Spirit and Spirituality !!!

Question : Guruji, I have been asked by some of friends toconvince them on the basis of Vedic Spiritual injuctions as towhy they should not consume alocohol in moderation. Due to extreme climatic conditions, some of them consume alcoholin moderation on health grounds and some do cosume for sensegratification. They say - consumption of alocohol in moderation should not beconcluded as being " intoxicated ". and advancment in spiritualscience can not be related to this factor. Why are God's consuming Somras ? Is Somras sanctified ? They say they are not harming anobody and consumption inmoderation serves them as stress reliever ! They do not consume nonveg food.

My answers are given below. a). For medical reasons/survival reasons - alcohol consumption is ok underthe guidance of Doctor. b). We have 3 layers of minds - concious, subconcious and unconcious. Thepurpose of spiritual Sadhana is to purify the subconcious mind andunconcious mind with the help of concious mind ( which is a unique gift inhuman life). Deep inside us there is Superconcious mind called by variousnames - Lord Vasudeva, Turiya by yogis. The purpose is to offer our purifiedselves to the Lord. c). If we understand that as per modern science our concious mind is lessthan 10% while rest of the minds are 90%. According to vedic sciences the hidden mind is called chitta. The purification of chitta - chitta shuddhi isthe purpose of all Sadhanas. d). Consuming alcohol reduces the level of concious mind to less than 10%.This will lead to spiritual downfall. e). We have to keep our chitta and mind clean so that when we depart fromthe world, we have to depart with the thoughts of the Lord. Otherwise, we will have spiritual downfall in terms of lower yonis ( animal births) orlower level lokas. This requires life long practice of concious living,tapasya, spiritual Sadhana. For a mind dulled with alcohol this is notpossible. f). Alcohol is tamasic - means lowers level of conciousness. g). Initially we are in control of quantity of alcohol. Gradually body getsaccostomed to level and craves for more. This will require increase ofdosage. Slowly and slowly we move towards trap of alcohol and spiritualdownfall. It is very difficult to deaddict the body from the addiction ofalcohol. Various kinds of pains, depression are felt in the body if there iswithdrawal. h). Whether it is sleeping tablet, or pain killer or alcohol, the dosage hasto progressively increase to get the same effect since the body getsaccostomed to the old dosage. That is the reason doctors are very carefullin prescribing pain killers/sleeping tablets. i). We have to become servant of the Lord - Vasudeva instead we start becoming servant of the body ( craving for more and more). j). As far as Soma Rasa is cocerned. This is a total misunderstanding byIndians/westerns. It is not alcohol. Soma stands for moon in sanskrit. Somarasa stands for juice of moon. Moon stands for mind. Juice of the mind. Whatis that juice. When a person is deeply intoxicated in Devotion, the mindwill be filled with ecstasy. This is called juice of mind. Full of bhakti.You should see the eyes of a devotee. Eyes of Lord Chaitanya. They areintoxicated with Divine Love. k). There are various deities in our body. Our mind is Governed by Shiva.Sense organs are governed by Indra. Eyes are governed by Surya. When theSoma Rasa flows due to Devotion, these deities get pleased ! They getintoxicated. l). In modern language of science, when the mind is in ecstasy of devotion,a number of chemicals from the brain are produced. One of them is dopamine.Several of the chemicals of that nature have deep healing effect on thebody. This is the "alcohol of Gods" - Juice of mind - soma rasa - juice ofdevotion. m). Similarly there is one more juice called amrita is mentioned in vedic literature. This is the juice which yogi produces in deep meditation when Ajna ( pitutory) and sahasrar ( pineal gland) are stimulated. o). As far as stress relieving is concerned, alcohol has more side effects.Best stress reliever is Bhakti - Bhajan, chanting Lords name, listening toBhagavat. It produces Soma Rasa - with lot of healing properties on body andmind. p). I want to give the story of great "Spiritual" Organization in the world.You might have heard AAA (Alcoholic Anonimous). You know how it was founded? The founder was addict. His liver was failing. Doctors told him if hecontinued to drink he will die. He went for psycho therapy with one of thegreat psychiatrists at that time. But he used to relapse. After spending lotof money with psychiatrist and failing health, he got frustrated. He askedpsychiatrist solution. Psychiatrist lifted his hand and said "God only cansave you". This man came home that day and cried infront of the Lord fromthe traps of Alchol. A remarkable transformation happened. He droppedalcohol. This was really a surprise to Doctors. The hospital has 10,000chronic addicts.They asked him to share his experience with other patients. Surprisinglymany patients dropped addiction by prayer to Lord, whichdoctors/psychiatrists could not solve ! Thus a new organization was bornAAA. Which helped millions of people to get deaddicted. ! q). So conclusion - Best Stress Reliever - Best Deaddiction only solutionis Lords Name, Lords Glory, Lords story...