Research Article

Effects of Gayatri Mantra Meditation on Psychological Capital and Well-Being of Young Adults

Shradhanjali Tripathi¹, Nitesh Sharma^2* and Santosh Vishvakarma³

¹Department of Psychology, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, India

²National Resource Centre for Value Education in Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

³Department of Psychology, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar, India

Submission: August 07, 2024;Published: September 04, 2024

*Corresponding author: Nitesh Sharma, National Resource Centre for Value Education in Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

How to cite this article: Shradhanjali T, Nitesh S, Santosh V. Effects of Gayatri Mantra Meditation on Psychological Capital and Well-Being of Young Adults. J Yoga & Physio. 2024; 11(5): 555821 DOI:10.19080/JYP.2024.11.555821

Abstract

Background: The challenges of modern life and intense competition have increased stress and decreased psychological wellbeing in young adults, especially those preparing for competitive exams. This study examines how Gayatri mantra-based meditation impacts Psychological Capital (including efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience) and General Wellbeing in young adults aged 22 to 28, aiming to enhance wellbeing in today’s fast-paced world.

Methods: The study recruited 101 young adults including 50 males and 51 females based on convenience sampling. The intervention of Meditation with Gayatri mantra chanting was given to all participants for continuous 40 days. The pre and post intervention data was collected on the Self report questionnaires of PsyCap-24 questionnaire and PGI general wellbeing.

Results: The result of this study showed a significant improvement in Psychological Capital parameters of Hope, Efficacy, Resilience, Optimism and the general wellbeing (all p<0.01) among the participants after the intervention of 40 days of Mantra meditation.

Conclusion: The findings of the study show the potential of the ancient Gayatri mantra based meditation practices in improving the psychological capital and wellbeing parameters of the young adults. This investigation lays the groundwork for further explorations on the potential of Gayatri mantra meditation in other spheres of mental health and wellbeing for young adults.

Keywords: Gayatri Mantra; Wellbeing; Psychological Capital; Young Adults

Introduction

The challenges of modern life, as well as rising competition in different domains, have increased stress and diminished the psychological well-being of young adults, particularly those preparing for competitive exams and employment opportunities [1]. Young adults aspiring for career opportunities work hard, and study for an extended period of time to build their careers, while facing stress, performance pressure and high level of competition. As a result, they also experience physical and mental health issues, which may have long-term consequences on their performance for success [1]. The rising level of psychological distress (stress, anxiety, depression) and declining wellbeing is becoming a major mental health issue among the young population globally [2]. Looking at the scenario in India, around 197.3 million individuals were reported to be suffering from some type of mental health disorder in 2017, and this figure has doubled between 1990 and 2017 [3].

Indian youth are facing a decline in overall wellbeing and quality of life as their careers and employment are getting more stressful and challenging due to increasing competition [4]. One important aspect related to positive mental resources that can play a vital role in improving mental wellbeing, and managing rising stress levels among youths is “Psychological capital”. The concept of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) has been introduced by Luthans et al. [5], which is a positive psychological state of  person consisting of Self-efficacy, Hope, Optimism, and Resilience [6]. Self-efficacy refers to belief in one’s ability to achieve goals [7]. Optimism refers to positive expectations for the future [6]. Hope refers to motivation and perseverance in the face of challenges [8], and resilience refers to the ability to bounce back from adversity [9].

PsyCap improves personal growth and performance by instilling confidence in one’s talents, setting goals for the future, staying motivated amid trials, and recovering from adversities [5]. According to previous research, higher levels of PsyCap are associated with superior problem-solving skills, optimism in challenging situations, positive result expectations, rapid recovery from setbacks, enhanced work performance, job satisfaction, and well-being [9,10], It is also associated with low levels of despair, anxiety, burnout, and pressure [10]. Mental well-being is considered a vital component of a healthy lifestyle [2]. The rise in the prevalence of mental health issues raises future concerns and the necessity for timely mitigating these effects among adults. Individuals’ mental well-being can be improved by incorporating some self-management strategies in their lives. The intervention of yoga and mantra-based meditation has been long used for the enhancement of psychological well-being since ancient times in eastern regions.

Among the Vedic Indian mantras, Gayatri mantra has been argued to be one of the most important mantras in enhancing well-being and cultivating positivity [11]. This mantra has been practiced in the form of trikaal sandhya vandana (three times a day) since Vedic times in the population of Indian subcontinent [12]. For the Gayatri mantra it has been said that 24 letters of the Gayatri mantra have been intertwined in such a way that when it is chanted, its sound vibration impacts the twenty-four subtle glands in the body [12]. According to yoga texts these subtle glands, when stimulated, bring about psycho-physiological changes in the body and mind. These effects of mantra chanting are said to induce positive changes in the states of mind, thoughts, and behavior. It also fosters beneficial psychological attributes which helps in reducing stress, anxiety and depressive states of the person [13].

The previous studies have found the beneficial effects of mantra meditation on mental health and stress reduction [14- 16]. Specifically, Gayatri mantra has been found effective in reducing stress in adolescents [17] and adults [18], reducing anxiety [19,20], and improving quality of life [21] and positive improvements in Electroencephalogram (EEG) waves [22]. There are limited studies in the literature exploring the effects of Gayatri mantra meditation on state-like variables such as Psychological capital and well-being among young adults. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of Gayatri mantra-based meditation practices on the development of Psychological capital and the changes in well-being among young adults in present challenging times.

Methods

Study Design and Settings: This longitudinal study employed a single group pre-post research design, consisting of an intervention of Gayatri mantra-based meditation. The study was conducted from 20 May 2023 to 30 June 2023 at Gayatri Shaktipeeth, Kankarbagh, Patna, India. The baseline data was collected a day before the start of the intervention, and the post-intervention data was collected after the 40 days of Gayatri mantra meditation intervention.

Participants: Participants were recruited based on convenience sampling. A total of 101 participants were recruited for the study. The participants consisted of (n=50) males and (n=51) females aged 22-28 years. The educational qualification of the participants ranged from graduation to post-graduation, belonging to rural to semi-urban backgrounds.

Data Collection: Data was collected during the pre-sadhana and post-sadhana intervention of 40 days using a printed booklet that contained demographic information, a consent form, a PGI General well-being scale [23], and a Psychological capital Scale [24]. The study was done in accordance with Helsinki’s ethical standards. Prior to the conduction of the research, the signed consent was obtained from participants. Ethical approval for the study was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar (Ethics REF. DSVV/ PSY/2023/01/001).

Measures Used

1: PGI General Well-Being Scale: The “PGI General Wellbeing Scale” constructed by Verma & Verma [23] was made to measure the positive mental health of Indian subjects. The Scale consists of 20 items available in both Hindi and English languages. The reliability of this was determined by the test-retest method (r = 0.88) and the validity by the concurrent method (r = 0.90). The Cronbach alpha in the present study was calculated to be 0.82, considered good and acceptable.

2: Psychological capital (PsyCap) scale was developed by [24]. It measures the dimensions of Efficacy, Hope, Resilience, and Optimism on a Likert scale of 1 to 6. Where 1= strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= somewhat disagree, 4= somewhat agree, 5= agree, 6= strongly agree. It has six questions in each Self-efficacy, Optimism, Hope, and Resilience dimension. The reliability test of the scale in the present study was conducted in SPSS, and the Cronbach alpha for each factor was found to be 0.73 for efficacy, 0.74 for Hope, 0.74 for resilience, 0.76 for optimism, and 0.78 for the whole PsyCap scale.

Data Analysis

Firstly, the data was checked for normal distribution on each scale using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests, and it was found to have a non-normal distribution (all p<0.05).

Therefore, the nonparametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was adopted for data analysis. The Wilcoxon test is a non-parametric alternative to the paired t-test, used for comparing paired data when the data are not normally distributed. Hence, the effects of 40 days of Gayatri mantra meditation on psychological capital and well-being were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, comparing baseline and post-intervention data.

Additionally, the effect size of the paired differences between the two means at baseline and after the intervention was calculated using Cohen’s d. The summary of the analysis is presented in the result Table 1. Further correlation analysis was done using the Spearman correlation coefficient to determine the correlation between well-being and the factors of psychological capital at pre-intervention and changes at post-intervention of 40 days of Gayatri mantra meditation, which is presented in Table 2.

*Significant at p<0.01

This result Table 1 shows pre- and post-comparison of psychological capital and wellbeing-related measures. The Wilcoxon test results showed that there was a significant improvement in the scores of wellbeing (z = -7.829, P = 0.000), Self-Efficacy (z = -7.898, P = 0.000), Hope (z = -8.013, P = 0.000), Resilience (z = -7.979, P = 0.000), Optimism (z = -8.211, P = 0.000) and overall PsyCap (z = -8.260, P = 0.000), all p < 0.01. The changes from pre- to post-intervention mean scores in psychological capital and well-being parameters are represented in Figure 1.

Correlation Analysis

Further correlation analysis was conducted between general well-being and Psychological Capital factors, including self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism, to examine how these variables were correlated with well-being at the beginning or pre-intervention and whether there were any changes in their correlation after the 40 days intervention of Gayatri mantra meditation (GMM). The Spearman correlation showed that there was a low positive correlation between well-being and the factors of psychological capital before the beginning of the intervention, and the correlation was not significant (p>0.05). However, after 40 days of GMM intervention, there was a drastic improvement in positive correlation between well-being and the factors of Psychological Capital (all significant at p<0.01). These findings show that with the practice of GMM, there is the enhancement of both mental well-being and the factors of psychological capital, and the association between them is positively strengthened, which is also a positive indicator of overall well-being achieved by the practice of the Gayatri mantra, as shown in Table 2.

Discussion

This study aimed to examine the effect of Gayatri mantra meditation practices on the Psychological Capital and wellbeing among young adults. Psychological capital comprises four major components: self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience. It refers to a person’s positive psychological state, which promotes personal growth and enhances an individual’s overall performance [5]. Psychological Capital (PsyCap) is a dynamic state variable for a person’s positive psychological state and can be enhanced with certain practices or interventions [24,25]. Based on this understanding, this study delved into the impact of Gayatri mantra meditation on both Psychological Capital and General wellbeing.

This study explored the effect of the Gayatri mantra meditation intervention of 40 days on the Psychological Capital and well-being of young adults to see if the Gayatri mantra can mitigate their stress and well-being issues, which directly or indirectly impact their overall performance and efficiency in day to day life. The study also investigated the enhancement in the hope and optimism level as factors of Psychological Capital. The study’s findings show that regular intervention of Gayatri Mantra meditation for 30 minutes per day for 40 days has significantly improved General well-being, Self-efficacy, Hope, Optimism, Resilience, and overall Psychological Capital. Further correlation analysis has shown a drastic improvement in a positive correlation between well-being and psychological factors after the intervention of GMM, which is a positive indicator of overall well-being achieved by GMM practices.

Gayatri Mantra in Vedic literature has been argued to enhance the person’s Psychological well-being and mental state [12]. The above findings may be attributed to mantra meditation practice, which has been reported earlier to bring about relaxation in the mind and body via parasympathetic dominance [26]. Other factors that can contribute to such changes are explained through yogic perspectives, where the chanting of mantra is believed to stimulate certain glands in the subtle body, which is argued to bring about certain psycho-physiological changes in the mind and body and gives a relaxation effect [12]. Furthermore, the Gayatri Mantra is said to be the prayer for righteous wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, repeated chanting with faith and devotion is believed to influence the individual’s psyche and bring about transformative changes in the person accordingly.

The findings of the present study are similar to those of the previous study done by [27], which found the effectiveness of Sahaj Marg meditation in improving mindfulness and well-being. The previous studies on mantra meditation have also documented positive outcomes of mantra meditation practices on mental health and stress reduction [14-16]. Specifically, Gayatri mantra has been found effective in reducing stress among adolescents [17] and adults [18], reduction in anxiety levels [19,20], and enhancement in overall quality of life [21] and positive induction in Electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern [22]. Meditation and yoga practices were found to be helpful in the reduction of stress and improvement of well-being, even during the pandemic situation of COVID-19, when stress levels were very high due to uncertainty [28-30]. The results of the present study are largely consistent with the findings of the existing literature on meditation practices.

Some limitations offer important directions for future research. Since this study was a preliminary exploration, it lacked a suitable matched control group, which could have brought better insights into the effect of Gayatri Mantra Meditation. The second limitation was that there were no follow-up assessments to assess the long-lasting effects of these meditation practices. Future studies could be done by employing the control group and large sample size, along with a follow-up assessment, to better understand the long-lasting effect of this ancient mantra-based meditation.

Conclusion

The finding of this study shows the potential of ancient Gayatri Mantra-based meditation practices in improving the psychological capital and well-being of young adults. This investigation was a preliminary exploratory study and lays the groundwork for further exploration on the potentials of Gayatri mantra mediation in other spheres of mental health and well-being for young adults.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval for the study was taken from the Ethics Committee of Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar (Ethics REF. DSVV/PSY/2023/01/001).

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