aggressors who ruled over the Land of India.

Indian Nationalism won Freedom at a huge cost in human lives. The British Empire while leaving India during 1947 had divided the Land creating new National entities. The disorder that followed the Partition of India caused the loss of over one million human lives. The concept of Cultural Nationalism cannot and will not defend and preserve human life in the Land of India.

The Problem of National Unity and the role of Cultural Nationalism in India:

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Land of India. In the ancient Land of India, human beings have lived continuously for thousands of years. But, it was a Land divided into several hundreds of small and large kingdoms.

There is a fundamental problem with the experience of life in the Land of India. The Nation – State was nonexistent during the greater part of Indian history. People did not give loyalty to the Nation – State but to other, different forms of feudal states. Before 20th century, political allegiance was determined by mostly local and regional factors such as that of a local princely ruler, regional language or regional culture.

Indian Cultural Nationalism mainly consists of expression of some national characteristics through nonpolitical activities such as art, literature, music, dance, and other forms of culture such as the performance of Temple Worship and Pilgrimage. A vast multitude of people may come together at a particular place in celebration of an event and return to their native places. India did not exist as a large, unified territorial state with political, and economic centralization.

The political, and economic centralization that existed in India was largely a product of foreign rule and foreign occupation of the Land of India. This lack of National Unity and the lack of a National identity and Individuality made India an easy target for foreign, military attacks.

The History of Jihad in India

**Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Land of India**

Sir Jadunath Sarkar, a former Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University, a historian, reviewed the records kept by Al- Utbi, the Secretary of Sultan Yaminu -d- Daula Mahmud bin Subuktigin known as Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna. The Secretary in the Persian document called the Tarikh -i- Yamini recorded the details of several episodes of bloody campaigns waged by Sultan Mahmud between 1001 A.D. and 1027 A.D. Persian historian Ferishta (“Tarikh-e- Fereshteh” work by Ferishta about Mahomedan Power in India) also recorded the military conquests of India by Sultan Mahmud. The Sultan of Ghazna directed his military attacks on places of spiritual pilgrimage in India. He attacked the temple towns of Nagarkot, Thanesar (1011), Mathura (1018), Kannauj (1019), Kalinjar (1023), and Somnath (1024-25). He also attacked the holy places of Varanasi, Ujjain, Maheswar, Jwalamukhi and Dwaraka. These attacks were witnessed by Persian writers such as Al-Biruni (Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Biruni) and Ferdowsi (Abu ol-Qasem Mansur or Firdawsi/Firdusi). All of these historical records and documents reveal the scale of loss of human life. It is estimated that about two million people died in the Land of India during Sultan Mahmud’s repeated attacks. Asaru -l- Bilad, a Persian geographer had also described some of the foreign conquests of India.

K.S. Lal, an Indian historian estimated that about sixty to eighty million people in India may have died between 1000 and 1525 CE due to foreign invasions. It clearly demonstrates that the idea of Cultural Nationalism did not play a significant role in defending Indian people and had failed to preserve human life. Apparently, Cultural Nationalism did not generate the cohesiveness or Unity that is needed to resist and to defeat foreign military campaigns.

Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism – The Clash at Kurnool Medical College, Andhra Pradesh:

**Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India** – The Clash at Kurnool Medical College: The clash at Kurnool Medical College is a consequence of my participation as a student delegate in a National Student Seminar on National Integration that was sponsored by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, International Youth Centre, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, India during June 1967. In an essay on National Integration, I described the concept of Secular Nationalism to openly advocate and promote the idea of formulating marital social relationships neglecting traditional cultural values based upon religion and caste.

Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India: Dr. Sripada Pinakapani, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Superintendent of Kurnool Government General Hospital worked at Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool City, Andhra Pradesh, India from January 1957 to August 1968. He represents the face of forces opposed to the idea of Secular Nationalism. I was a student at Kurnool Medical College who had advocated the need for a National Identity and National Individuality and promoted the idea of formulating marital social relationships neglecting traditional cultural values based upon religion and caste. He had actively opposed my personal initiative and had encouraged my paternal uncle, Dr. R. Anjaneyulu, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, B. J. Medical College and Sassoon Hospitals, Pune City, Maharashtra State, India to sabotage my career in the Indian Army Medical Corps by using his influential contacts with senior Officers of Indian Army Medical Corps.

I submitted an application to Chief Minister Office, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, India on September 02, 2012. The request made by me is registered by the Secretariat Departments of Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Application Number is shown as : SR 12014477 and it reads as follows:

“I was a student of Kurnool Medical College from November 1965 to June 1970. I represented the State of Andhra Pradesh as a student delegate at the four-week long National Student Seminar on National Integration sponsored by Vishwa Yuvak Kendra, New Delhi during 1967 to promote the need for developing a National Identity and National Individuality for National Unity and National Integration. I encouraged students to ignore any identity that is derived from region, religion, language, and caste as India needs Secular Nationalism and not Cultural Nationalism. This was opposed by Dr. Sripada Pinakapani, M.D., who then served as the Professor of Medicine and the Superintendent of Kurnool Government General Hospital. Since he had actively opposed the principle of Secular Nationalism, I would request you to reconsider the decision made by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to name a building on Kurnool Medical College/General Hospital Campus to honour him.”

ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE IN THE LAND OF INDIA:

The ideas about human soul or spirit (Atman or Atma in Sanskrit language) find their profound expression in the oral and written literature of India. Indian thoughts about the nature of man and his existence can be traced to the ancient texts of Vedas (the Rig-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda) which were compiled from c. 1500 B.C. to c. 500 B.C. The Sanskrit texts known as the Upanishads (c. 900 – 500 B.C.) have systematized Indian philosophy. There are six classical systems of Indian philosophy that accept the authority of the Veda and the Upanishads; 1. Nyaya (6th century B.C. ) is a school of logic and epistemology, 2. Vaisheshika (3rd century B.C.) posits a sixfold classification of Reality (Substance, Quality, Activity, Generality, Particularity, and Inherence), 3. Samkhya (6th century B.C.) expounds two basic metaphysical principles; Purusha or Soul and Prakriti or Material Nature, 4. Yoga (2nd century B.C.) of Patanjali accepts Samkhya metaphysics, presents an eight-stage discipline of self-control and Meditation, 5. Purva-Mimamsa (2nd century B.C.) sets forth principles of interpretation of the Vedic texts, and 6. Uttara-Mimamsa or Vedanta which includes different schools of thought based on the Brahma-Sutras of Badarayana (early century A.D.) which summarize the Upanishadic doctrine and explain the teachings of the Upanishads. The most important schools of Vedanta are 1. the non-dualist (Advaita) Vedanta of Shankara (A.D. 788-820), 2. the qualified non-dualist Vedanta of Ramanuja (A.D. 1017-1137), and 3. the dualist Vedanta of Madhva (A.D. 1197-1276). Buddhism and Jainism are two important schools of thought that do not accept the authority of Veda and Upanishads. To a great extent, Indian traditions claim that man is an embodied soul. The mind, and body that represent the physical person is an illusion as the human body is thought to be “Asat”, or unreal, perishable, full of ignorance, and not happy. The real or true man as represented by soul or spirit is unborn. The real person is viewed as an eternal person who is not subject to change called life and death. Indian tradition considers that the Objective Reality of man or Essence of man is soul or spirit.

We must note that it is impossible to describe this mental concept called soul or spirit if it is never associated with its human body. The separation of man into body, mind, and soul is not supported by scientific study of man. Man comes into existence from a single, fertilized Egg-Cell. This man cannot be separated into distinct entities like material or physical body, thinking substance called mind, and an immaterial principle called soul. These three aspects of man have no independent existence of their own. There is no life and there is no human existence if body, mind, and soul are separated. Who you are describes your Essence and it is defined by What you do to establish the fact of your Existence. In other words, the Essence (Who you are) is preceded by the reality of Existence (What you do). Thus, Existence is the precondition to recognize Essence. Hence, I describe man as a living soul and not as an embodied soul.

In my impression, the traditional Indian views about human soul or spirit have failed to recognize the importance of human Existence as a precondition to define the nature of human Essence. Indian people have to give due recognition to the problems of human existence and must realize that Essence has no value if its meaning is not attached to the condition called Existence.

In my opinion, Spiritualism demands the existence of a Living Soul or Spirit to understand its characteristic functions that generate peace, harmony, and tranquility as a living human experience. Indians must define the concept of Spiritualism in the context of Self-Preservation.

The Concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India:

**The Indian Concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India is derived from the Indian Concept of Mother Earth.** **MOTHER EARTH, ‘PRITHVI’, OR ‘BHUMI’ IS DEDICATED TO PRESERVE THE COSMIC BALANCE AND UNIVERSAL ORDER.**

Mother Earth symbolizes the qualities of Patience, Tolerance, Perseverance and Endurance which is the ability to withstand pain without any complaint.

**The Concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India is derived from the Concept of Mother Earth which is an aspect of Mother Nature or Prakriti. In Hinduism,** **Nature (Prakriti) is known as the Mother Goddess**. Energy or Force (Shakti) is her essential nature. She is the source of all movements and modifications. Prakriti means that which is found in its natural state.

In the ancient Indian scripture of Rig Veda, Mother Earth or Prithvi Mata is described as the primordial goddess. She is also known by the names of Bhumi, Dhra, Dharti, Dhrithri, and Dharani all of which refer to her sustaining beneficence as “that which holds everything.” Akasha (Sky), Vayu (Wind), Agni (Fire), Jala or Varuna (Water), and Bhumi or Prithvi (Earth) are described as ‘Pancha Maha Bhutas’ or the Five Great Elemental States of the Material Nature or Prakriti. She is the consort of Lord Vishnu, the Divine Protector of the Hindu Trinity. Earth represents the female principle of fertility and is the source of all vegetation and is responsible for precious and bountiful crops and fruits that it yields. She is the sustainer and the preserver of the Cosmic Balance. She stands up to the rights of the living entities and defends them from Cosmic Forces and Energies. She symbolizes the concept of a just and stable universe. She represents dedication to maintenance of ‘Dharma’ or Righteous Action which defines the Universal Order. She bears witness to all of our actions and particularly the actions of miscreants and evildoers who transgress the rights of weak and innocent denizens living in her domain. She mutely observes the acts of depredations and oppression. She endures all kinds of suffering with calmness and displays a great quality of patience. However, there are natural limits to her forbearance.When stressed beyond her limits of threshold and particularly to uphold the vital principle of Dharma, she cries out aloud, calls for attention of all gods, and insistently demands for intervention of Lord Vishnu, the Divine Protector.

Earth is the natural home for all humans, plants, and the animals that inhabit this planet. Existence of man is conditioned. Man is dependent on an external source of energy and matter during all the days of his life’s journey on planet Earth. Indians find encouragement in developing perseverance while confronting trials and tribulations of many kinds. The idea that Mother Earth is a witness to their pain and suffering provides man a sense of comfort and enables man to endure suffering with a sense of hope and expectation of deliverance. Indians are culturally driven to face calamities with calmness as they hope that Mother Earth would intervene on their behalf. Being patient is a quality t imparted to the human character by Mother Earth.

**Bharat Darshan – The role of Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism in the Defense of the Republic of India**. **Man is a terrestrial organism and his conditioned existence connects the man and the place of his residence in a very intimate and personal manner**

All said and done, the man is a terrestrial organism and has a natural sense of attachment to Land, his natural home. This sense of attachment to Land is reflected in all the concepts with or without any concern for either religion or culture. In its essence, the concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India is a secular concept for it connects the man and the place of his residence in a very intimate and personal manner.

If Indians seek their existence as a Nation, they have to forget the parochial differences to develop national individualities and the primary focus of allegiance must be the Republic of India and not that of the local language, religion, or culture.

Dr. R. Rudra Narasimham, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Danavaipeta Municipal/Corporation High School, Rajahmundry, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India,

S.S.L.C. Class of March/April, 1961.

**BHARAT MATA OR MOTHER INDIA REPRESENTS THE COUNTRY AND THE LAND OF MY ORIGIN.** **SHE IS THE CULTURAL AND SECULAR ICON OF THE LAND FOR SHE IS THE OWNER OF THE LAND,**

World Health Day 2023. My health status – Living a Life with a broken heart

World Health Day 2023 – Health for All

World Health Day (WHD), held every year on 7 April, marks the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 and each year focuses on a specific public health concern. In addition to focusing on the journey to achieving Health For All, which is this year’s theme, WHO will observe its 75th anniversary under the theme 75 years of improving public health.

In 1948, countries of the world came together and founded WHO to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health and well-being. WHO’s 75th anniversary year is an opportunity to look back at public health successes that have improved quality of life during the last seven decades. It is also an opportunity to motivate action to tackle the health challenges of today and tomorrow.

Theory of Man precedes Theory of Health

In my analysis, there can be no ‘Theory of Health’ without sharing a ‘Theory of Man’. The question, “What is health?” cannot be asked without raising the question, “What is man?”

In my view, ‘ the existence of a man always precedes the essence of the man’. For that reason, the biological basis of the man’s existence must be identified to define the living entity called man. The natural event called ‘death’ precedes the natural event called ‘birth’ which heralds the arrival of newborn Life. The newborn always arrives after several programmed cellular death events.

The man’s existence in any condition, good health or ill-health, at any age, at any given time and place, depends upon Mercy, Grace, and Compassion (Sanskrit. KRUPA or KRIPA) of LORD God Creator. The man does not exist in the natural world because of his physical and mental work. The man needs input of matter and energy, from an external source, from the moment of conception to the conclusion of his entire life journey. The man’s existence is always conditioned as he cannot regulate either internal, or external factors that determine the fact of his existence.

I invite my readers to review the article titled “What is health?” published in Microbial Biotechnology by Dr. Harald Brüssow. I took the freedom to add a few comments to his article to help my readers to examine the topic in a critical manner.

Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada

BHAVANAJAGAT

What is health?

Clipped from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3917469/

Microbial Biotechnology. 2013 Jul; 6(4): 341–348.

Published online 2013 May 6. doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.12063

PMCID: PMC3917469

PMID: 23647782

Harald Brüssow*
Summary

The Medical Science fails to define the term ‘health’ for it fails to define the term ‘man’. To attach meaning to health, I must attach meaning to the word called ‘man’.

Classical medical research is disease focused and still defines health as absence of disease. Languages, however, associate a positive concept of wholeness with health as does the WHO health definition. Newer medical health definitions emphasize the capacity to adapt to changing external and internal circumstances. The results of the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study provides keys for a quantifiable health metrics by developing statistical tools calculating healthy life expectancy. Of central social and economic importance is the question whether healthy ageing can be achieved. This concept hinges on theories on the biological basis of lifespan determination and whether negligible senescence and the compression of morbidity can be achieved in human societies. Since the health impact of the human gut microbiome is currently a topical research area, microbiologists should be aware of the problems in defining health.
Introduction
The man represents a biological or biotic community of trillions of individuals; independent, living cells with individuality. The Man is also a natural host to trillions of microbes. Human life must be defined in terms of biotic interactions; both intraspecific, and interspecific biotic interactions.

Science has its fashions. Suddenly the leading science journals are full of articles about a specific topical research area. Sometimes, this wave of popularity follows a technological break-through which permits asking questions that were previously impossible to tackle or at least very hard to address experimentally. At other occasions, this cumulating of top-level research reports is the consequence of large international research efforts where grant agencies provided large amounts of money, which attracted many scientists to the field. In still other situations, the scientific community realizes that a certain field of scientific inquiry has simply been overlooked or neglected and the view offered by the new insights is exiting theoretical interest and promising practical applications. The human microbiome is currently such a fashionable field. Novel DNA sequencing techniques combined with new bioinformatic tools and the general progress of ‘–omics’ technologies offer the methods; major research grants on both sides of the Atlantic provided the money and the field has been an eye-opener for microbiologists which might be compared with the time of Leeuwenhoek when microbes in our mouth were first seen in the microscope and the time of Koch when the first isolated bacterial colonies were seen by the naked eye and linked to human disease. We perceive the human microbiome metagenome as our second human genome, as a source of human genetic variability (Schloissnig et al., 2013) and as a factor influencing human health (Clemente et al., 2012). The human gut microbiome has been associated with health issues of central importance such as obesity (Turnbaugh et al., 2006), healthy ageing (Claesson et al., 2012) and most recently cancer (Arthur et al., 2012), to quote only the most prominent fields. Probiotic bacteria have also been fashionable for a while (Thomas et al., 2010) and were judged to have a scientific basis (Neish, 2009), but scientific reports aroused less attention than gut microbiota research. Probiotics carry in their definition as ‘live health-promoting bacteria’ the concept that microbes can influence our health. But what is health? If you want to boost health, you must know what it is and how to measure it.
Health: ask the experts
I ask the Medical Science to apply the principles of Clinical Medicine not only to diagnose ill health but also to diagnose good and perfect or ‘Whole Health’ for the man is created by entity called God who is always Perfect and Whole.

At school we heard of Socrates who asked people who are supposed to be experts and to get an answer from a dialogue with them. Therefore, I first went to health authorities like medical doctors and their authoritative textbooks that guided generations of medical students like Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (Longo et al., 2011). In the 18th edition you find ample material on pathogens, even a chapter on the human microbiome (Gordon and Knight, 2011), a chapter on women’s health, but no definition of health. Overall, one gets the impression that medicine deals with disease and not health. In a recent meeting, one of my colleagues said that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) should correctly be called National Institutes of Diseases reflecting this disease focus of medical research. Health is currently fashionable as ‘Global Health’, but again scientists working at institutes called like this or in such programmes deal mostly with diseases. After this disappointment, the author turned to PubMed with ‘health’ and ‘definition’ as search terms and got less than 20 papers – a quite surprising outcome for such a central question of the human society. Clearly there is a problem with the definition of the term ‘health’.
Health: ask the languages
None of the living functions performed by a man involve the use of any known human language.

When a term is so self-evident and at the same time so elusive that no definition is provided in the scientific literature, it is frequently helpful to investigate the words we use when speaking about it. Naming is the first activity of human beings when trying to make order of things surrounding us. Words reflect the experience of many generations and words constitute a collective subconsciousness that determines still today our unexpressed thoughts and actions, more than we are aware of consciously. In the Oxford Dictionary ‘health’ is defined as ‘the state of being free from illness and injury’. It is obviously a negative definition. Such a definition reflects the current use of the words in the spoken language, but not necessarily its development over time. The English ‘health’ derives from Old English ‘hælth’, which is related to ‘whole’ ‘a thing that is complete in itself’ (Oxford Dictionary) derived from Old English ‘hal’ of Germanic origin (the addition of the w in whole/hal reflects a dialect pronunciation of the 15th century). In Middle English ‘hal’ also became ‘hail’ with the meaning of health in greetings and toasts. ‘hal’ is related to the Dutch ‘heel’ and the German ‘heil’. In German the connections between health, wholeness and salvation becomes even clearer than in English. ‘Heil-kunde’ and ‘Heil-kunst’ are still common German words for medicine, ‘Heiler’ is a traditional or alternative health provider; ‘heilfroh’ means wholly happy and refers to a relationship between health and happiness. ‘Heil’ has also religious meanings as seen from the German word ‘Heiland’ for the Christ as Savior (or for false prophets as in ‘Heil Hitler’). The German word conserved clear links with the religious and cultic realm in ‘heilig’ (English: holy) where ‘Heil’ is equivalent with salvation in the religious meaning (‘Seelen-heil’). These connotations are still vibrating consciously or unconsciously in native speakers when using these words. In fact, from this quasi-religious context the constitution of the WHO adopted in 1948 becomes understandable when stating ‘the following principles are basic to the happiness, harmonious relations and security of all peoples: Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. The definition has not been revised but was variously challenged for its ‘complete wellbeing’ as reflecting a fundamentalist view, referring to an ideal world of messianic expectations. Some scientists have therefore asked for redefining health to make it a realistic, measurable quantity (Saracci, 1997).

Since this language approach turned out to be revealing, let’s follow the relationship between health and wellness (are they synonyms or do they express distinct concepts?) and between health and disease (are they antonyms?). Disease is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as ‘disorder of structure or function in an organism that produces specific symptoms and is not the result of physical injury’; ‘dis-ease’ derives from the Old French ‘desaise’ (lack of ease). Wellness and illness is clearly a pair of antonyms. Illr is a Norse word for evil and was taken into Middle English with the meaning of wicked, malevolent. ‘Well’ (German: wohl) derives from a word common to many Germanic languages and means ‘in a good way’, initially as a contrast to wicked. As an adjective one of the meaning of ‘well’ is specifically ‘in good health’ (Oxford Dictionary). In German ‘wohl’ goes beyond good health, it alludes to psychological and emotional aspects (‘Wollust’: English: lust, but in Old English as in current German still in the sense of ‘pleasure’ and ‘delight’) and material wealth (‘Wohlstand’). Wellness thus goes beyond physical health and has a strong connotation of happiness, but also of hedonism (where pleasure is the chief good).

One might argue that these are linguistic associations restricted to Germanic languages. However, this is not the case: the Latin word pair ‘salus’–’malus’ has very similar connotations which were transmitted into modern Romanic languages (French: salut–maladie). In Latin ‘salus’ means health, rescue, redemption and wealth. It derives from ‘salvus’, Old Indian ‘sarvas’, which meant initially nothing else than ‘whole’. We see here again the notion of completeness with health. Malus which leads then to malady shares with the Germanic word ‘small’ a common root and thus refers to incompleteness. Malus has also moral connotation (Eritis sicut deus scientes bonum et malum – the snake in Genesis: you will be like God knowing the good and the evil). Disease has long been regarded as a celestial punishment for moral failing. In many traditional societies, health surveys should not miss to ask about ‘the evil eye’, underlining the widespread magic concepts on disease.
Redefining health: medical approaches
What is Spiritual Sickness? Lust, Avarice, Anger, Arrogance, Jealousy, Infatuation, and Miserliness are symptoms of Spiritual Sickness. Spiritual well-being is an integral component of Whole Health.

Recently the need for a new definition of health was expressed by the British Medical Journal (Jadad and O’Grady, 2008). A discussion via global blog conversation was initiated on ‘How should health be defined?’ The participation rate was weak: only 38 communications were counted. In an influential blog, R. Smith (2008) confessed that this issue is for most doctors an uninteresting question since they are interested in disease and not health. Medical textbooks are a massive catalogue of diseases. Health is an illusion and according to the strict standards of the WHO definition, most people are unhealthy for most of the time, so far, his comments. Research-oriented doctors complained that the WHO definition has no direct operational value – it is so widely formulated that health outcome cannot easily be measured. Health like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. It turned out that redefining health is an extremely ambitious and complex goal. A conference held in 2009 in the Netherlands (‘Is health a state or an ability? Towards a dynamic concept of health’) (Huber, 2010), an editorial by the Lancet (‘What is health? The ability to adapt’) (Anonymous, 2009) and an analysis in the BMJ (‘Health: how should we define it?’) (Huber et al., 2011) proposed a few conclusions. The preferred view on health was the ability to adapt and to self-manage. With respect to physical health the term of ‘allostasis’ was introduced – the maintenance of physiological homeostasis through changing circumstances. In the field of mental health, a sense of coherence was identified as defining criterion. Social health included people’s capacity to fulfil their potentials and obligations, the ability to manage their life and to participate in social activities including work. R. Smith summarized this into the phrase ‘health is the capacity to love and work’ attributed to Sigmund Freud. The Dutch conference highlighted a few important aspects. When applied to ‘successful or healthy ageing’ only a very small percentage of people would fit the WHO definition. When self-rating of well-being was used a much higher percentage rated themselves as successfully ageing and this rating was roughly constant over lifetime. With an ageing population chronic disease become a life condition to many people. The Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Programme uses strategies to enhance self-efficacy which resulted in fewer healthcare requests. Also, the WHO has added to this discussion. In preparation of the Ottawa Charter of 1986, the WHO defined health as the ability of an individual to realize aspirations and satisfy needs and to cope with the environment. Health was thus seen as a resource for everyday life. The WHO has also developed an International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health assessing the performance of a task in real life situation. WHO surveys assessed an individual’s health state by asking for mobility, self-care, pain, cognition, interpersonal activities, vision, sleep and energy and affect. The answers go into a single metric reaching from death (0) to perfect health (1). The abovementioned Lancet editorial quoted the French physician G. Canguilhem who perceived health in his 1943 book The Normal and the Pathological not as something that can be defined statistically or mechanistically. Health is the ability to adapt to one’s environment and its own limitations. At the Dutch conference, a participant asked for the concept of ‘salutogenesis’ (becoming healthy) and more concrete research work in a field dominated by studies of pathogenesis (becoming ill). In practical terms it means that instead of carefully observing the conditions that lead from the healthy to the diseased state, research should also be conducted for the opposite process, i.e. the transition from the diseased to the healthy state. In some diseases the transition from health to malady is a way of no return and its inverse process of ‘salutogenesis’ is obviously difficult to study. However, for microbiologists the situation is easier. Many acute infectious diseases show a transition from health to disease followed by a return to the normal. Here ‘salutogenesis’ is commonly studied and had practical outcomes. For example, understanding the immune response to an infectious agent which led to the resolution of the disease was often instrumental for designing vaccine strategies.
Scaling health levels?
The scaling of health fundamentally relates to the experience of satiation, satisfaction, or contentment from one’s own living condition. Dissatisfaction or a lack of contentment is absence of health.

A fundamental question not yet addressed in our discussion is whether health is a state as opposed to the alternative state of disease. There are medical conditions that allow only two alternative conditions; a frequently quoted example is a woman in childbearing age who either is pregnant or is not pregnant. There is no condition where a woman is a bit pregnant, pregnancy is an all-or-nothing event allowing only a ‘plus’ and a ‘minus’ state and no transitions between both of them. At first glance, one might also take ‘health’ and ‘disease’ as alternative ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ states. The self-perception of a subject is a relative reliable measure differentiating a healthy state from a diseased state. In a prodromal phase of an infectious disease, we feel lousy before any overt disease symptoms are evident. During convalescence we feel the reverse process of returning vigor and strength. This distinction finds expression in our outer appearance allowing not only an experienced physician, but even an attentive layperson to differentiate these two states with a single look at a person. This experience speaks for health and disease as two alternative states. However, medical doctors use scoring systems to assess the health and disease status of patients to decide on medical interventions. To quote just two examples: the Karnofsky score runs from 100 (perfect health) to 0 (death) in steps of 10 and assesses the independence or dependence of patients on assistance for everyday activity or survival; its main purpose was to quantify the capacity of cancer patients to cope with chemotherapy. Another score rates the status of newborns: the Apgar score attributes up to two points each for the appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, respiration of the baby (despite this mnemonic, Apgar is named after an anesthesiologist). Apgar expresses the need for medical intervention by the pediatrician. Apgar scores of 7 or higher characterize healthy babies. These scoring systems are interesting since first, they put health and disease into the same measurable category and second, they anticipate that both health and disease states can be graded. By their design as indicators for medical intervention, these scoring systems have more graded disease levels than graded health levels, but this point can be quickly remedied by introducing a scoring system that depicts in analogy with the number line increasing positive integers to the right as indicators of a graded health level and increasing negative integers to the left as indicators of graded disease levels.

Around 0 is an indifference zone where the subject feels neither particularly healthy nor definitively ill. While numerous scoring systems exist to describe severity grades for many diseases, less scoring systems exist for assessing health levels. This situation could quickly be corrected: Physical strength or mental fitness could be measured quantitatively by performance tests on the subject or functional reserves could be measured by physiological tests on individual organ systems of the subject. Such physical types of test are frequently used in geriatric medicine.

This grading concept – oversimplified as it is – has interesting consequences. When physicians speak about health interventions, they speak mostly about disease interventions where a treatment shifts for example a person from disease level −7 to disease level −3 to remain in the analogy of this fictive scale. Over recent decades medical treatments were also increasingly applied on apparently healthy subjects, who show, but do not suffer, from pathophysiological states (e.g. hypertension, hypercholesterolemia) in order to prevent for example a shift from health level +3 to disease level −7 when the pathophysiological risk factor transforms into actual disease (e.g. myocardial infarct or stroke) (again in this fictive scale). However, physicians and the pharmaceutical industries have much less considered the possibility to increase health levels from for example health state +4 to health state +7 which increases physical and mental performance of the person or the functional reserves of the person’s organs. These health interventions were largely left to fitness centers and sport clubs and private activities of the individual. The aim of such nutrition and health interventions would be a better performance in everyday life, more pleasure (quality of life), but not necessarily disease prevention. However, increasing the functional reserve of the body necessarily creates a buffer such that extrinsic factors decreasing the health level do not result that quickly in disease as without this intervention.
Health: ask the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 survey
Burden of Disease, and Rewards of Health must be estimated after stating the purpose of human existence.

One might argue that health of an individual or a population is to a certain extent a lip service of the medical profession and the true interest of medical doctors is to cure or to prevent disease. Language-wise this focus is expressed by the now frequently used term of ‘ill health’ in the columns of leading journals like ‘Nature’ and ‘The Lancet’, which is of course a clear contradiction in terms and reflects the disease focus of medicine. One might suspect that economists and sociologists have a greater interest in the health of a population when focusing on the productivity and social ‘functioning’ of people. However, such an evaluation does not do justice to the epidemiological, statistical and intellectual efforts of the medical community to come to grip with these terms. The Herculean effort of the medical research field is illustrated by a whole issue of the Lancet describing the GBD Study 2010 in a series of articles (Das, 2012). Over 5 years 486 scientists from 302 institutions in 50 countries have collected data on ‘ill health’ and evaluated the data by using the most sophisticated statistical data treatment methods (Murray et al., 2012a). The results are stunning. It is here not the place to review these studies, but I want to share with the reader some excitement. From 1970 to 2010 global life expectancy at birth rose by 3–4 years every decade. The resolution of the data set is astonishing: you can for example compare life expectancy per region and per sex. You see then that women in Bangladesh increased their life expectancy from 47.5 years in 1970 to 71.0 years in 2010 (not a printing error). Or you get global life expectancy per 5-year intervals for both sexes, e.g. 80-year-old men had in 1970 a life expectancy of 5.8 years compared with 7.2 years in 2010 (‘the older you get, the healthier you have been’) (Wang et al., 2012). Or you get information on 235 leading causes of death separated by age and sex based on files compiling vital registrations, verbal autopsies and various surveillance data from 187 countries. You learn that mortality from communicable diseases has decreased over this time following major ameliorations in mortality from diarrheal diseases, measles and tetanus, but less so for respiratory infections and increases for HIV/AIDS. When the global years of life lost (YLL) is displayed separately for the causes and individual years between 1990 and 2010, the data analysis was so well performed that you see the 1995 famine in North Korea as a sudden increase in global death due to nutritional deficiencies and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as an intentional injuries increase (Lozano et al., 2012).

In the context of our discussion another GBD 2010 report is even more interesting. Salomon and colleagues (2012) start their paper with the statement: ‘Improvement of population health means more than simply delaying death or increasing life expectancy at birth’. They continue: ‘With the trend of population ageing, the need to prioritize healthy ageing is increasingly recognized’. The authors of this paper focus on the description of ‘healthy life expectancy’ as a summary measure of population health. While this term has no philosophical or biological foundation, it is based on a lot of sound statistical reasoning. In fact, it goes back on a method developed 40 years ago by D. Sullivan. Healthy life expectancy is the number of years a person at a given age can expect to live in good health considering age-specific mortality, morbidity and functional health status. While health is here still largely defined negatively as the absence of disease, it becomes a measurable quantity and thus a simple logically appealing summary measure of population health. The GBD 2010 study goes even further by analyzing a composite metric that captures both premature mortality and the prevalence and severity of disease leading to the term of disability-adjusted life years (DALY) (Murray et al., 2012b). Health status was measured in other studies by the absence of disability expressed as activity restriction, or absence of dementia, or on a broader basis as a multidimensional expression of functioning. However, with a sufficiently large raw data set one can calculate the ‘healthy life expectancy’ in years. Then the difference between life expectancy minus healthy life expectancy can be interpreted as the average number of years of potentially healthy life lost to poor health. To get back to the above Bangladesh women who had in 2010 a life expectancy of 71 years, they had a healthy life expectancy of 59 years, for Canadian women the two figures were 83 and 68 years respectively. Despite different absolute numbers, women from both countries spent more than a decade with poor health. Interesting trends emerge: both for men and for women global healthy life expectancy has increased by about 4 years between 1990 and 2010 keeping with the overall trend of life expectancy increases. The gains in healthy life expectancy over the past 20 years have mainly been through reductions of child and adult mortality and not through reductions in years lost to disability (YLD). When looking into a study from member states of the European Union, larger variations were found for healthy life expectancy than for life expectancy (Jagger et al., 2008). These results are not just about statistics, they represent important elements for political decisions. The UN Millennium Development Goals have focused on the reduction of mortality from major killers like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. With that focus life expectancy will (hopefully) increase, but it will have minor impact on healthy life expectancy. The computation of healthy life expectancy has changed over the years. Some used dichotomous weighting schemes categorizing people into either healthy or not. The new calculation accounts for the severity of disability calculated for 289 named diseases (Murray et al., 2012a) allowing thus a quantitative, gliding disability scale.

Ageing concepts
Every change or natural phenomenon such as aging is operated by an underlying ‘Unchanging Principle’. For example, Chemical Compounds are operated by ‘Law of Definite Proportions’ or Proust’s Law of Definite Composition. The man experiences aging changes while Chemical Elements and Chemical Compounds of his body remain unchanged.

The structure of the world population is dramatically changing with an increasing percentage of the human population living to old and very old age (Suzman and Haage, 2011). This phenomenon is not limited to the classical industrialized countries, until 2050 China is expected to reach 440 and 101 million inhabitants older than 60 and 80 years respectively (Shetty, 2012). This change in the population pyramid has not only important socioeconomic consequences (healthcare, pension funds), but affects also the health and disease discussion in an interesting way.

Like for health, everybody knows what ageing means, but definitions are again less obvious, and biologists have not yet developed a generally shared theory of ageing (Martin, 2011). Part of the problem might be that different organisms might have their own modes of ageing. Languages are not of much help: ‘age’ is something which can be very simply counted on a timescale. Different languages reflect a different attitude towards ageing: while in English ‘ageing’ implies deterioration, in Japanese it means just the advancement of age. A Japanese researcher has therefore defined ageing as a ‘regression of physiological function accompanied by advancement of age’ (Imahori, 1992). Medical doctors consequently differentiate a chronological and a physiological age of a person.

Medical gerontologists perceive ageing as a progressive decline in structure and function of the body (Ferruci and Studenski, 2011). Most prominent and very visible are the effects of ageing on body composition: lean body mass from muscles and visceral organs decrease steadily, muscle strength decreases (sarcopenia) and is a good predictor of mortality. Progressive demineralization leads to decline of bone strength that together with neurodegeneration induces unstable gait, poor balance and slow reaction times leading to falls and fractures resulting in increasing frailty. Memory decline and dementia are other neurological observations in some, but not all ageing persons. Decline of the sensory system is frequent (vision, hearing, taste). Another physiological change is declining resting metabolic rate with ageing, which is also a marker of illness. Homeostasis pathways (hormones, inflammatory mediators, antioxidants) change progressively with age inducing a lower resistance to stress. Normal ageing is also associated with a decline in food intake particularly in men which leads to malnutrition.

While ageing leads ultimately to death, great biological differences exist for lifespan and ageing process between different organisms. While the lifetime of fly’s measures in days, some ticks survive for decades and lobsters were reported to survive for more than 100 years without any apparent loss in fertility. Similar data have been reported for turtles, where older females lay more eggs than younger females, show no loss of vigor and no increase in mortality rate with increasing age (Finch, 2009). These observations led to the concept of negligible senescence and the Centenarian Species Project (Guerin, 2004). Negligible senescence contradicts Hamilton’s influential theory that natural selection shaped senescence (Hamilton, 1966) and ideas that late survival was sacrificed in evolution for reproduction (Kirkwood and Rose, 1991). Even today, Hamilton’s Forces of Natural Selection described in his 1966 paper were compared by evolution researchers to what is the Lorentz transformation for relativistic physics (Rose et al., 2007). Of course, working with long-lived animals which might have lifetimes longer than that of the researcher is not to the taste of geneticists who prefer short-lived animals like flies and worms or mostly mice where results are obtained within a grant period. However, negligible senescence would fit other theories, for example that of the French zoologist Buffon who suggested in the 18th century that the duration of life in animals corresponded to six to seven times that of the period of growth for the given animal. An animal which has undetermined growth like some reptiles (crocodiles for example grow as long as they live) could have a very long lifespan. Those zoologists might in fact be right who claim that lobsters die from predation, accident and infection but not as a consequence of ageing.

Many ideas have been developed by biologists on ageing: for example, Hayflick developed 40 years ago an argument that the finite number of cell doublings determines the lifespan of a species (Hayflick, 1968). Molecular biologists have added arguments to this idea by highlighting the importance of telomere length shortening with increasing cell divisions. Several other mechanisms and pathways have been revealed by molecular biologists and geneticists for the ageing process. Caloric restriction and longevity is another of the fruitful fields of ageing research. Whether it applies to monkeys as our closest relatives is currently the focus of much discussion (Mattison et al., 2012).

However, all what we have discussed so far fit more the fundamental interest of biologists than that of the medical doctor. For the present review let’s therefore focus on the human condition and the medical view on healthy ageing.
Healthy ageing
The man’s experience of time and its consequence called aging is operated by sensory experiences that are fundamentally false. The man’s existence demands the influence of grand illusion that protects the man from experiencing the speed of planet Earth.

Thirty years ago, Fries (1980) published in The New England Journal of Medicine a seminal paper on ‘Ageing, natural death, and the compression of morbidity’ which heavily influenced the medical discussion on ageing. He starts with the statement that the length of life is fixed; speculations on immortality are rooted in human hope. The medical field assumes that death is always the result of a disease process, but due to his hypothesis of a set human lifespan, death might occur without overt disease when the normal span is lived. In his paper he depicted the ‘ideal’ human mortality curve in the absence of premature death: it is a sharp peak around the ‘naturally set’ human lifespan of 85 years. He arrived at this value from the extrapolation of life expectancy data at birth and at age 20 and 65 measured over the last century which intersect in his graph at 85 years. With that idealized model the survival curve of humans has a sharp rectangular form while the actual survival curve for humans at 1900 looked more like a triangle with a continuous decline of survival with age. In 1980 the survival curve took already a substantial rectangular form: much of the 1900-typical attrition over increasing age had been eliminated and the actual survival curve started to approach the ideal curve. He admitted that the average length of life was increasing, but he argues that this was due to a decrease in childhood mortality, not to a secular trend for an increase of life expectancy at age of 75 years. He highlighted that acute, usually infectious diseases determined mortality in the USA at 1900 and that chronic diseases have now superseded acute diseases. In his view health improvement must address chronic instead of acute diseases, morbidity and not mortality, quality of life rather than duration of life. Postponement of disease is more important than cure of a disease. Weight control, regular exercise, treatment of hypertension, elimination of smoking and alcohol over-consumption (today we would add an equilibrated diet) were the practical measures. With that focus of medical interventions, one could achieve what he called the compression of morbidity. A postponement of chronic disease would also result in a rectangularization of the morbidity and not only the mortality curve. Since loss of reserve function represented his operational definition of ageing, one could theoretically also achieve a compression of senescence. He postulated a plasticity of ageing against a non-elasticity of the human ideal lifespan.

It is interesting to compare the Fries’ model with the actual data set from the GBD 2010 study. Already in an analysis of demographic data from 2002, the WHO reported that precisely the very old age groups are growing the fastest worldwide. A cornerstone of Fries’ model is the lack in increase of centenarians over one century of observation. The WHO projects in contrast a 13-fold increase in centenarians over the next decades (Kalache et al., 2002). Better hygiene, nutrition and healthcare have increased life expectancy as also seen in GBD 2010. When the life expectancy of females in the most advanced nations is plotted against historical time, a straight line is observed showing a steady increase of 2.5 years longer life expectancy per decade between 1850 and 2000 (Suzman and Haage, 2011). Humans in some industrialized countries have now nearly reached the lifespan limits of Buffon’s formula, but the asymptotic behavior requested by a genetically fixed life expectancy was not yet observed. One central tenet of the Fries’ model is thus not confirmed. What about the compression of morbidity? GBD 2010 showed that countries with high life expectancy had mostly also lower age-specific disability than countries with low life expectancy. While an analysis of disability-adjusted life expectancy (DALE) with data from the GBD 1999 study (Mathers et al., 2001) showed still ‘some evidence to suggest that compression of morbidity may be occurring in some low mortality countries’, later analyses did not concur with this interpretation. According to GBD 2010, years lived with disability (YLD) rose despite a decrease in the prevalence of age-specific disability (Salomon et al., 2012). Simply, the decrease in disability did not keep pace with the increase in survival. A compression can only occur if healthy life expectancy would rise faster than life expectancy.

Globally, YLD rose from 583 million in 1990 to 777 million in 2010 (Vos et al., 2012). The main contributors at the global level were mental and behavioral disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, diabetes and endocrine diseases. The leading specific causes were the same in 2010 as in 1990: low back pain, major depressive disorders, iron-deficiency anemia, neck pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anxiety disorders, migraine, diabetes and falls. Rates of YLD per given number of people did not change, but since YLD rise steadily with age, population growth and ageing were the major drivers for the increase in YLD (Vos et al., 2012). The health system is thus confronted with a rising number of individuals with a range of disorders that largely cause disability but not mortality.

Outlook
John Milton in his epic poem of Paradise Lost, Book XI shares the golden principles of healthy aging. Nothing too much, the Law of Temperance helps the man to live to his fullest potential.

I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To Death, and mix with our connatural dust?

There is, said Michael, if thou well observe [ 530 ]
The rule of not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eat and drink, seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return:
So may thou live, till like ripe Fruit thou drop [ 535 ]
Into thy Mothers lap, or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature:

In summary, GBD 2010 showed clear evidence of expansion, not compression of morbidity. An increase of the number of years lived in reduced health has implications beyond the person suffering from restricted health. Healthy ageing is a socioeconomic need since otherwise national health systems will not be able to stem the cost associated with managing increasing numbers of individuals suffering from various disease sequelae. If by preventive measures a healthy ageing could be achieved, the healthcare system could save cost and the individual could enjoy a greater quality of life for a longer period of life. This goal is quite ambitious though, but the incentive is great justifying the exploration of various associations with healthy ageing. In an accompanying review, I explore the data associating gut microbiota composition with healthy ageing and to what extent the gut microbiota composition can be changed by nutritional interventions (Brüssow, 2013).
Acknowledgments

I thank my colleagues Wolfram Brück for critical reading of the manuscript and Olga Sakwinska for stimulating discussions.
References

Anonymous. What is health? The ability to adapt. Lancet. 2009;373:781. [PubMed]
Arthur JC, Perez-Chanona E, Mühlbauer M, Tomkovich S, Uronis JM, Fan TJ, et al. Intestinal inflammation targets cancer-inducing activity of the microbiota. Science. 2012;338:120–123. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Brüssow H. Microbiota and healthy ageing: observational and nutritional intervention studies. 2013. Microbial Biotechnology doi: 10.1111/1751-7915.12048. [Epub ahead of print] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Claesson MJ, Jeffery IB, Conde S, Power SE, O’Connor EM, Cusack S, et al. Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly. Nature. 2012;488:178–184. [PubMed]
Clemente JC, Ursell LK, Parfrey LW, Knight R. The impact of the gut microbiota on human health: an integrative view. Cell. 2012;148:1258–1270. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Das P, Samarasekera U. The story of GBD 2010: a ‘super-human’ effort. Lancet. 2012;380:2067–2070. [PubMed]
Ferruci L, Studenski S. Clinical problems of aging. In: Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th edition. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill; 2011. pp. 570–586.
Finch CE. Update on slow aging and negligible senescence – a mini-review. Gerontology. 2009;55:307–313. [PubMed]
Fries JF. Aging, natural death, and the compression of morbidity. New England Journal of Medicine. 1980;303:130–135. [PubMed]
Gordon JI, Knight R. The human microbiome. In: Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th edition. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill; 2011. pp. 526–535.
Guerin JC. Emerging area of aging research: long-lived animals with ‘negligible senescence. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004;1019:518–520. [PubMed]
Hamilton WD. The molding of senescence by natural selection. J Theor Biol. 1966;12:12–45. [PubMed]
Hayflick L. Human cells and aging. Sci Am. 1968;218:32–37. [PubMed]
Huber M. 2010. Is health a state or an ability? Towards a dynamic concept of health [WWW document]. URL http://www.gezondheidsraad.nl/sites/default/files/bijlage%20A1004_1.pdf.
Huber M, Knottnerus JA, Green L, Horst H, Jadad AR, Kromhout D. How should we define health? BMJ. 2011;343:235–237. [PubMed]
Imahori K. How I understand aging. Nutritional Review. 1992;50:351–352. [PubMed]
Jadad AR, O’Grady L. How should health be defined? BMJ. 2008;337:1363–1364.
Jagger C, Gillies C, Moscone F, Cambois E, Van Oyen H, Nusselder W, Robine JM EHLEIS team. Inequalities in healthy life years in the 25 countries of the European Union in 2005: a cross-national meta-regression analysis. Lancet. 2008;372:2124–2131. [PubMed]
Kalache A, Aboderin I, Hoskins I. Compression of morbidity and active ageing: key priorities for public health policy in the 21st century. Bull World Health Organ. 2002;80:243–244. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Kirkwood TB, Rose MR. Evolution of senescence: late survival sacrificed for reproduction. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1991;332:15–24. [PubMed]
Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th edition. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill; 2011.
Lozano R, Naghavi M, Foreman K, Lim S, Shibuya K, Aboyans V, et al. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2095–2128. [PubMed]
Martin GM. The biology of aging. In: Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th edition. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill; 2011. pp. 562–569.
Mathers CD, Sadana R, Salomon JA, Murray CJ, Lopez AD. Healthy life expectancy in 191 countries, 1999. Lancet. 2001;357:1685–1691. [PubMed]
Mattison JA, Roth GS, Beasley TM, Tilmont EM, Handy AM, Herbert RL, et al. Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study. Nature. 2012;489:318–321. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Murray CJ, Ezzati M, Flaxman AD, Lim S, Lozano R, Michaud C, et al. GBD 2010: design, definitions, and metrics. Lancet. 2012a;380:2063–2066. [PubMed]
Murray CJ, Vos T, Lozano R, Naghavi M, Flaxman AD, Michaud C, et al. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012b;380:2197–2223. [PubMed]
Neish AS. Microbes in gastrointestinal health and disease. Gastroenterology. 2009;136:65–80. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Rose MR, Rauser CL, Benford G, Matos M, Mueller LD. Hamilton’s forces of natural selection after forty years. Evolution. 2007;61:1265–1276. [PubMed]
Salomon JA, Wang H, Freeman MK, Vos T, Flaxman AD, Lopez AD, Murray CJ. Healthy life expectancy for 187 countries, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2144–2162. [PubMed]
Saracci R. The World Health Organization needs to reconsider its definition of health. BMJ. 1997;314:1409–1410. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Schloissnig S, Arumugam M, Sunagawa S, Maitreya M, Tap J, Zhu A, et al. Genomic variation landscape of the human gut microbiome. Nature. 2013;493:45–50. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Shetty P. Grey matter: ageing in developing countries. Lancet. 2012;379:1285–1287. [PubMed]
Smith R. 2008. The end of disease and the beginning of health [WWW document]. URL http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2008/07/08/richard-smith-the-end-of-disease-and-the-beginning-of-health/
Suzman R, Haage JG. World demography of aging. In: Longo DL, Fauci AS, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Jameson JL, Loscalzo J, editors. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 18th edition. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill; 2011. pp. 556–561.
Thomas DW, Greer FR American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition, American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Probiotics and prebiotics in pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2010;126:1217–1231. [PubMed]
Turnbaugh PJ, Ley RE, Mahowald MA, Magrini V, Mardis ER, Gordon JI. An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest. Nature. 2006;444:1027–1031. [PubMed]
Vos T, Flaxman AD, Naghavi M, Lozano R, Michaud C, Ezzati M, et al. Years lived with disability (YLDs) for 1160 sequelae of 289 diseases and injuries 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2163–2196. [PubMed]
Wang H, Dwyer-Lindgren L, Lofgren KT, Rajaratnam JK, Marcus JR, Levin-Rector A, et al. Age-specific and sex-specific mortality in 187 countries, 1970–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Lancet. 2012;380:2071–2094. [PubMed]

Share this:

Holistic Wellness at Work:

An integrated approach to Physical, Mental, Social, Moral, and Spiritual Wellbeing

The Diagnosis of Good Health is better than the diagnosis of ill-health

The Rudi Connection at Whole Foods arrives at the Concept of Whole Medicine

Share this:

The U.S. Working Week

Benefits of a Healthy Work Culture

The Concept of Positive Sixth-Day Adventist Work Culture is inspired by God’s Work Week:

Share this:

Cultivating a Healthier, Happier Workplace

Incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Daily Operations

Providing Training Opportunities for Leaders and Managers

Offering Educational and Professional Development Opportunities

Prioritizing Holistic Wellbeing; Implementing Wellness Programs and Flexible Benefits

The Hourly vs the Salaried Employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is fundamentally flawed

FACT SHEET – WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION (WHD) – U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Fact Sheet #17S: Higher Education Institutions and Overtime Pay Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

General Requirements for Exemptions

Exemptions for Common Higher Education Jobs

Teachers

Coaches

Professional Employees

Administrative Employees

Executive Employees

Student-Employees

Compensatory Time at Public Universities

Where to Obtain Additional Information

Share this:

The Discovery of Real or True Self:

The Knowledge of the Banyan Tree:

Man is a Mortal Being:

What is Soul or Spirit?

The conceptions of Soul:

The relationship between Soul and Human Body:

Adhyatma Vidya – The Bhagavad Gita:

The Body-Soul Dichotomy:

Man is a Created Being:

The Eternal Reality of Soul’s Immortality:

Man is a Social Being:

Matter, Energy, and Knowledge:

Life and Consciousness:

Life and Death is a continuous process:

The Soul and God Connection:

Soul and Death:

The neurobiological aspects of Consciousness:

Identity and Individuality:

Bhavanajagat

Share this:

Mental Health in the Age of Stress

The Age of Stress

The Biological Concept of Stress

The types of Stressors

The Genesis of Stress

Resistance to Stress

Share this:

What is Temperance?

The Law of Temperance

Paradise Lost, Book XI ( 520-540):

The Nature of Temperance

Temperance and Courage

Nine Years Long Service Medal – A Salute to the Law of Temperance:

Share this:

THE TRADITION OF GIVING NAMES:

A PERSONAL NAME AND A PERSONAL STORY:

A UNIQUE NAME AND A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE:

Dr. R. Rudra Narasimham, B.Sc., M.B.B.S.,

Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India, M.B.B.S., Class of April 1970.

Share this:

Essence and Existence in the Land of India:

What is Nationalism?

The Problem of National Unity and the role of Cultural Nationalism in India:

The History of Jihad in India

Cultural Nationalism vs Secular Nationalism – The Clash at Kurnool Medical College, Andhra Pradesh:

ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE IN THE LAND OF INDIA:

The Concept of Bharat Mata or Mother India:

Share this:

World Health Day 2023 – Health for All

Theory of Man precedes Theory of Health

What is health?

***Kurnool Medical College, Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India,* *M.B.B.S., Class of April 1970.***