What is the biggest differentiator between man and animal? An animal exists on a basic plateau where its needs are more or less selfish. It eats, mates and sleeps. If the need to protect yourself arises, fight back. If he wants to be alone, he stays away from his puppies. Are you aware of something more spiritual than that? Do you have sleepless nights? Do you suffer from pains of conscience? Are you afraid of death and the unknown? The answer to all of this is a big NO.

By our own intelligence and conscience we suffer. This suffering and these trials come our way to cause further evolution. This is part of the evolutionary process in which, when faced with a problem, we must overcome it and move on. When we needed to eat, we found edible plants and animals. When we felt cold we covered our bodies. When we needed to communicate, we created different languages, when we needed to move faster, we created the wheel. Today, when we have to grow spiritually, we turn to a higher power within us, to help us with the answers to overcome and move on. Nowhere in this evolutionary process has there been a backward or backward solution!

Having said that, drugs help us return or regress to an animal stage, where we stop thinking and “feeling.” We become like our animal friends where we lose our inhibitions. Is there something wrong with this? Yes! Have we not already passed the animal scene? Isn’t it going backwards, going against the laws of nature?

This is not real. It is a miasma, because once the effect wears off, we become more aware of our surroundings and become even more depressed when we see the state we are in. The simple reason is that we have already moved far away from the animal stage. It hurts to see us at that stage. The pain becomes unbearable and there is only one thing to do to numb the pain: seek more drugs and so the cycle continues and like a whirlpool, it drags us into its depth of apathy from where there is very little escape.

The younger we are, the more we suffer. We are also exposed to different types of people who influence us to find an easy alternative to our problems. In a moment of bravado we look for a cigarette. A couple of minutes later, the cigarette ran out and the pain persists. Maybe marijuana can help: a couple of puffs and a feeling of dizziness. An amazing sense of harmony with the world. A few minutes later, a gut-wrenching headache and an empty wallet. The weed kick goes away. Maybe something a little stronger? Maybe ecstasy? And so it goes on. But none of these drugs have really helped get to the root of the problem that triggered the spree. The problem remains and at the very least we have added more problems to the original problem.

If we looked within ourselves for all the problems that seemed insurmountable at the time, there was also an answer within us that we couldn’t see at that time. In hindsight, there are so many times when we say to ourselves, “If only I had known then that I would get over it! It wouldn’t have caused so much damage!” Not that the incident has changed. What has changed is the way we perceive it. It is precisely at that particular moment when things get difficult that it is easy to get to the easy way out. Life is a fun rock game!

There are stories of famous people who fell victim to drugs. They do crazy things and create news. They go to expensive rehab centers and come back only to get back into the habit. The young teenager who hates his mother or father, the little boy who is teased by his classmates, the little girl who wants to be a singer but is not encouraged by her parents, the child from the broken family, – the reasons for Getting there for an easy exit are endless.

If they hit their car in a drunken state, run over a small child, abuse a child at home, or mentally torment their family, it is absolutely fine as long as they are in a blissful state! We are interfering with the law of evolution. If Christ had sought marijuana to escape, they would have given us a religion called Christianity. If Gautama Buddha had relaxed in his palace, could we have shared his spiritual wisdom? If Mahatma Gandhi had said “Let the masses rot! I have my drugs!” Would the word ‘Ahimsa’ be known to the world?

Those who created the story were the ones who were willing to face the pain. Pain and anguish are very real to our spiritual growth and evolution. By resorting to meditation and yogic powers we can experience the same sublimity that drugs produce, but this time it is not artificial.

There are stories of how human beings can meditate without a stitch of clothing on their bodies in the sub-zero altitude of the Himalayas. They are in a meditative trance. In fact, they are in a yogic trance. They don’t need drugs! They can in a fraction of a second traverse the universe and look at the past and the future. The power is already within us. Let’s not underestimate our own powers by creating dependencies on everything artificial.

Let’s not damage what has taken billions of years to create.