Addiction Recovery

What is the biggest differentiator between man and animal? An animal exists on a basic plateau where its needs are more or less selfish. It feeds, it mates and it sleeps. If the need to protect itself arises, it fights. If it wants to be on its own, it walks away from its cubs. Is it aware of anything more spiritual than that? Does it have sleepless nights? Does it suffer from pangs of conscience? Does it fear death and the unknown? The answer to all this is a big NO.

<p>By our very intelligence and awareness we suffer. This suffering and trials come our way to cause further evolution. This is a part of the evolutionary process where, when confronted with a problem we need to overcome it and move ahead. When we needed to eat we found edible plants and animals. When we felt cold we covered our bodies. When we needed to communicate, we created different languages, when we needed to move faster, we created the wheel. Today when we have to grow spiritually, we turn to a higher power within us, to help us with answers to overcome and move on. Nowhere in this evolutionary process has there been a solution in retreating or going back!

Having said that, drugs help us to go back or retreat to an animal stage where we cease to think and `feel. We become like our animal friends where we lose our inhibitions. Is there anything wrong with this? Yes! Havent we already moved on from the animal stage? Isnt going back, going against the laws of nature?

It is not real. It is a miasma, because once the effect wears off, we become more acutely aware of our surroundings and we become even more depressed to see the state we are in. The simple reason is, we have already moved far away from the animal stage. It hurts to see ourselves in that stage. The pain becomes unbearable and there is only one thing to do to numb the pain reach for more drugs and so the cycle continues and like a whirlpool, it drags us into its depth of apathy from where there is very little escape.

The younger we are, the more we suffer. We are also exposed to different kinds of people who influence us to reach for an easy alternative to our problems. In a moment of bravado we reach for a cigarette. A couple of minutes later, the cigarette is over and the pain remains. Maybe marijuana can help a couple of inhalations and a feeling of light headedness. An amazing sense of harmony with the world. A few minutes later a splitting headache and an empty wallet. The marijuanas kick wears off. Maybe something a little stronger? Maybe Ecstasy? And so it continues. But none of these drugs have really helped to get to the root of the problem which triggered of the spree. The problem remains and if nothing else, we have added more problems to the original problem.

If we look within ourselves for every problem which had seemed insurmountable at that time, there was also an answer within us which we could not see at that time. In retrospect, there are so many occasions when we say to ourselves, If only I had known then that I would get over it! I would not have wreaked so much damage! It is not that the incident has changed. What has changed is the way we perceive it. It is precisely at that particular moment when things are difficult that it is easy to reach for the easy way out. Life is a rocking game of fun!

There are stories of famous people falling prey to drugs. They do wild things and create news. They go into expensive rehab centers and come back only to hit the habit again. The young adolescent who hates his mother or father, the little boy who is teased by his class mates, the little girl who wants to be a singer but is not encouraged by her parents, the child from the broken family, the reasons to reach for an easy way out are endless.

If in a state of intoxication they bash up their car, drive over a little child, abuse a youngster at home or mentally torment their family, it is absolutely fine as long as they are in a state of happiness! We are interfering with the law of evolution. If Christ had reached for marijuana to escape would we have been given a religion called Christianity. If Gautama Buddha had relaxed in his palace, could we have shared his spiritual wisdom? If Mahatma Gandhi had said Let the masses rot! I have my drugs! Would the word `Ahimsa be known to the world?

The ones who created history were the ones who were willing to face pain. Pain and heartbreak are very real to our growth and spiritual evolution. By turning to meditation and yogic powers we can experience the same sublimity which drugs produce but this time it is not artificial.

There are stories of how human beings can meditate without a stitch of clothing on their bodies in the below zero degree altitude of the Himalayas. They are in a meditational trance. They are, in fact, in a yogic trance. They dont need drugs! They can in a split second traverse the universe and look at the past and the future. The power is already within us. Let us not under rate our own powers by building dependencies on all things artificial.

Let us not damage what has taken billions of years to create.

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