Meditation – a cure for many ailments!

By: Lissy Maruthanakuzhy
Our hypnotized brains keep on doing one thing all through our waking hours and that is binge
thinking, opines a Divine Word Missionary priest, Ittoop Panikulam, a counselor and
psychotherapist, presently the director of Dhyan Kutir (a house of meditation), Mumbai. He
considers this inbuilt habit as the main reason for most of the psychophysical problems
including at least 90% of all the diseases. Meditation begins when we manage to move out of
that siege. He reminds us that mindless animals seldom fall sick, though they all have brains.

Ittoop’s book A HANDBOOK on HOLISTIC MEDITAIONS PLUS displayed as a liberative
journey enabling transitions from negativity to positivity, restlessness to mental calmness,
peace and joy, is published by LAMBERT Academic Publishing in Germany on 6 th of May
2021 and is made available internationally at Euro 71.90.

Soon Sat Prakashan Sanchar Kendra,Indore will publish the book in India at an affordable price.

The author states, “If I could use a one-word summary of the book, it is ‘meditation’. The
meditative insights given in the book got evolved and emerged from ten years of guiding
biweekly mediations for groups of about 40 from all walks of life and religions. The
methodology used for the practices in these meditations dealt with physicality, emotionality
and spirituality.”

Explaining the holistic process Ittoop says, “Before moving into mediation proper, the
exercises we did together helped the meditators, to empty themselves of all negative energies,
activated the hidden energies, brought down the level of stress and created a positive
atmosphere within oneself and outside also through a laughter-session . The groups then were
led to the deeper levels of consciousness and divine nearness.”

In the book we find number personal stories of transformations and healing, including those
of high blood pressure, allergy, sinusitis, asthma, diabetics and migraine headaches. Ittoop
says, “My own experience of getting cured of chronic Asthma and my study, research and
conducting workshops for asthma cure without medicine helped me devise the programme
into a holistic approach.”

He mentions in his book that by the time he defended his licentiate thesis on a comparative
study of Upanishad and Christian mysticism, he had become aware of three things: one,
humans are gifted to personally experience God; second, the experiencers stood on the
pinnacle of true joy; and third, the path that leads anyone to experientially know God is
meditation which could be considered as the one single noble activity that can lead all
towards oneness. Where religions have failed and will continue to fail, spirituality can win.
And he considers meditation, done rightly and well, is at the core of any true spiritual
realization.

The ultimate natural want of anyone anywhere in the world would be happiness and peace.
And yet it seems to be a very rare commodity. Money cannot buy them; talents cannot
produce them; beauty or strength cannot reveal them; power, status, and competitions cannot
generate them; neither can it come to us online; it does not belong to the virtual world or to the realm of thoughts. A simple path to find, to claim, and own what is truly ours ismeditation. Happiness and peace are inner self- portraits, visible only to one’s own meditative eyes.

12 meditative methods are explained step by step in the book. You want to learn how to
practice meditations; this book is going to be handy. You want to learn how to offer guided
meditations for groups; this book is meant for you.

“Let meditation become a divine inroad to God’s own heart!” is what Ittoop wishes for all
readers of his book!