Method: The study was undertaken using a questionnaire among 50 randomly selected meditators from Satyananda Yoga Research Centre, Kozhikode, Kerala State, India and 50 non-meditators from Kozhikode. The questionnaire contained the irritability scale and the characteristics of the respondents, namely, age, sex, marital status and the level of health problems they have faced during the past 3 months. The responses to the irritability items in the scale were scored and the total score of responses to all the items was worked out as the total irritability score. The data was analyzed as proportion, score and through statistical tests.

Results: The results show that the meditators have experienced the irritability items comparatively less than the non-meditators. The statistical significance of the difference in the comparatively lower total irritability score of meditators and the higher score of non-meditators indicate the influence of meditation practice in reducing feelings of irritability. Youngsters have experienced more irritability than elders, even with meditation practice. More health problems faced by the meditators have contributed to higher feelings of irritation. The statistical significance of the difference in the mean scores for some irritability items have shown that meditators are able to control their temper and anger better than the non-meditators. For married meditators, who can be expected to have more problems than unmarried people due to their family responsibilities and problems, meditation has actually helped to reduce the feelings of irritation more than that of the unmarried meditators. Meditation has helped males and females equally to reduce their irritated feelings much.

Conclusion: The study has clearly shown the influence of meditation practice in reducing the irritability feelings more than that of the non-meditators. Under the presently existing stressful nature of life of many people, it would be worthwhile to analyze various benefits of relaxation techniques like yoga, meditation, art of living, exercises etc. so that scientifically backed informed decisions can be taken by individuals as well as institutions to propagate such methods for achieving better well being of the society at large.