Can devotion cure psychological disorders?
So if there are psychological disorders, do we need to be medically treated or can devotion be used as a substitute? There are, within minute awkward psychological disorders, there are various kinds, and we cannot make any generalization.
So for example, there is this whole tendency within the mental health industry to try to find chemical solutions to human problems. Human problems means there is anxiety, there is grief, there is loneliness. Now all these are human problems.
And these are problems which we all face. Just by our being, by our very being human, we have to face these problems. And the whole commercialization of mental health has led to a lot of exploitation.
There are several, several of these. In 1956, the first antidepressant drug was introduced. And then within five years, the antidepressant drug became practically among the top five selling drugs in America.
And now some of the companies which sell antidepressant drugs and things like that, some of those countries, their budgets are bigger than the budgets of entire countries in the European Union. And in those companies, actually they spend far more on marketing than on research or production. So what happens is, rather than solving existing problems, often these advertisements and this promotion, it pathologizes normal problems.
So we shouldn't think that every time I have some anxiety, I have some fear, I have some irritation, or I have some disorder. There was a well-known experiment which was done in England. They had one patient, he was like one person who was made a subject.
And he was sent to six different mental health professionals with the same set of symptoms. And all six gave entirely different diagnosis. And they said, oh, you have this problem, you have this kind of disorder.
You have this kind of disorder. And all six entirely different. Why is that? Because when it comes to mental health, it's not like there is no physical specimen.
If I say that I have malaria, I can have tangible testing to prove that there is a malaria infection in my body. But if I say that I have a post-traumatic stress disorder, or I have got, what is that? Nowadays, children, they say they have it, hypertension, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Yeah, ADHD.
So when they say this, now actually, it might just simply be the normal restlessness of children. So the point is, when it comes to mental health, there is no very concrete, verifiable, tangible, measurable symptoms. A lot depends on what the patient tells and what the health professional stresses.
And they can give very widely varying diagnosis at that time. That's why we needn't pathologize every single problem. So if there is an anxiety, there is some irritation, there is some frustration, there is some pessimism, there is some depression, there is some inferiority complex, whatever.
It's not that for all these, immediately we have to go to some doctors and check up. No, we should talk with our friends, talk with our relatives, talk with devotees, and we can try spiritual remedies. That means, if we connect with Krishna more and more, if we fix the mind on Krishna, we remember Krishna's love for us.
And that doesn't mean necessarily chanting. If we have to find out, the point is to connect ourselves with Krishna. Chanting is an important way to connect with Krishna.
But different devotees may be able to connect with Krishna differently. Some may find through music, they are more connected. Some through philosophy, they may get more connected.
Some may get more connected through taking darshan of deities. So basically, if we connect ourselves with Krishna, and by making Krishna the anchor of our inner world, we decrease the agitation in the inner world. That is a recommended solution.
And it does work on many occasions. At the same time, we shouldn't think that if some devotees need medical attention, some devotees, some people need medical attention in terms of, some people may have clinical depression, where it's not just a problem of this, they are feeling let down, there are certain chemical imbalance in the brain. And that's what is required to be healed.
That's what is required to be treated. Then there should not be any stigmatization of the need for medical attention, for therapeutic attention, pharmaceutical attention. If that's what is required, that's what should be given.
So when there is stigmatization, then even when people need attention, they don't take attention. They don't take that and they unnecessarily have to suffer. So I know one devotee, he just could not sleep.
For 7-8 years, he was just not able to sleep. And then he thought, what is this? Why am I not able to sleep? And finally, he went to some doctors, took their diagnosis, and found out there was some particular chemical that was deficient, not letting him sleep. And then he took that immediately.
Next day, from the next day, he was able to sleep well. So of course, sleep is not necessarily mental alone. But it is a whole thing, he thought, maybe I am too anxious or too stressed because I am not able to sleep.
So the point is, especially if something can be diagnosed in terms of some tangible, structural or biochemical disorder in the brain, intangible, it's not just conceptual, but tangible, then medical health, taking mental health treatment is fine. It should not be stigmatized, but it should not be the first course of action that is sought. And as the devotee community expands, if we can have devotees who are in mental health profession, then that can be very helpful.
Because sometimes, those who are in mental health profession, they often recommend things that may not be devotional, that may actually be anti-devotional. So which is also not very good. Often mental health professionals, they work on particular kind of paradigms, which are very tentative and experimental.
So for example, because of Sigmund Freud's ideas, they had the idea that whatever problems we have, that is because we are not expressing our emotions. So these are actually historically they have been done. They think that if you just give weight to your expression, then you will actually solve your problem.
So in the 1960s, there was a lot of racial tension between the whites and the blacks. So they had an experiment, they thought, get the whites and the blacks in one room and let both of them vent out whatever they feel. And after they have vented out, then their emotions will get exhausted and they will become pacified.
But actually what happened was the entire opposite. Because if we start venting out everything that is in our heart, then you think like this about me, you think like this about me. It is practically they started out venting out and by the end they were in blows with each other.
That is one of the biggest, most disastrous experiments in mental health care. So within mental health care, if there is something which can be biochemical, which requires biochemical or structural correction, that can be taken. And if we can have people who are devotional, professionals who are devotional, at least who are sympathetic of devotional principles, then their guidance is the best in such situations.
But we shouldn't assume that by nature, devotion alone will be a substitute for mental health problems. Because the mind is also material. The mind is not spiritual.
Just as if I have a digestive problem, or if I have a fracture of a hand, it's not that I expect that chanting Hare Krishna will cure the fracture of the heart, fracture of the hand, or chanting Hare Krishna will cure my digestion. So the spiritual is not necessarily a substitute for the material. The spiritual is the director of the material.
The spiritual enables us to direct the material constructively. So Arjuna got the spiritual wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita. He won the war of Kurukshetra not by the wisdom of the Gita.
He won the war of Kurukshetra by using the skill of archery, which he had learned throughout his life. But he would not have been able to use that skill of archery if he had not got the inspiration from the spiritual wisdom of the Gita. So the spiritual and the material in this case were complemented.
The spiritual gave him the inspiration and motivation to act, and the material gave him the practical skills to act. So now, with respect to gross material things, such as fighting or eating or fracture, we can easily understand that the spiritual and the material, the spiritual is a substitute for the material. But with respect to the mind, the mind is subtle material.
And when we talk about subtle material, that means there are certain emotions within it, which may be unregulated and wild, and they can be controlled by spiritual practices. When we get spiritual satisfaction, they can be controlled. But Krishna also talks, for example, that our own basic nature cannot be changed.
He says, श्रेयांस्वधर्मोविगुणाप्रधर्माच्यमुष्टत् He tells Arjuna, A Kshatriya cannot act like a Brahmana. It is not that by practicing bhakti, a Kshatriya will go into becoming a Brahmana. The mind of a Kshatriya is going to stay in the mind of a Kshatriya.
So the spiritual and the material, when it comes to the level of the mind, it has to be dealt with carefully. Some aspects of the mind can be healed by spirituality. Can be healed means changed or purified or reformed.
But some aspects of the mind need to be channeled. So the lust, anger, greed, say, by practice of spirituality, they will be curbed. But the Kshatriya nature, the Brahmana nature, that cannot be curbed.
That has to be channeled. So when it comes to the level of the mind, whether the spiritual will completely heal over at the mental level, or the mental level needs to be channeled in a particular way, or the mental is connected with the brain and it needs to be biochemically treated, this has to be decided on a case-to-case basis. So there should not be… First, as soon as we have a problem, I jump to a psychologist or a mental health care.
That should not be the situation. But if somebody needs it, there should not be any stigmatization. We are fighting a war and whatever works, we can use it to make it work and continue our service to Krishna.
Thank you very much.