Srila Prabhupada - "Psychiatrists are humbug, all humbug. They cannot help. Best thing is to be engaged in continuously chanting and hearing Sankirtana, that will cure anyone of mental disease" . (Prabhupada. "Letter to Upendra". February 19, 1972)
I was there in Melbourne when Upendra got that letter, it was regarding a devotees wife who was in the local mental asylam. We immediatly went and got her out and sat her in the Temple and told her to continuosly chant Hare Krishna, within three hours she was gone never to be seen again.
Psychiatrists may have been humug in 1972 as Prabhupada says but today in 2011 they are certainly NOT humbug.
Enormous advancement has been made with different medications that lift serotonin level to a normal state in those with low serotonin. Having a broken mind is like having a broken leg, only a fundamentalist fanatic would believe the chanting of Hare Krishna can fix a broken leg - the same goes with brain substance.
The next generation in ISKCON must try to understand mental health side by side with chanting Hare Krishna.
Mental illness is one of the most neglected activities in ISKCON. It is something you cannot just 'snap out of' or be told by other devotees 'you’re in Maya prabhooo, snap out it and just chant Hare Krishna. Just like one needs a caste for a broken leg, many devotees need medication to help repair damaged brain cells
Keep the body healthy by 'any means' so that we can chant Hare Krishna and do some service, for in the end as the material body breaks up during the death experience, it is only the chanting of Hare Krishna that will save the soul.
Many devotees take Prabhupada's comments and apply them to all time and place and in most cases they are right.
However, in some cases like mental illness, there has been advancements made that were not available in Prabhupada's day and therefore the letter to Upendra CANNOT apply to today’s world. This is just stating the fact.
