With 8 lacs addict free regular students practicing daily Raj yoga Meditation in more than 130 countries all over the world, Brahmakumaris is one of the few institutions contributing for the addiction free society. After coming in contact with Brahmakumaris in 1995, I have the opportunity to lead national anti tobacco campaign & various de-addiction programmes all over India. I have witnessed the magical transformation of the addicts after coming in contact with brahmakumaris and these past addicts themselves become the leader and help people to lead a normal addiction free life.

In my opinion, the root cause of all suffering is, “Looking for right things but at wrong place”. This applies to all aspects of life & harmful addictions are not an exception to this. People who are addicted to materialistic lifestyles are looking for happiness, peace of mind through all the lavish lifestyles. Once a patient of chronic bronchitis, who was also a smoker, approached me for the relief of his ailment. When I asked him about his addiction he said that he gets relaxation & peace of mind when he smokes. I counseled him & convinced him that there are far better ways of getting relaxation & peace of mind. I taught him Raja yoga meditation and within 7 days he could leave his addiction of 20 yrs without any withdrawal symptoms. This patient was just a representative of so many people around us. I personally feel that we all are addicted to something or others. Only difference between all of us is that some addictions like smoking, alcohol etc are more harmful to us & those around us. Other addictions like reading, traveling, helping others are not harmful; on the contrary can be soul lifting. In this article I will be discussing more about my personal experiences about the interactions which I had with thousands of patients who have given up their harmful addictions. The bottom line which I have seen in most of these patients is that they have some borderline personality disorder or low self esteem which can be corrected with right attitude.

According to the experts of mind body medicine, “The root of all addictions is the desperate urge to solve a spiritual desire (lack of respect, love, peace, attention etc) in a materialistic way”. In other words we are trying to satisfy a spiritual desire in a materialistic way. The director of Dutch Foundation for food addiction once called it, “Trying to fill a bottomless pit with chocolates & cakes. It is never enough.” The only way to kick the habit of addiction is to find what is really behind the addiction. What is the underlying spiritual desire? If someone smokes in order to get the peace of mind, it’s the peace of mind he or she is looking for. Anyone can tell that peace of mind is not to be found in cigarette. On the contrary it makes one hyper & tense. If on the other hand we learn to find the rest & peace of mind through meditation, there is one reason gone for smoking. What remains then is a physical addiction which is a very mild one compared to the mental addiction. Stopping a habit does not necessarily mean that we have tackled the addiction. There was once a man who stopped smoking for 10 yrs just to prove his friends that he was not addicted. The only thing was that he dreamt of cigarettes every night. So he had only stopped smoking, he had not tackled the addiction. ‘Once an alcoholic is always an alcoholic’, they say and this remains true until we have found out the underlying spiritual need & learned to satisfy this need in a spiritual way.

We started the deaddiction programme at vikhroli, Mumbai in 2006 to help those people who want to leave various addictions. At the beginning, we never thought that this programme will expand by such leaps & bounds. Currently this programme has expanded not only in various centers of Brahmakumaris in Mumbai but also in Maharashtra, other states of India and even reached to far eastern states of Nagaland.

When a person comes to us, he goes through a process in which he is seen by the team members which include doctors, counselors, Raja yoga teacher etc. The total process takes about 2 hours for a single person and then he is followed up daily at the centres of Brahmakumaris all over India from wherever he/ she come from. This is the biggest advantage & secret of our progrmme that we have branches all over India even at taluka places and follow up which is as per me is a very crucial stage for the de-addiction. This is utmost important because to leave the addiction is relatively easy but to maintain that is quite challenging. Along with Raja yoga mediation which is the most important part of our deaddiction programme, we also give the right mix of homeopathy (placebo pills), exercise, nutritional changes, stress management programmes etc.

We have developed a unique de-addiction prayer which if recited in the right manner can change the subconscious mind of the person. The benefits of this de-addiction prayer are felt by not only the addict but his/her family members & friends. The addict person himself/herself or the near relative/friend of the person recites this prayer slowly, feeling each & every word of it, minimum 5 times a day. We have females who have recited this de-addiction prayer several times a day for their husband or children. The results of this prayer are so good that many people have laminated this prayer and they keep in their pocket all the time.

Apart from this we have started unique “Sanjeevani Group” meetings for the addicts.

In this Sanjeevani group, people who have conquered their addictions, share their experiences & motivate others to leave their addictions. Slowly this group increases in numbers and we have seen that people get lot of confidence from this meeting and even their self esteem goes up.

Raja yoga Meditation of Brahmakumais is a very unique & simple form of meditation in which one communicates through the mind & intellect to the Ocean of Peace & Almighty authority. Once the connection occurs, the person starts experiencing the flow of all divine powers which activates his original divine sanskars. In basic 7 days course of Brahmakumaris Raja yoga Meditation, person is taught about who he is, what is his form, what are his original divine qualities, where does he comes from, who is Almighty and how are we related to Almighty & how to connect to Him and charge ourselves with His powers. It is a spiritual knowledge based on truth and the person is taught this in one to one basis. This personal attention makes a great difference & the addict feels that these people are genuinely interested in me & are selflessly helping me to leave the addiction.

I am again reinforcing that the biggest advantage of Brahmakumaris Raja yoga I have seen is a strong follow up, serene & pure environment charged with positive vibrations and company of holy people. Surprisingly I have seen very negligible withdrawal symptoms even after leaving the addictions of many years. There are four basic reasons which I have seen in Brhamakuamaris Raja yoga Meditation because of which person gets de-addicted. (1)Strong & Regular follow up by selfless people (2)Company of holy people (3) Experience of joy in meditation which leads to release of endorphins & encephalin, that helps him in tolerating the withdrawal & also replaces the void created by the addiction (4) Improvement in self esteem after daily listening to the spiritual knowledge. I have seen many other institutions which are doing the valuable work of de addicting the society by using various medicines, psychological methods, giving knowledge about the harmful effects of drugs etc but it is my personal strong belief that unless the divine sanskars are activated there are high chances of relapse or shifting to some other addictions. In the end I am reminded one quotation from Robert Fuchs that, “There is one test to know whether your mission on this planet earth is over or not, If you are alive it is not yet over. Find out your mission.” I have found out mine. So no matter at what stage of addiction the person is there is always a hope that there will be light at the end of tunnel.

Dr.Sachin Parab
Practitioner & Teacher of Raja Yoga Meditation
Brhamakumaris Shantivan Garden,
Kannamwar Nagar-1, Vikhroli (East)
Mumbai-400083
Tel: 022-65253127
Mobile: 9892191942