Marijuana/Intoxicants/Drugs – Yogananda, Bro. Anandamoy, Devotee Stories

PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA

Grossly inferior material intoxicants stimulate the senses, obliterate reason, and bring spiritual degradation.  Satan invented the temptation of wine and sensual indulgence to delude people with counterfeit substitutes for the infinitely satisfying bliss of God-contact found in deep meditation. Seekers of divine ecstasy are abjured to abstain strictly from inebriating substances and sensual stimulants, which keep the life force and consciousness bound in body consciousness and easily become habit forming.

  The Second Coming of Christ 

~*~

Marijuana – Destroying the Very Instruments You Need to Find God

Nonattachment does not mean indifference.  It does not mean to have no ambitions.  It’s very tricky, isn’t it? …Master said the lazy, negligent person who has no ambitions to please God by good actions on earth has to return until he learns to work solely for this purpose…Many people, particularly young people, are writing SRF headquarters and saying ‘I have no ambition in life, I have no desire to become a great businessman or scientist or whatever.’   No ambition.

Ah, that’s not the point.  That’s not the point at all, because if a person says ‘I have no ambition’ then he has to ask himself,  ‘Do I then have a flaming desire for God?’   And usually it’s not that way, because that tremendous desire for God alone, it doesn’t come just like that.  That has to be cultivated.

And I tell you sometimes I think that when a person has no ambition, it is in many cases the result of drugs.   And I would like to warn if anybody is still smoking marijuana and so on–particularly marijuana, why? it destroys ambition, it destroys the capacity to concentrate, it destroys willpower.   DON’T DO IT.  You are destroying the very instruments you need to find God.

So the key is, not to have no ambition, but to have ambition for God.

from Understanding Karma, Brother Anandamoy, DVD/digital rental

Bro. Ananadamoy’s counsel to a devotee about marijuana

(A) story about…a time I met with Bro. Anandamoy.  I had just taken Kriya a month or two before from Bro. A.   So at Encinitas retreat, I made an appointment to see him about my difficulty concentrating.  Also, before I could say much, instead of telling me what my difficulty was, he gently asked “mmm, marijuana?”   “Yes” I said.

Then, the forceful part of his absolute knowledge of my situation came out as he looked me in the eye and with conviction said:  “You don’t need it!”  He went on to say something to the effect that a number of devotees were coming to the path at that time with the same problem – that the experience was drawing them to want to develop their spirituality – to know what is Truth.  He said that marijuana was a real hindrance towards this goal exactly because it keeps the mind from concentrating and is a block to finding God (this is some serious paraphrasing here – time to stop).

Needless to say, this talk with Brother was exactly what I needed, because I knew it was true and that was why I had gone to see him.  I was healed within a month of this meeting.  During that time I mentally clung to Anandamoy’s strength and Master’s and God’s blessings through him.  Without this help, I don’t think I would have been able to stay on the path – but that’s not a question — Master gave me the help I needed.

devotee story posted on an SRF message board, 2001

THE GURU’S HELP–A DEVOTEE STORY

Master advocated ridding yourself of addictions, any addictions! Like TV (Br A. called TV the “vampire of the soul”), bad language, drugs, the list goes on and on. I had more than a few addictions, bad ones. I prayed to Master for help with a particular one that was messing up my life. “Please just help me, get these drugs away from me, just a week or two. I’ll do the rest” and I heard in my head “God loves a bargain”!

I was in my car sobbing driving along and I felt Master’s presence all around me, blessing me. A few very tough addictions left me, they have been gone for 38 years now. One was Marijuana.

devotee Michele (used with permission)

“It steals your will power”

New on the path, 1988 Fullerton Temple Sunday lecture service, Bro. Anandamoy spoke to a standing room only crowd but, I felt he was speaking directly to me. “It steals your will power,” he said. For the next 2 weeks I debated with myself, what does he know, he’s a saint and has never smoked any pot, it makes me mellow, reduces my aggressive tendencies. Back and forth I debated within me. Finally, Master reminded me of my own thought, “he’s a saint!” If I don’t listen to a saint then I’m a fool. I flushed some mighty expensive weed into the sewers. Am eternally thankful I listened more closely to “one of Master’s little boys!”

a devotee comment, used with permission

See also~~ Bro. Nakulananda’s Reminisciences of BRO. ANANDAMOY ~ Memorial Service

 

See also~~ Hypnotism and Hallucinogenic Drugs ~ Self-Realization Fellowship

BACK TO  INDEX: Miscellaneous Controversies