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Drugs
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Subject: Drugs
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From: melted one
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Date: Tue Mar 12 11:16:31 1996
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Message-Id: id020
> i had a question about the use of drugs, hallucinagens in particular. i
> know a good deal about the hare krishna movement and have taken to it as
> best i can, i am getting better each day. i have noticed the very
> negative veiw of intoxicants, most of which i argee with. i differ
> however when it comes to the use of drugs like LSD. it suprises me you
> don't see the potential it has as a tool for God realization. I know you
> say how can something chemical help the spiritual, but books are material
> and they can help. you can also use them to smash bugs but that is an
> improper use of the tool. admittidly LSD can never take one to the goal
> but i think its value lies in illuminating the path for awhile to show a
> practitioner where their progress is and where they are going. I haven't
> tripped since i have been reading the books by Prabhupada but i will
> again soon and i intend to focus my expirence on God instead of just
> whatever happens happens, like i did in the past. so i guess my question
> is, if we are in the car and we think we are the car, couldn't something
> like LSD let us realize that we are the driver, if only for a moment
> could prove emensly benefitial for leading us along the path towards
> krishna?
>
>
>
Hello. Hare Krishna!
It is certainly possible to change one's consciousness by the use of
drugs. But that ia maya, it is an illusion, it is not real at all.
Any drug-induced state is not spiritual at all. It's a temporary chemical
thing. All the drugs, including LSD, etc, are very damaging to the
body and the brain and they impair our ability to understand
spiritual subject matter -- they don't enhance it at all.
You say you have taken to Krishna consciousness and are reading Srila
Prabhupada's books. That's fantastic. But Prabhupada's instructions
on this matter are very clear. So if you don't follow Srila
Prabhupada's instructions where is the question of taking to Krishna
consciousness?
Do you believe Srila Prabhupada is speaking the truth in his books?
Do you accept he is a pure representative of Krishna and whatever he
says is coming from Krishna? In that case how can you not accept what
he says in relation to drugs??
"Srila Prabhupada lived amid the drug culture, in a neighborhood
where the young people were almost desprerately attempting to alter
their consciousness, whether by drugs or some other means--whatever
was available. Srila Prabhupada assured them they could easily
achieve the higher consciousness they desired by chanting Hare
Krishna.
"In explaining Krishna consciousness Prabhupada occasionally
mentioned the drug experience -- even if only to show that the two
were contrary paths. He was familiar already with Indian "Sadhus" who
took ganga and hashish on the plea of aiding their meditations. And
even before he left India hippie tourists had become a familiar
sight on the streets of Delhi.
"The hippies liked India because of the cultural mystique and the easy
access to drugs. They would meet their Indian counterparts who
assured them that taking hassish was spiritual, and then they would
return to America and spread this misconception of Indian spiritual
culture.
"It was the way of life. The local head shops carried a full line of
paraphernalia. Marijuana, LSD, peyote, cocaine and hard drugs like
heroin and barbituates were easily purchased on the streets and in
the parks. Underground newspapers reported important news on the drug
scene, featured a cartoon character called "Captain High", and ran
crossword puzzles that only a seasoned "head" could answer.
"Srila Prabhupada taught that Krishna consciousness was beyond the
revered LSD trip. "Do you think taking LSD can produce ecstasy and
higher consciousness?" he once asked the storefront audience. "Then
just imagine a room full of LSD -- Krishna consciousness is like
that..."
"People would regularly come into the storefront and ask Srila
Prabhupada's disciples, "Do you get high from this?" and the devotees
would truthfully reply, "Oh yes. You can get high just by chanting Hare Krishna.
Why don't you try it."
"When the members of Timothy Leary's Millbrook commune came to Srila
Prabhupada's storefront they all chanted in the kirtana [to see what
sort of "high" chanting could produce] and after Prabhupada's lecture
the Millbrook commune's leader asked about drugs. Prabhupada replied
that drugs were not necessary for spiritual life, that they could not
produce spiritual consciousness, and that all drug-induced religious
visions were simply hallucinations. To realize God was not so easy or
cheep that one could do it by just taking a pill or smoking. Chanting
Hare Krishna, he explained, was a purifying process to uncover one's
pure consciousness. Taking drugs would increase the covering and bar
one from self-realization
"The members of the Millbrook community then challenged Srila
Prabhupada: "But have you ever taken LSD?" Prabhupada replied, "I
have never taken any of these things -- not even cigarettes or tea. I
have not taken, but my disciples have taken all these things --
marijuana, LSD -- many times and now they have given them all up. you
can hear from them. Hayagriva, you can speak.
Hayagriva said: "Well no matter how high you go on LSD, you
eventually reach a peak, and you have to come back down. Just like
travelling into outer-space in a rocket ship. Your spacecraft can
travel very far away from the earth for thousands of miles, day after
day, but it cannot simply go on travelling and travelling. Eventually
it must land. On LSD we experience going up, but we always have to
come down again. that's not spiritual consciousness. When you
actually attain spiritual or Krishna consciousness, you stay high.
Because you go to Krishna you don't have to come down. You can stay
high forever." (From "Prabhupada" (also published as "Your
Ever-Well-Wisher by Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami))
So what do you think?
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
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Chant Hare Krishna and be happy! All glories to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada!