Half-an-hour without alcohol!
Do those dependent on
alcohol have it in them to stay half-an-hour without alcohol?
Alcoholism is a
pestilence and I was afflicted by it for several years. The disease impacted me
immensely. It was only my wife and parents who stood by me, offering support in
my most trying moments. My wife enrolled me for the Part 1course of the Art of
Living while I was posted at Jaipur.
Winter had arrived in
Jaipur and the weather was chilly. Any stock individual would have preferred
the warm climes of a quilt. Yet my wife faithfully dropped me to the centre and
picked me up from there for seven days when I had undertaken the course. Like a
zombie I used to attend the course.
There I learnt the unique
rhythmic breathing technique of “Sudarshan Kriya”, cognated by the spiritual
master H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Today, by the grace of the Master and
through the breathing technique I am sober for over a decade. As a faculty of
the Art of Living I have been able to conduct courses for alcoholics and drug
addicts.
Addicts need to upend the
pyramid, detoxify their minds and bodies and once again discover love in their
lives. It is paramount that they discard feelings and emotions of futility,
guilt, inadequacy and self rejection. They have to strengthen their minds and
make it robust to eschew dependency on alcohol.
Such craftsmanship and
techniques are encompassed in the Pragna
programme of the Art of Living and is providing succour to addicts. Various Art
of Living programmes address different sections of society to provide
alternative and holistic therapies to ameliorate the physical and mental
conditions of overwrought people.
How does one conduct the course for hardened alcoholics and
drug addicts, who are in a perpetual state of self-denial? They look at the
teacher in the most disgusted manner possible, with disbelief writ large on
their faces.
Courses of the Art of Living for addicts need to be
supplemented with regular follow-up sessions. The breathing technique of
Sudarshan Kriya and the knowledge points of Gurudev begin to unfold, with a
salutary impact on the minds of the addicts.
Slowly the determination to metamorphose and transfigure
their lives and eschew dependency on the substance begins to develop.
What really touches the heart is when an addict takes the
first step. They break down as they seek help. “Sir, aap humko chod kar
jaoge toh nahin?” (Sir, you will not forsake us?) “Sir, aap roz aoge na?”(Sir,
will you come and meet us every day?) is the common refrain, as they develop a
bond with the teacher.
One recalls the gloomy but riveting movie, One Flew over
the Cuckoo’s Nest; how the inmates lodged in a mental asylum had reached a
state where they were determined to break the bondage and run away. Similarly
the youth and middle-aged persons with families and children back home yearn for
love and affection and pine to be with their loved ones. The addict becomes determined
to break the four walls of the rehab centre.
Normally the mind of an alcoholic borders on futility,
guilt, a gargantuan burden of inadequacy, self-rejection, self-depravation and
self-dejection. After the initial treatment at the rehabilitation centre and
subsequent exposure to the unique rhythmic breathing technique of Sudarshan
Kriya they began to believe in the “Power of Now”, the efficacy of “Living in
the Present Moment”.
Every day is a new
day, a harbinger of hope and the addicts realise their self-worth and the
“Power of Love and Acceptance” and begin giving themselves positive strokes.
The concepts of the “Power of Now” or the “Present Moment”
have been postulated by several masters of the past, in the oriental and
occidental world. In India, Maharishi Patanjali, Gautama Buddha, the Advaita
saint Adi Shankara have written and spoken about it extensively. In present times the quintessential rhythmic
breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya transmogrifies the human mind to the
present.
Authors like Eckhart Tolle, Robin Sharma, Deepak Chopra and
Louise Hay too have emphasised on reengineering the human mind to remain in the
present moment to combat various challenging situations in life.
In Gorakhpur is a centre run by a doughty lady whose husband
was an alcoholic. As a goodwill gesture the couple inaugurated the centre and
have made it their mission to provide shelter and comfort to those suffering
from alcoholism.
The inmates of the centre could remain half-an-hour without
alcohol, can you? This is the question
that resonates in my mind, the question I pose to any addict. The answer is
simple; it is possible only through surrender to a higher power, the supreme
intelligence of the Universe.
“If you keep on drinking rum, the world
will soon be quit of a very dirty scoundrel,” wrote Robert
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