Hare Krishna Maharaj!

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupad!

I am glad you are settling down for a bit and hope you are recovering from all your travels. I was listening to a lecture of yours from Radhadesh from 2011 and wanted to discuss the psychological aspect of something.

 So of course, one of the goals of yoga is to control the mind. But today, there is almost an excuse for everything. For instance, ADHD has become a diagnosis for the fleeting attention span of the brain. I would like to know what you think of such a “diagnosis”   and what you suggest to control it besides medication.

HpS - I don't know enough about this to give precise analysis. From what I know, there are many cases in modern Psychiatry where giving a name to a syndrome is not really identitifying the situation. As long as there is no idea of a person controling the Buddhi and then the Manas, there cannot be much good understanding of how the Brain works.

Maybe some neurological problem, maybe Buddhi or Manas or Atma problem. We would have to dig to find the answer.

The other part of the lecture talked about addiction and rehab programs that keep one clean have a spiritual basis. I was intrigued by this statement because there is a particular person who is super spiritual but can’t give up chewing  tobacco (Indian bodied- old army habit).  He chants, does full fledged aarti multiple times a day, fasts every ekadasi (but still takes the tobacco on ekadasI) and I’m just wondering what could be done to help him…if he is in fact very spiritual, this addiction shouldn’t be so strong, should it?

ASA - Again, don't know details so cannot give detailed answer, but you may have three little weeds are all two inches tall but as you start to dig up the root you find that one is two inces deep, one 15-inches deep and one OVER 24-inches deep. Some gross attachments are based upon deep psychic attachments.

It would be really cool to get your view on this.

ASA - Whoop!   WHoop!   Oink!  Oink!   C=2pi x D!

Thanks again and hope you are recuperating well in Nashville! Thank you for causeless mercy!

Your aspiring servant,

Sarita

HpS - ASA -  Who is your Temple President. Think we got a letter for you to be initiated!