a counter example

[Guest guest]

take the recent example of Bhubhanesvara acbsp in vraja. He slipped in sept

2005 on some stairs and then hurt his hip. He went for surgery in agra, then

He was promised that if he came to Mumbai temple, they'd take care of him

and get him care. When He got to Mumbai and was somehow neglected. He

literally went mad and took off his brahmin thread, stopped sadhana etc. it

got the vraja devotees worried and later with Braja Bihari and Sarvabhauma

das's help. Bhu went to a "delhi Shrink" who helped Bhu see his mental

problem. the shrinks fees paid for by the KB deity dept.

 

Bhu got better mentally, and at once resumed his solid sadhana, and today is

totally ok as before. but for 6-months or so, He was totally mad.

 

this incident, validates that while sadhana is the ultimate medicine, some

incident can actually drive someone crazy, and when it happens, "shrinks"

*maybe* necessary.

 

TridaNDi BhikSu, Bhakti Visrambha MAdhava

 

> > Thanks. Your explanation (above) helped me understand your wife's point,

> > though I still disagree with it (please see my next point, which

> > explains why).

> >

> > > What you seem to be saying is that modern psychology can help us

> > > become better devotees. What do you think Prabhupada would have to say

> > > to that?

> >

> > From "The Nectar of Devotion":

> > ". . . we must practice sadhana-bhakti . . . These practices will help

> > one become cured of madness. As a man's mental disease is cured by the

> > directions of a psychiatrist, so this sadhana-bhakti cures the

> > conditioned soul of his madness under the spell of maya, material

> > illusion."

> >

> > Here, mental and spiritual madness are kept distinct. There are

> > processes, Srila Prabhupada says, for curing both. You and your wife (in

> > the first statement above) have fused, or conflated, these two types of

> > madness and then argued that the spiritual cure alone is potent enough

> > to cure mental madness. That is not what Srila Prabhupada did. He

> > validated the pyschiatrist's (separate) cure of mental madness.

> >