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How long does this process of withdrawal (from drug or alcohol addiction) take?

Expressions researched:
"How long does this process of withdrawal take"

Conversations and Morning Walks

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

If one lives with us at least for six months, he will give up.
Room Conversation with Alcohol and Drug Hospital People -- May 16, 1975, Perth:

Paramahaṁsa: ...to solve the problem of drug and alcohol addiction and, of course, they're concerned with the causes of it and things like that.

Prabhupāda: So you can send all these alcohol and drug patients here and they will be cured. These boys, American and European boys, they were all addicted to alcohol, drugs. Now they have given up. Practical.

Guest (1): In what way would they cure?

Prabhupāda: Simply I say that "If you want to be my student, then you must give up four things: illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, and gambling." This is my condition. So they give up, and they become my student.

Guest (2): Do they suffer withdrawal symptoms?

Paramahaṁsa: He says, "Do they suffer withdrawal symptoms?" Sometimes when a patient is giving up alcohol or drugs, he goes through various symptoms which are painful.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes. That should be... But unless... Find out this, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate. Rasa-varjaṁ raso 'py asya paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate (BG 2.59).

Devotee (2): "The embodied soul may be restricted from sense enjoyment, though the taste for sense objects remains. But, ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness."

Prabhupāda: Purport.

Devotee (2): Purport? "Unless one is transcendentally situated, it is not possible to cease from sense enjoyment. The process of restriction from sense enjoyment by rules and regulations is something like restricting a diseased person from certain types of edibles. The patient, however, neither likes such restriction, nor loses his taste for edibles. Similarly, sense restriction by some spiritual process like aṣṭāṅga-yoga, in the matter of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, etc., is recommended for less intelligent persons who have no better knowledge. But one who has tasted the beauty of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa in the course of his advancement in Kṛṣṇa consciousness no longer has a taste for dead material things. Therefore, restrictions are there for the less intelligent neophytes in the spiritual advancement of life, but such restrictions are only good if one actually has a taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness. When one is actually Kṛṣṇa conscious, he automatically loses his taste for pale things."

Guest (1): What is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, if I might ask?

Prabhupāda: Tell him.

Paramahaṁsa: Well, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, or the Supreme Soul, and we are all individual souls. So naturally we have an awareness of our relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God. When we say God or Kṛṣṇa, we don't mean my God or your God, but we mean God, no matter which religion we're speaking of. So all of us naturally have a capacity to love Kṛṣṇa, or God, and we can awaken this relationship with Him. And when that is awakened, then all unwanted things disappear, because everybody is actually frustrated, looking for permanent happiness in this temporary world. But when we awaken our Kṛṣṇa consciousness then all of those frustrations disappear, and so all such problems like drug addiction become unnecessary.

Guest (2): How long does this process of withdrawal take?

Paramahaṁsa: He says how long does it take to stop taking drugs by the process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Prabhupāda: If one lives with us at least for six months, he will give up.

Guest (2): Six months. And are there cases which relapse?

Paramahaṁsa: He says, "Are there cases of..., which relapse? Persons who begin to withdraw from drugs...?"

Prabhupāda: Maybe one in five hundred.

Guest (2): One in five hundred.

Prabhupāda: There is. Everyone is prone to fall down. But that percentage is very low, say, one in five hundred. We have got about ten thousand students all over the world. Out of them, they have fallen about ten or, say, fifteen, that's all.

Guest (2): You means you have ten thousand students who used to be addicted to something?

Prabhupāda: Yes. Addicted to everything—illicit sex, meat-eating, intoxication, and gambling. And now they have given up everything.

Guest (2): And those who relapse, can they be treated again?

Prabhupāda: Again?

Paramahaṁsa: Those who have relapsed, can they be treated again?

Prabhupāda: Ah, yes, that I say. Say, utmost, ten out of ten thousand.

Paramahaṁsa: He says, "Can they be treated again, a second time?"

Prabhupāda: Oh, yes. Even American government is pleased with this movement because they have spent so much millions of dollars for stopping LSD, and they are surprised that when the people come here, they give up.

Page Title:How long does this process of withdrawal (from drug or alcohol addiction) take?
Compiler:Marc, Rishab
Created:08 of Aug, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=1, Let=0
No. of Quotes:1