Some
mediation practitioner believe that meditation with sober mind is
sometime a little more difficult so marijuana is immensely helpful; I am not
agreeing that someone need to smoke marijuana in order to be in the present
state of mind and for spiritual experience. Marijuana and other inebriants only
provide further hurdle to seeing clarity. Those who smoke marijuana with that
motive than they are escapist, marijuana could artificially shift our focus
toward the immediate moment but it is not permanent, it is just a
hallucination. Do you want to rely on marijuana for supreme understanding or do
you want to experience these state within your sober self?
What
do you try to achieve when you practice meditation? The answer could be
balancing the physical and mental state to tune with cosmic energy. Meditation
is best to practice when the mind is calm and free of anxiety, pressure and
disturbance or vice versa. I am not here to attach any sort of spiritual
connotation; meditation is entirely about mental state of mind, attaching
spiritual dogma could be a further delusion.
Marijuana
is the second most commonly smoke substance after tobacco, Marijuana possession
and farming was lawful in Nepal before July 16, 1973, at present possession,
cultivation, transportation, dealing and selling is prohibited, however it is
made available locally in certain cities of Nepal, under the government
regulation & it is sold in shops in the form of ‘Bhang’ for observance of
Hindu rites & rituals. Time and again news is appearing about destroying
marijuana farms and arrest on transportation but Marijuana farming is never
stopped despite of illegal status. The common available species of marijuana
includes in Nepal are temple balls and Royal Nepalese finger. There are three
types of cannabis used in Nepal. The first is Bhang, consists of the leaves and
plant tops of the marijuana plant. It is usually consumed as an infusion in
beverage form and varies in strength according to how
much cannabis is used in the preparation. The second is Ganja,
consisting of the leaves and the plant tops for smoking and third is Charas,
consists of the resinous buds or extracted resin from the leaves of the
marijuana plant.
Bhang or
Ganja is associated with worship of the Hindu deity Shiva, Bhang is offered
to Shiva images, especially on Shivratri festival. This practice is
particularly witnessed at temples of Pashupatinath, Benares, Baidyanath
and Tarakeswar. Shiva devotees and Yogi consume the Bhang as a Prasad
(offering) after the ritual and ceremony. They believe that consuming Bhang
enable the yogis to overcome the miseries of the body & helpful
to enter the state of trance in meditation. According to the Vedas, when the
cosmic ocean was churned by the Gods and the demons for acquiring the Amrit (nectar),
a drop of the nectar fell on earth and plant sprouted out from the drop and the
drink made from the leaves of the plant became a popular. Marijuana is
mentioned in Rig Veda, Atharva Veda, Ayurveda and many other ancient Hindu
texts.
Marijuana
has great medicine values, Lord Shiva was taking Bhang which has scientific
reason, Lord Shiva is a great Yogi and he is always in the mountains for the
meditation. Mountains are really cold and in order to survive in this extreme
weather he needs some medication so he uses Bhang as a substitute to calm his
nerves to survive the extreme weather. Lord Shiva is always in deep meditation;
it is believe that Bhang helps him to stay in a state of complete bliss and
concentrate. This is the reason why most of the Sadhus and Nagababa smoke
marijuana so that they can reach in a blissful state of mind and body as Shiva.
Thousands
of years ago, some of the uses of Bhang were discovered by ancient Hindu yogis
for Dyspepsia, Nervous disorders, severe pain, Insomnia, Dysentery, Gonorrhea,
Loss of appetite because of illness and even poisoning. It is remarkable that
our ancient Sadhu were able to learn so much that western scientists are
discovering now that Bhang is one of the most effective natural medicines
available to man. Cannabis is mentioned as a medicinal and magical plant as
well as a “sacred grass” in the Atharva Veda which releases us from anxiety and
refers to hemp as a “source of happiness”, “joy-giver” and “liberator”.
Many
researchers have been conducted on Marijuana, Expert and doctors say that
Marijuana is an herb which contains chemical called cannabinoids that affect
the central nervous system; it stimulates an area of the brain called the
pineal gland. Some people used Marijuana for recreationally to create a sense
of well being or to alter the senses and some marijuana practitioner and
health expert says that marijuana is good for leprosy, obesity, Nausea,
appetite stimulation, cancer, urinary tract infections, anorexia associated
with weight loss in AIDS patient.
Marijuana
users who have taken large doses of the drug may experience an acute psychosis,
which includes hallucinations, delusions, and a loss of the sense of personal
identity. Marijuana may create respiratory problem and lungs cancer due to its
mixture of different ingredient as cigarette has, smoking cigarettes is bad and
combining cigarettes and other drugs with marijuana can amplify this effect. It
not only leads to serious health consequence rather several social and
economical consequences as well. Limited evidence suggests that a person's risk
of heart attack during the first hour after smoking because within a few
minutes of inhaling marijuana, an individual's heart rate speeds up, the
bronchial passages relax and become enlarged, and blood vessels in the eyes
expand, making the eyes look red. Current marijuana users include adults from
the baby boomer generation, who may have other cardiovascular risks that may
increase their vulnerability.
When
we look around the world scenario on the use of Marijuana, Uruguay is the first
nation to approve marijuana legalization and regulation. Since 1996 in USA,
nearly half the states have allowed medical use of marijuana despite federal
laws banning it, and some states are considering following the lead of
Washington state and Colorado in legalizing recreational use. Nethrland in the
late 1970s began allowing coffee shops to sell marijuana, which remains
technically illegal. Since 2012 the federal government has clamped down,
briefly requiring people to obtain a weed pass to buy cannabis and banning
sales to tourists. The marijuana legalization experiments underway, Uruguay
have prompted or accelerated discussion about changing pot laws in many
nations, and activists say momentum is building in advance of a special United
Nations convention on drugs scheduled for 2016.
Since
couples of decades America was “War on Drugs” and force Nepal to follow their
footstep but now they themselves have enacted medical cannabis programs in
different fourteen states. Looking at growing demand of Cannabis around the
world, Government of Nepal should prepare for new law on Cannabis farming
program which may support economic, political and social change in Nepal. The
Cannabis farming could be useful for medical proposes side by side it is useful
for fiber production in textiles uses. The cannabis farming will provide
additional employment opportunity to the farmers, Nepal is a potential land for
Cannabis farming with appropriate environment, and Nation will be benefited
exporting Cannabis around the world if it is legalized.
This
article is prepared with my own experience of meditation and with the support
of secondary data for the purpose of education which should not be used for
diagnosis or to guide treatment without the opinion of a heath expert.
By
Giri Bahadur Sunar
The
author is a sociologist, Meditation Practitioner,can be reached at girithejorba@gmail.com
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