Chakra article on Harikesa Swami

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The following article has been posted on Chakra:

 

Doctor Links Harikesa Swami's Condition to Tainted Medicine

 

from the GBC Executive Committee

 

8 August, 1998—A psychiatrist in Sweden has confirmed that Harikesa Swami's

present condition is the result of taking psychotropic drugs without medical

supervision.

 

Yesterday, however, the GBC Executive Committee learned that Harikesa Swami

was unaware that the so-called therapeutic powder he had been taking

regularly for ten years contained these drugs.

 

Harikesa Swami began taking the powder in 1988, when Chitesvara dasa, a

well-known tantric healer from Orissa, prescribed daily doses of it, which

he provided to Harikesa Swami.

 

Harikesa Swami took it daily until February 1998, when he abruptly stopped.

Chitesvara said the blue-colored powder, which he called "vibhuti," was the

ash left from his fire yajna.

 

However, a state criminal forensic laboratory in Sweden reported on August

5th that the powder contained two commercially manufactured psychotropic

drugs. One is trifluoperazine (brand name, Stelazine), which is an

antianxiety and antipsychosis drug. The other drug, trihexyphenidyl (brand

name, Artaine), is an anti-parkinsonian medication. Its purpose seems to be

to counteract the side effects of Stelazine, which sometimes resemble the

symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

 

Devotees who had become suspicious of the "vibhuti" submitted it for

forensic analysis.

 

A psychiatrist consulted about the drugs and their possible effect on

Harikesa Swami said that Harikesa's recent extreme behavior was typical of

the effect of a sudden withdrawal from the medication contained in the

"vibhuti." Physicians are careful to reduce the dosage of these drugs

gradually, he said. Otherwise, there is great danger of an induced

psychosis.

 

The psychiatrist described Harikesa Swami's recent behavior as "episodic

paranoid schizophrenia with auditory hallucinations." This, he said, is

typical of the reaction produced by abrupt withdrawal from the drugs found

in the "vibhuti."

 

The Executive Committee arranged yesterday for Harikesa Swami's current

therapist to be informed of these facts.

 

by Ravindra Svarupa dasa

 

for the GBC Executive Committee

 

CHAKRA 8-Aug-98