Art of Living via email
(Mehta Ajay Kapoor)
International Day of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
“When my family asked all the drug stores in my neighborhood not to give me the prescription drug,” says S Pradhan(Name changed on request for anonymity), who used to managed a family pharmaceutical business, “I would duplicate the handwriting of the doctors from my family clinic on the letterhead. I would take it to some drug store 15 km away from my place. I cannot believe I am the same man who, at one point thought, if I got my girlfriend (now wife) into it, we could continue with our addictions peacefully. I had practically tried every drug there was. Some were so rare, I was the first one to try them in Bengal.”
Tucked away in a small nondescript village of Shashtitala on the outskirts of Kolkata is Geeta Bhawan, where Pradhan volunteers his time. On entering through the black, rusty gates, lined by overarching coconut and palm trees on both sides, you become aware of the hectic activity, as men go about their busy lives inside GeetaBhawan. Charts, graphs and newspaper clippings fill up the walls near the reception. The place is full of boisterous laughter. This is easily the happiest rehabilitation center you may have ever walked into. A trip to GeetaBhawan is a good exercise in busting myths about the ubiquitous problem that addiction is today. It is so common that we think, we know everything there is to know about it, given the attention it has often got in the media. And yet, it is only half the story.
Geeta
Bhawan is a deaddiction and research center run by The Art of Living, housing 90-100 patients on a given day. The demographic mix at GeetaBhawan is a reflection of how the addiction problem has secularly crept into our society. You will find Ph.D fellows, lawyers, MBA graduates, businessmen, engineers, media professionals, students, boys taken in from the streets and those sent here by the police, at this center. The center is cosmopolitan in nature, given that patients come here from all over the country, from Berhampur, Chandigarh, Birbhum,Bhopal to Imphal. Not too long ago, the center also housed patients from Hong Kong, US, England, Africa continent including a Prince-in-line.
We are taken into one of the inventory sessions, a session where participants take a stock of progress, their thoughts, commitments and learnings among other things. The session quickly becomes a story telling session as we listen to the stories of 25 odd men who have soldiered on with the addiction problem, that we are told is a chronic but arrestable disease. Here are snippets from some of the interactions. (Names changed)-
S Pradhan, 36-years old, prescription drug addict, Kolkata-
“I cannot believe I am the same man who, at one point thought, if I got my girlfriend(now wife) addicted too, We Would be able to continue with my addictions peacefully. I had practically tried every drug there was (some were so rare, I was the first one to try them in Bengal). I have tried all the tricks possible to keep my addiction. When I would be admitted in hospital, I would sometimes tell the nurse, I am allergic to this medicine, so she would give me the alternative that I was addicted to. I have been to 8 different rehabilitation centers before this and I had been an addict for good 15 years. But here, there is a spiritual component apart from the treatments. There is love, acceptance and infinite patience here. I did not find this anywhere else. When your soul decides to give up something, then dangerous cravings dont affect you. But how many rehabilitation places want to address this core? ”
Pradhan has been clean for better half of the last decade. He volunteers his time at the center.
Sanmit, 28 years old, from Chandigarh is an engineer with a management degree, who got into it due to peer influence. Sanmit's mother is a professional psychologist and father is a successful businessman.
“I saw a close friend die. He had had an overdose. I was towing the same line. One day I stole a dosage from another friend. I knew, this was it and if didn't get any, I would die too. When I got here in Kolkata, I had a neurological and emotional break down. My life revolved around drugs,” Sanmit says.
“I wanted to be the stud in the college. I was trying to experiment. My elder brother drinks, so I would also drink. Today you can find anything you want on the internet. I would read all that and experiment. Most people my age, take to these addictions also because of relationship issues. They feel that these habits are justified by their losses in relationships or other losses. I was no different. I had become numb to emotions after getting into addiction.” Having been sober for the last three years,Sanmit has chosen to come back to serve at the center. “I went home to see my parents. They were very happy to see me clean, happy and healthy. But my heart was here. So I returned. This project is close to my heart. It is like, if you have been burnt, you know how to tell others to keep away from fire,” Sanmit says.
Phang, 40 year old from Manipur, an addict for 20 years and has been to 16 rehabilitation centers before coming here.
“My father was so strict that everyone had to act the way he wanted. I could not express what I wanted or what I wished to do. So for this reason, even if I come from a well to do family, I cannot afford to buy anything for myself. I lost my elder brother to alcohol addiction as well. Both my brothers studied abroad. So I had this anger, why my father did not send me abroad to study.” Phang is under treatment and has been clean of drugs for the last two months.
Kumarendu, in his 50s, is the senior most members at the center
“I used to belong to a good background…I had the personality make up and the traits. It was like a fertile runway for the addiction airplane to land on. After getting into it, isolation was so much that, I did not want to have any human interaction. I turned away, misbehaved with people who came to help me. I would stay at the place of relatives, steal theirs money and leave. But still I was very lucky to have one or two very good friends, one of them was my counsellor. He tried everything in his capacity to counsel me out of my addiction. For me, they toiled and I rejected them too-such was my ego. Eventually mostly everyone abandoned me.” Today Kumarenduis an activist who is helping other addicts through addiction problem.
Prashant Reddy (Berhampur)
“I have a message for youngsters, if you can help me deliver it. The world outside is not all sunshine and rainbows. Now it doesn't matter what I feel but, I am reading a lot of literature related to spirituality and philosophy and doing various practices. But if I was given these in school, I would not have landed here. You don't have to taste the poison to write about it. Information is enough.”
The Beginnings
The center started in 2003-04, inspired and envisioned by The Art of Living Founder, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. One person who has seen the center grow from a 5 patient basic rehabilitation center to a much sought after pan India recovery destination is the Project Director of VVMDRC (VedVigyanMahavidyapeeth Deaddiction and Research Center), GeetaBhawan is, Tapan Banerjee, a 74 year old retired engineer and a globe trotter who settled in Kolkata after being tugged by a spirit of service and inspiration of Sri Sri coupled with an immediate need to build solutions for fighting a mammoth problem of drug abuse in West Bengal and in India at large.
For the context, here is what the center is up against-Apart from the more common substances like heroin, opium, alcohol, cocaine and LCD, India is also the global source of many illegal and dangerous drugs and substances like amphetamines, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. Many others have made way into the Indian markets through the OTC or over-the-counter pharma market route as well. The problem is rampant among children equally. Every year, nearly 20 million children get into tobacco addiction. India unofficially has 5 million heroin addicts. Drugs industry is the third most flourishing business in the world. Every 3 minutes, a person dies of an addiction related problem in the world.
“If you close your eyes to pray, before you complete your prayer, one person dies of addiction,” says Banerjee. The problem has got more complicated as many addicts are now going experimental with drugs, while mixing the traditional ones with synthetic chemicals that produces severe neurological and physiological withdrawal on discontinuing them, some leading to death. The problem is so bad that, for lack of money, children have been taught to sniff the burnt tale of lizards that creates a feeling of light headedness among them, Banerjee says.
As thousands of mom and pop rehabilitation centers mushroom all over the country to get into the business of de addiction, what is drawing people from all over the country to GeetaBhawan? The center does not advertise but goodwill and word of mouth seems to have done the thing, according to Banerjee.
“There are many places, where the patients are known to be actually physically abused or treated badly, especially during the detoxification phase when patients go through severe withdrawal symptoms. Family members say, that is one fear,” says Banerjee, “The families heard about us from someone who had been here. Once they knew it is Art of Living, then that confidence was there because everyone knows Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji and if you are working under him, you should not be doing a wrong thing and that is also a big responsibility for us.”
Family members of the patients' share that the transformation is not just in terms of having arrested the habit but also change of temperament.
“I had assumed, I had lost everything,” says Arpita(name changed), wifeof Shantanu(name changed)who got treated here last year, “His rage was filthyand uncontrolled under the influence of alcohol. He would sleep without taking a shower or do whatever he felt like impulsively. He ruined all family relationships. I would dread him coming back home. ”
After the rigorous treatment, Shantanu has been clean for a year now, after having been an addict for six years, but that isArpita's least of the joys. “He is rebuilding what he had destroyed, including relationships. He used to be a very loving and responsible person before he got into addiction. Human being does not remain a human being under the influence of substance. I don't blame him for what happened. I am very happy today.”
Many who come in as patients have stayed back to serve full time or part time here. “It is a system that works here, not an individual,” Banerjee says, “We have got a lot of people working, who have come out of addiction here and they want to serve for some time here. We utilize their services also. They know what their suffering was, so they can help motivate and educate others. Importantly, they find warmth and total acceptance here. Here perhaps, there are just 2 people with no addiction background.” Banerjee also runsRupayan, a de addiction center for street children, where children caught in the vicious circle of drugs selling and consumption are brought in, treated out of addiction and then given a formal education with co-curricular training. Some of their artwork adorns the walls of Banerjee's office.
GeetaBhawan, on the other hand, runs a four-month intense residential deaddiction course based on a 20 Point Program, taking patients through the entire process of realization, building strength, coping and throwing light on practicality of human values. What sets this center apart from others is its emphasis on holistic healing and not just medical or counselling based programs. When a patient first comes in, he goes through the process of detoxification for 5-15 days. The center has specially trained nurses and super specialist doctors round the clock to take care of them during this phase, which is very vital for the recovery process. During the detoxification, patients go through physical, mental and spiritual detoxification, which fortifies the process of recovery. Ayurvedic treatment by expert therapists trained at The Art of Living International Center, Bangalore, is part of the detoxification. After detoxification, the patients are sent to the rehabilitation center. Rehabilitation runs from morning 6 AM to 10-10.30 in the night including some rest in the day. Once in the rehabilitation, they are taught Art of Living's SudarshanKriya, Yoga, meditation. It is this unusual mix of treatment that puts the center at the top of the charts when it comes to recovery rate. While the national average is a 3% recovery, the center boasts of a 50% recovery rate. Even the ones who do relapse, end up coming back to GeetaBhawan. It has a separate relapse module for them, along with a robust follow up program.
“We have knowledge and spiritual sessions everyday,” Banerjee says,”This gives them a depth of understanding and an experience they have never been exposed to before. ” Apart from treatment part of the problem, the center is focused on running multiple awareness programs throughout the city and state to educate people on the symptoms and caveats about substance abuse. As we speak, the center is holding a training session for the nurses across hospitals in the state, so that patients who come in with the drug problem are treated with particular care apart from just medical attention.
It is the warmth and sense of sharing inculcated through spirituality that bonds have grown stronger overtime. It is less of an enterprise and more of a healing and happiness center dedicated to the addiction disorder.
A former rickshaw puller, who was one of the first addicts to be taken in at the center, has made the center his home. He works full time at the GeetaBhawan's Ayurveda center. “From his looks, it is hard to find out his real age. We got him new set of teeth to replace the old set that was destroyed from all the substance abuse. Now we are looking for a bride for him. He works tirelessly for us.”
