You Owe It to Yourself

Don't cheat yourself out of eternal, ever-increasing happiness. You owe to yourself to revive your dormant loving relationship with that Supreme Person, who is the source of all existence. By doing so, you will enter into a liberated state of consciousness, completely free from all the miseries of material existence such as birth, death, old age, and disease.

Krishna Consciousness is Pure Bliss-Kaunas, Lithuania-8 May 2017

Krishna Consciousness is Pure Bliss-Kaunas, Lithuania

Video For the Day

Be All That You Can Be

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version

Question: Marijuana is a Healing Herb?

Thank you for very kindly answering my doubts and helping me in my devotional service. I would like to ask another query that I had. I told you previously that one of my friends is pseudo-devotee who likes kirtan but indulges in all other kinds of activities. I recently found out that he smokes marijuana, and when I caught him doing so secretly in my house, I confronted him to not desecrate the sanctity of the house because I have a small altar to which I render service. When I confronted him, he started to give me excuses like Krishna supports the use of marijuana in the BG by quoting this verse (BG 9:16):

aham kratur aham yajnah
svadhaham aham ausadham
mantro 'ham aham evajyam
aham agnir aham hutam

"But it is I who am the ritual, I the sacrifice, the offering to the ancestors, the healing herb, the transcendental chant. I am the butter and the fire and the offering."

He said that the healing herb that Krishna is referring to is marijuana. He even was saying that it's a medicinal herb that can be used and that ancient people used it as a sacrament. I told him that he is addicted, but he got into an unnecessary verbal argument with me. What do I do in such a situation? Shall I argue back? If so, what do I say? If not, then shall I just ignore him? Please let me know!

Thank you so much,
Rounak

Answer: Marijuana Smoking Calls Death Very Near

Healing herb does not refer to marijuana. One who smokes marijuana is calling death very near. Srila Prabhupada says in his purport to BG 3.24:

"There are many pseudo devotees of Lord Siva who want to indulge in smoking ganja (marijuana) and similar intoxicating drugs, forgetting that by so imitating the acts of Lord Siva they are calling death very near.”

Tell him that he is wrong, and tell him what Prabhupada says.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Little Sparrow Who Conquered the Ocean

Image
In his purport to Bhagavad-gita, Chapter 6, Text 24 Srila Prabhupada wonderfully teaches us the power of determinations by telling us the story of the little sparrow who conquered the ocean: "As for determination, one should follow the example of the sparrow who lost her eggs in the waves of the ocean. A sparrow laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean, but the big ocean carried away the eggs on its waves. The sparrow became very upset and asked the ocean to return her eggs. The ocean did not even consider her appeal. So the sparrow decided to dry up the ocean. She began to pick out the water in her small beak, and everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. The news of her activity spread, and at last Garuda, the gigantic bird carrier of Lord Visnu, heard it. He became compassionate toward his small sister bird, and so he came to see the sparrow. Garuda was very pleased by the determination of the small sparrow, and he promised to help. Thus Garuda at once asked t
Read more

Heart Melting Reunion with Amarendra and Gayatri

Image
On Friday 26 June 2015 I was blessed with the greatest good fortune of meeting with two of the dearest devotees of my entire life, His Grace Amarendra Prabhu and his good wife, Srimati Gayatri devi dasi. I am eternally indebted to these great souls for how much they helped me in my spiritual life when I was a young devotee. When I was young brahmacari monk in 1973 I joined with the two of them in Gainesville, Florida. We were a three person preaching center, and they were just like a mother and father to me. I had so many wonderful Krishna conscious experiences in their association that I can hardly begin to describe them here. But at least may it suffice for me to say for now that Gayatri taught me what it means to be a soft-hearted devotee of the Lord and she gave me my first cooking lesson, teaching me how to make cauliflower pakoras, and Amarendra taught me the art of how to preach strongly, intelligently, and coolly to defeat opposing arguments. Recently Gayatri almost died. But
Read more

Misguided Fools Say that Masturbation is Healthy

Image
Foolish modern day materialists recommend masturbation as follows: "Masturbation is a common activity. It’s a natural and safe way to explore your body, feel pleasure, and release built-up sexual tension. It occurs among people of all backgrounds, genders, and races. Despite the myths, there are actually no physically harmful side effects of masturbation." They are wrong. To get a proper understanding on this this topic read the question and answer section below. Answers According to the Vedic Wisdom Question: What are the Ill Effects of Masturbation? Since you answered questions related to understanding the real need of sex in a human being's life, so I also request you to please enlighten us with the knowledge about semen conservation, it's importance, and the consequences of frequently releasing it thorough sex or masturbation. Since today most of the youth are indulged in mansturbation and they think it to be good in comparison to doing sex with some female for
Read more