Soumitra Basu
Doctor
Articles by Soumitra Basu (114)
Ethics and aesthetics
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2014
What is the relation of health with ethics and aesthetics?
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — Spirit and Matter
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2014
The conflict between the votaries of Matter and Spirit has yet to be solved. The glorification of Matter has come at the cost of the adventure in the realms of Spirit. Material prosperity has been achieved by devaluing spiritual ideals. On the other hand, spiritual riches have very often blossomed in the impoverishment of material life. The call of the Spirit had been so encompassing and overwhelming that generations of mystics and seers had abandoned the lure of Matter and dispensed with the comfort of material life. Yet the call of the Time-Spirit today is neither to ignore Matter nor to ignore Spirit. The world has experienced the extremes of material prosperity and spiritual austerity. An exploitation and over-indulgence of Matter has led also to disastrous consequences ranging from drug abuse to terrorism. A world of competition has triggered a plethora of stress linked diseases. A hedonistic culture has culminated in diseases like Aids. An excessive exploitation of natural resources has resulted in grave ecological imbalances. And the world suffers while a host of spiritual luminaries are absorbed in meditative contemplation in the security of hermitages far away from the battle of life. The ideal solution of the conflict between Matter and Spirit would be the flowering of spirituality in material life. Such a metaphysical poise would be of great pragmatic value in all areas of life ranging from education to health. However the key to the reconciliation of Matter and Spirit still remains an enigma.
The value of introspection
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2013
We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded from all sides so that the concept of seclusion has become an anathema in our global village. The era of abject materialism and glorified hedonism impinges on our senses, moulds our perceptions, modifies our emotions, distorts our thoughts, customises our values and impersonalises our morality. No wonder, the global mindset is today ‘brainwashed’ by mobile phones, e-mails, sms’s, facebooks and the Internet. In this cataclysm of chaos, the average human being gets swept away to become:
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health – the three poises of reality
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2013
The concept of health and the discipline of healing evolved to serve life. It is life per se that is the raison d’être of existence. That is why health and healing are the noblest of all disciplines pursued by the human being. And that is also why health and healing cannot be isolated subjects, mechanically pursued by an objective mindset. The concept of health is not only linked with our physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, it is also linked with the higher-order pursuits of existentialism, metaphysics and philosophy and our deeper pursuits of true religious experience and spirituality. The basic tenets of health therefore can be linked at multiple points of the spectrum of consciousness in the quest for Truth. It would be interesting in this context to understand the significance of health in consonance with the experiential concept of Reality as perceived in the spiritual heritage of India.
Self-esteem in children
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2012
Dr. Soumitra Basu, a practising psychiatrist, is the Director of a new school of psychology, the Mira Vision Trust. He is also one of the editors of NAMAH.