I wonder how long this depression will last? I have no desire to chant even though I know Krishna Consciousness is the true spiritual path. I just want to sleep.
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If Krishna wouldn't
be experiencing a feeling- I too should avoud alowing/accepting that feeling move into my attitude because the fear & certinty is that will cause a sepperation in ourNatures thus He and I will be seperated. I mean* it's yoir relationship but I don't seek empathy from Krishna. We are hear for Hi's pleasher, U-got it twested! ? You'll shake those blues when you learn to be more prolific in your chanting. And more Expert in your chanting as a service for others! I supose. Experience is the best teacher & the chanting is the Cattalist to the experience & the experience is the Way of The Knowing* Monotheism is The Last Truth. We'll need to know but perhaps not the only one/duty we'll have to perform!? Perhaps
As in there is No wrong answer with Krishna!
When our morale is low Krishna begins to explore that with you! & as He' is unlimated, One might end-up (?)
Might a reminder be that Rama is the motivational coach type more so perhaps or (Vishnu)? As they are also limitless & allways admirable. My point is that the term "The GodHeads" means God HimSelf & Hi's community. Often it is said "that a sure & swift path to pleasing (/ knowing Krishna is by serving Hi's servents. Yoga is a treat to the mind & body affording them freedom & ferver. However, renunciation or selflessness alone without focus & the balancers of yoga and mental (&) physical self awairness is not as rewording or a more binnafishel form of energies as a properly-postured, torso & the attempt to be awair of one's breathing, for examples. So Prahbu, being that we know the spirit of the Spiritual realms are positive & opptamistic & confident in God's name, as a Cattalist to nure joy I would look deeper into self"
My point is you are not attracting Krishna very well if symptoms of fatege are vexing you. So chant for (HDG) or Rama or Chatonya prahbuGee. Have a little fun! Sometimes! Expand your box! Vishnu Vishnu Vishnu" What sacrafice can be a success without 1st. The acknolegement of OM the yogies say" So what's the/your- issue? What is your "Prelude" your lead-in to your spiritual efforts to have a positive affect & experience. Ledgend has it" serve the Bhakti & thus please Krishna! ?
Dearest mataji,
This reply might be really late but I will still be going ahead in hopes that someone who might be going through the same issue as you,in the future, might stumble upon these replies and thus help him or herself. I have been lingering on such topics on this forum for quite long and I frequently feel disheartened when I come across the type of replies given by devotees on this topic. The only valid and truly practical reply is that by Nitai Priya DD mataji on the post “How to overcome Depression” asked by user ‘hare Krishna’. Do try to check out her reply if possible.
I genuinely understand how you feel as I have been there. It almost feels like there is another entity inside of you,which is why it is very common for people with mind issues to be mistaken as a possessed or haunted person.
Let me prepare you for something you might undoubtedly face (or have already faced as I can see in this discussion) with certain family members or devotees. Some of them are always not going to understand the difference between a clinical mental condition and difficult phase in life. To be elaborate, many people might say things like, “ Oh, don’t just sit down there and be lazy and depressed, this is something we all go through. Why don’t you just relax and be happy?” or if devotees, “ Just chant the depression/anxiety away. All problems will be rectified if you just chant the holy names and pray to Krsna.”. While these people are TRYING to mean well, they come off as completely wrong. They don’t know that a person experiencing a mind illness cannot even bring themselves to even brush their teeth or eat or shower
. I have been there before. It’s not that they don’t want to do those things, they can’t bring themselves to. Similar to a mute person, it’s not that he doesn’t want to speak but since he’s mute, he does not have the ability to. A mentally afflicted person feels like he is under the whims of his mind. To top that, there are a hundred things running in his mind all at once which includes suicidal suggestions. He cannot even sleep through the night. And since, he is NOT the mind( Mind is subtle body, separate from us), it is very insensitive to say things like “Get over it”,“Why do you keep thinking about it,just don’t think about it”,”You’re not doing devotional service properly”, “ If you remember the real reason is to go back to Godhead,there will be no problem, shower your love on Krsna”. If the person could, don’t you think he would have?
We don’t go to a person who has cancer and say “ Oh prabhuji, it’s just Cancer. Get on with your life!”. Do we? Then why is the same thing being said to a sufferer of mental disease. It is very painful,dark and scary. It requires much compassion, understanding and acceptance towards the affected individual. So dear mataji, please take one,tiny,baby step per day.And practise acceptance with yourself. Understand that your mind is just like a machine which generates automated thoughts, The more you’re sensitised to it, the more it repeats the same thing. I won’t go more into details about this, try reading on anxiety and intrusive thoughts on www.drmartinseif.com/ . This would help you to understand more on how anxiety works. I also suggest that if you still continue to have debilitating anxiety and emotional breakdowns, DO THE RIGHT THING. Make an appointment with a qualified therapist who specialises in panic attack management. I used to be against taking medications but I’ve personally met happy and stable people (some of them devotees ) whose lives are much peaceful and better due to these medications. And medications can also be weaned off after awhile when your condition is different now and you don’t need them.
Even HH Badrinarayan Maharaj, who is part of GBC, said that if someone needs medication to bring themselves out from bed and chant at least one round, then they SHOULD be taking it , there is nothing wrong with it if it’s going to help them stay alive and do their duty.(Have not quoted him word for word but this is along the lines of what he said) .When someone’s leg has broken and he is crying in pain, we don’t run and bring a japa bag to him and say “Chant prabhu, your leg will be fine”. We bring him to the hospital where his healing takes place and in that better condition, he is able to do maybe some of what he used to do before, gradually. Hence prabhu,consult a qualified therapist who YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH. Neuroplasticity and mindfulness techniques will be used to help you cope and manage. Alot of these are in placement with Vedic values. If you’re exposed to a lot of media and similar anxiety triggering platforms such as Facebook, try to stave off them.
Meditation and breathing exercises are also part of what a therapist might use. In my case, being a devotee made this much easier as we have experience in chanting and also staving off social media and movies helps in KC as well. However, I still had a little attachment to watching TV, so instead of artificially renouncing watching TV altogether, I still watch it but only things with vedic content,ISKCON lectures and innocent cartoons. This has helped me a lot. So dear mataji, please do what you feel is best for you!
Don’t compare yourself with others’ standard and stick to asking advice from just one devotee who you know understands you. Many people say many,different things but at the end of the day, it’s your life journey towards Krsna.
Hare Krishna
Thank you for your comments from my old post of 2012. I am doing much better these days. I am moving out of my "haunted house" next month. I am getting close to retirement. The only thing I am really depressed about right now is the fact that I am working every week-end now to save up money for my retirement. I hate to miss "Harinama" on the week-ends.
Hare Krsna,
His divine grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has given explanations on the cause of suffering in several books. The quotes below should help you to understand the causes of your suffering and possible solutions which you can try. Remember that if you don't feel you want to chant at this moment, there are other alternatives such as hearing (from audio/video lectures), worship (worship Krsna deities), praying (offering prayers to Krsna), serving (serving Krsna through service of devotees).
From the Srimad Bhagavatam First Canto:
"This material world is certified by the Lord in the Bhagavad-gita as a dangerous place full of calamities. Less intelligent persons prepare plans to adjust to those calamities without knowing that the nature of this place is itself full of calamities. They have no information of the abode of the Lord, which is full of bliss and without trace of calamity.
The duty of the sane person, therefore, is to be undisturbed by worldly calamities, which are sure to happen in all circumstances. Suffering all sorts of unavoidable misfortunes, one should make progress in spiritual
realization because that is the mission of human life. The spirit soul is transcendental to all material calamities; therefore, the so-called calamities are called false. A man may see a tiger swallowing him in a dream, and he may cry for this calamity. Actually there is no tiger and there is no suffering; it is simply a case of dreams. In the same way,
all calamities of life are said to be dreams. If someone is lucky enough to get in contact with the Lord by devotional service, it is all gain. Contact with the Lord by any one of the nine devotional services is always a forward step on the path going back to Godhead."
"The Lord, however, out of His causeless mercy, because He is more merciful to the suffering living beings than they can expect, appears before them and renovates the principles of devotional service comprised of hearing, chanting, remembering, serving, worshiping, praying, cooperating and surrendering unto Him. Adoption of all the abovementioned items, or any one of them, can help a conditioned soul get out of the tangle of nescience and thus become liberated from all material sufferings created by the living being illusioned by the external energy.
This particular type of mercy is bestowed upon the living being by the Lord in the form of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu."
Hari Bol,
Thanks to all for your comments. I am not feeling so good right now and am going to bed.
All the comments posted certainly very inspiring to me. I also find my self in the same position sometimes where I feel unable to progress spiritually and feel like I'm losing taste. And when I'm like that I'm unable to chant and even though I want to read Gita /Bhagvatham I feel too dirty inside to do so.This makes me feel worse. .. But by grace of our beloved Sri Krishna and most dear Srila Prabupad this website and those who post always seem to re-inspire me to keep going....especially posts by A kumar,Padmavati dasi, Vinay Karlson, Gaur-gadadhar Das, Baktin Maral. I am certainly eternally grateful to those involved with this website. ....
Its is For Your Goodness in initial stage of Krishna Consciousness one may feel this... Because "Detachment" is the way go out of this world...
BG 15.3-4: The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world. No one can understand where it ends, where it begins, or where its foundation is. But with determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began and from whom everything has extended since time immemorial.
You are getting this state without experience the great difficulties....
So just keep chanting....
Its called Enlightenment when one find everything of this world is useless and only have miseries and when one know Krishna is only truth and everything else here is useless or illusion... one become detached
At that time one achieve Pure Consciousness free from all material contamination and get pure devotional service to Lord...
BG 4.19: One is understood to be in full knowledge whose every endeavor is devoid of desire for sense gratification. He is said by sages to be a worker for whom the reactions of work have been burned up by the fire of perfect knowledge.
BG 4.23: The work of a man who is unattached to the modes of material nature and who is fully situated in transcendental knowledge merges entirely into transcendence.
BG 2.42-43: Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being desirous of sense gratification and opulent life, they say that there is nothing more than this.
BG 2.44: In the minds of those who are too attached to sense enjoyment and material opulence, and who are bewildered by such things, the resolute determination for devotional service to the Supreme Lord does not take place.
BG 2.71: A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego — he alone can attain real peace.
BG 2.72: That is the way of the spiritual and godly life, after attaining which a man is not bewildered. If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.
Its not depression its De-attachment....
Hare Krishna pls accept my humble obeisances AGTSP!
When we'r new in Krishna Consciousness, this is a common situation. When we make up our mind to chant, then our senses try to deviate us. As you said I just want to sleep, I'm sorry but such feelings comes in us out of ignorence. We'r all conditional souls and are in deep ignorence. Srila Prabhupada was once asked if we were hippies… he responded by saying, “No we are happys” Yes this Bhakti Yoga is the best process for reviving our original joyful nature. ‘Ananda maya bhyasat’, means our nature is full of bliss.
The Shrimad-Bhagavatam says that we can't be happy in this world unless we're a fool or a pure devotee. A fool can ignore reality and live as if he'll never die. But a pure devotee, having realized his spiritual identity, is no longer affected by the impermanent material body. Pure devotees are with Krishna in the spiritual world, even though their physical bodies are here on earth. Since most people fall somewhere between the fool and the pure devotee, no wonder most people feel depressed moods off.
In one of HH Radhanath Swami's lecture he explained,
The holy name of the god is nondifferent from God but unless we receive it from the right source it doesnot have the same effect. That is why initiation is there. When we here the mantra or transcendeantal knowldege from self-realized souls, souls who present it as it is with proper motivation, then it has it's full potency. Other wise it's potency is adultrated. Lord chaitanya mahaprabhu explained there are 3 most important religious principals, which are the essence of all religions, to serve great souls, to be compassionate to those who'r suffering and to chant the name of God. It is that service attitude that pleases the lord. When we have that selfless attitude to the degree we have that selfless service attitude, the Lord manifests His full potency within His holy name. So if we chant the holy name and engage ourselves in unethical immoral activities such as intoxication, meat eating, gambling, etc these activities are like putting dirt on us and on our heart. Then we chant to clean our heart then again we engage in those activities and again put dirt on our heart, it's a very very slow process. But if we live a moral life with good character then chant the holy name, very quickly our heart is purified and very quickly our divine love is awakened. So the direction of proper morality, proper character, humility, tolerence, forgiveness, enthusiam, patience, self-control, these are qualities that give a person good character and that service attitude. When we live by these principals through right direction then the holy name manifests it's full potency to liberate our souls.
Also we'r said to chant in company of self-realized souls, espically for neophytes, to taste the nectar of the holy name in full measure. Prabhuji once we build our taste for this divine nectar then we lose our taste for inferior temporary things. Also I would suggest you to live a regulated life following all the four principles and to avoid association of non-devotees and to read Srila Prabhupada's books as much as possible. I pray for your spiritual well being. Haribol!
Your servant