Re: Facing severe mental difficulties

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

Dear Guruji, Srinath and devotees please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.

The ultimate medicine is the holy Names of the Lord because He is non-different from His Names. When we utter the transcendental vibration of His Names we get cleansed of the material coverings that block our inherited original spiritual vision. So you are totally right to cling on to the ultimate medicine of all diseases and to seek refuge in the holy Names.

Sometimes there are chemical imbalances in the brain that causes people to be overall imbalanced and they need medical attention from a professional doctor. The example of compulsive disorder you are talking about for instance is a form of over-thinking and is related to the imbalance between the spleen and the liver. Modern medicine would prescribe anti-anxiety drugs to calm the �train-of-thoughts� however the problem is that it doesn�t uproot the problem as a whole. Modern medicine tends to treat the symptoms rather than the root problem and it is good to look into some alternative medicine to restore the balance between the spleen and the liver. Mostly this is done by taking some herbs but is individually based and cannot be prescribed in general. The good news is that every imbalance can be brought back to balance and there are many healing modalities out there that can help. When one thing doesn�t work there are still many alternatives that could help. It is the responsibility of the patients however to heal themselves rather than giving the responsibility out of hands by saying: �doctor fix me!� Doctors can help point you in the right direction, give you some good advice, medicines, herbs, treatments, but in the end you are your own healer. And of course the devotee knows that the ultimate balance comes from his original relationship with the Lord and as long as that is not restored there is always imbalance. In that sense we are all (severely) sick. 

There is a strong similarity between the paranoid and the devotee. The paranoid sees anxieties in everything. The devotee sees the Lord in everything. Both the paranoid and the devotee are obsessed with one object that they see in everything. They are both really mad. The difference is that the paranoid is exhausted at the end of the day and the devotee is continuously refreshed. The paranoid�s madness is not desired while the devotee�s madness is desired. For an outsider the line between the two is thin and that�s why the devotee normally hides his madness while the paranoid�s madness is always exposed.

The good news is that most people who are distressed are often closer to a spiritual revolution within themselves than �normal� people do. The �stirred� mind is more desperate and his prayers and crying is louder. Remember the four types of people who come to the Lord: The distressed, the financially distressed, the inquisitive, and those who are seeking the absolute truth. As far as the first two categories people often have to hit rock bottom before turning to the Lord. Afterwards when they found the Lord they feel blessed that they were slammed to the bottom through which their turn around was enabled.

High quality chanting is when we focus all our attention on the holy Names while we are chanting. Whenever we notice our attention has drifted away we bring it back to be on the holy Names. When we fall we stand up and we never give up. Reading scripture and listening/watching lectures from the bonafide guru further enhances the quality of our chanting as does following the rules and regulations. That�s the prescribed formula of the ultimate healing process. The problem with most aspiring devotees is that they only take half the medicine and then they say it doesn�t work. But for those who are willing to take the full dose of the prescribed formula their success is guaranteed.

Your servant,

Hadai Nityananda dasa

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

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