The healing wisdom of Bhagavad Gita: An interventional study for the physically ill patients experiencing anxiety and depression

Abstract

This study looks at the Indian psychology (teachings of Bhagavad Gita) as an approach to cater to physically ill patients having depression and anxiety. Patients were selected from the hospital in the national capital region, India. A need was felt to conduct this study as the increasing amount of physically ill patients having pessimistic thoughts leading to anxiety and depression. A pre-post quasi-experimental design was chosen, and the patients were tested for two variables depression and anxiety. A sample size of 39 adult population was selected for the study having moderate depression and anxiety assessed with patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) and generalised anxiety disorder Scale (GAD-7). The intervention plan was for 40 minutes, 30 minutes session on Bhagavad Gita and 10 minutes mantra meditation on Hare Krishna Maha-mantra, three-week plan. Results indicated that the decrease in scores for both the variables was statistically significant Wilcoxon signed rank test (pre-test PHQ mean=17.08, post-test PHQ mean = 2.69, SD pre-test PHQ= 4.385, SD post-test PHQ= 1.127) pre-test GAD mean= 14.51, post-test GAD mean= 3.95, SD pre-test GAD= 3.568 and SD post-test GAD= 1.169). This can be allocated to the fact that the Indian intervention included in this study of Bhagavad Gita teachings and mantra meditation, patients could relate to and easily incorporate into their physically ill state and to depression and anxiety that they were having. Recommendations for further studies include studies on different age groups, cultures and variables.

Key messages: The teachings from the Bhagavad Geeta can be incorporated as cultural adaptations for western psychotherapies while working with the Indian population. The current study reports the efficacy of culturally adapted interventions for alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety for the physically ill. More such studies with different populations would help recognise the effectiveness of Bhagavad Geeta based interventions.