Sense and Incense

Apart from the time when I was down with Covid-19 for a brief while when I had lost my sense of smell and taste, I have always been showing signs of mild hyperosmia. No, no, this is not some fatal disease but it refers to a heightened sense of smell. Trust me, I was not even aware that this was a medical condition until I watched a detective series, about a decade ago, in which an agent cracked a crime using someone's hyperosmic skills. Only after that, it made sense to me as to why I felt nauseated in air-conditioned rooms, new cars with fresh leather seats, perfume sections in supermarkets or five-star hotel restrooms.

Well, the reason I am bringing this up now is because of an interesting news item that caught my eye this morning; the one about agarbatti sales taking a dip because of the discontinuation of WFH (work from home). Yes, you heard me right. WFH and agarbattis! The article went on to talk about how the lockdown period had actually boosted sales of agarbattis up to 30% and how it is back to single-digit now with people getting back to normalcy!

As intrigued as you are, I dug further into the news to find out that as people did not follow strict waking, bathing and working schedules during WFH, each member had their personal appointment with God during different hours of the day. And it is no secret that people seek Divine Grace during testing times and try to appease with more pujas, aartis and of course agarbattis which conveniently get shortened to a simple pranam on other days.

It has always been a little different in my case. I have no strict prayer schedule or daily ritual but my interactions with God happen throughout the day. I talk, rant, scream, curse and of course, pray whenever I feel like and I follow no specific ritual or gestures when I do it. However, my hyperosmia does impel me to light a particular brand of agarbatti that I managed to find after a lot of experimentation during dusk, more like a childhood habit.

This news item returned to me as I opened my psychology book to study for an ensuing exam and I started wondering about the psychological impact of prayer, rituals and symbolic gestures. (I don’t know why all such high-order thinking happens only when I try to do some serious studying.) As I was perusing the chapter on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), the whiff of the agarbatti suddenly turned on a light within me. Voila!

It then dawned on me how our ancestors had outlined a beautiful CBT technique filled with multi-sensory methods through prayer and rituals to help people manage their lives. Let me explain: Cognitive behaviour therapy is based on the premise that thoughts influence emotions, which affect bodily sensations that result in behaviour. So when one of them is altered, the rest will fall in place.

Prayer is an act when we consciously surrender all our fears and anxiety to the Supreme One and focus on favourable outcomes. This cognitive relaxation therapy when we try to fill our mind with positive thoughts, along with a simple gesture of pranam with conjoined palms, is a fantastic way to stimulate our mental faculties. I had read somewhere that when we press the tips of our finger against each other during the namaste gesture, our intellectual acuity gets strengthened. So there it goes, a tactile stimulation.

And when the aroma of agarbatti and camphor wafts across the puja room, it arouses our olfactory senses. An auditory stimulation occurs when we hear the ringing of aarti bells which makes us feel some strange vibrations inside our bodies. And towards the end, when we feel the heat of the burning camphor in the aarti plate inside our palms, it causes the hand temperature to go up, which is a part of biofeedback therapy. So overall, there is a sense of relaxation of mind, emotions, and body and a behaviour change, making us feel positive and a better version of ourselves.

Wow! Is that why I feel so calm and composed when I attend a prayer at home or at a temple? Is this why all those saints who spend most of their time praying appear so calm and emanate an aura of positivity around them? Is that why even the beggars line up to ask for alms just as we come out of the temple appealing to our better versions? Hmm!

Just as I was toying with these thoughts with my open book, the aroma of fragrant vegetable biriyani from the wedding hall next door distracted me making me hungry. Alas! I haven’t even finished studying one chapter.  According to Abraham Maslow, basic needs must be appeased first before moving on to higher levels. So, here I go rushing to the kitchen scouring for some food.

And as for my exams, well, God help me!

 

Pray and let God worry.   – Martin Luther