Most people want to be happy and healthy, yet many people continue to make choices that lead to self-inflicted sorrows and diseases. Worldwide, one of the biggest causes of unhappiness is the epidemic of addictions to alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs ~ primarily ganja (also called pot/weed/marijuana) ~ which I will collectively refer to in this blog as “substances.”

For those of you who are really longing for true health and happiness, please take a moment now to close your eyes, breathe, and open your mind. Once you feel openness in your mind, read the following information and see if it resonates for you.

All addictions to harmful substances stem from a lack of self-love. Once you really, truly begin to love yourself, you experience your whole being, including your physical body, as a temple for your soul. When you really love yourself, you will no longer choose to put harmful substances into your body. Alcohol, tobacco, ganja, and other substances harm the physical body.

In Kundalini: An Occult Experience, by G.S. Arundale, the author writes: “It is clear that nicotine and alcohol definitely act in some way upon Kundalini, the former (nicotine) interposing a barrier between the general force of Kundalini and its operation in the various vehicles of the individual concerned, while the latter (alcohol) seems to act as a direct stimulant, stirring the Force in wrong directions, or in some way wrongly intensifying it, and in any case doing these things in connection with an individual far from ready for Fire-development. All narcotics, drugs, stimulants clog the system and interpose a deadening miasma between the individual and all larger consciousness.” (Kundalini: An Occult Experience, by G.S. Arundale, The Theosophical Publishing House, Madras, India, 1974.)

(Kundalini is the serpent-like fire energy that lies coiled at the base of the spine until it rises up through the chakras (energy centers in the subtle body) in a process that awakens us to our connection with the Divine.)

It has been 2 ½ years since I quit drinking alcohol. I no longer even have a glass of wine with dinner, because I do not like how alcohol makes my energies feel so tweaked. Once I began doing regular, daily spiritual practices and I became more sensitive to energies, I began to really like how my own energies feel, without any alterations. I like how present I feel now that I no longer put mind-altering substances into my temple body. (If you would like to begin doing regular spiritual practices yourself, check out my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living.)

Spiritual practices require effort and discipline, and the results are definitely worth the work. I like the way Bhagavan Das puts it in his book, It’s Here Now (Are You?): “In every culture people have always wanted to change their consciousness. And people will always find a way. You can’t stop them. You can try – you can put them in jail. Still, people will alter their consciousness in any way they can. Fortunately, there are many safer ways to raise your consciousness than experimenting with drugs, and most gurus in India prefer more conservative routes. Doing your meditation, japa, and hatha-yoga is a slower path, but the effects are more lasting, and you run less risk of frying your nervous system. Without a doubt, self-discipline pays for itself in the end.” (It’s Here Now (Are You?), by Bhagavan Das, Broadway Books, New York, 1997.)

Another positive aspect to giving up harmful substances is that you can use the money saved to buy yourself natural healing remedies and treatments, and you can give something to those less fortunate than yourself. My Guru Ammachi, the hugging saint, often encourages people to spend less on personal luxuries and to donate that extra money to help others. In Lead Us to Purity, a book of speeches given by Amma, she says the following to a crowd gathered around her in India: “Charity is essential in the life of a householder… The money we overspend on food and clothing would be enough to serve countless people. Think of how much money we are wasting now. Nowadays many people think they’re tough only if they smoke cigarettes, that smoking is a sign of masculinity. There are also those who think smoking is a sign of intelligence… True intellectuals are those who love others just as much as they love themselves. It is written on the cigarette package itself that smoking is hazardous to your health. If people smoke even after reading that, should they be called intellectual or idiotic? The money smokers spend in a month is enough to alleviate the poverty in India.”

Amma continues with this point in another speech: “Think of the torrential rain we’ve had in the recent months. There are thousands of people around us who have stayed awake under leaking roofs all through the rainy nights, wondering when their huts will collapse. When you raise your alcohol glasses, remember those people. With the money that we waste every month, we could get their roofs thatched. Then those people could sleep comfortably at night.” (Lead Us to Purity: A Selection of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi’s Speeches 1990-1999, Compiled by Swami Jnanamritananda, Mata Amritanandamayi Center, 2007.)

(Amma’s charitable organizations, now collectively called Embracing the World, have already constructed more than 40,000 homes across India. To donate to this and many other wonderful projects, go to www.amma.org.)

The thing is, alcohol, tobacco, and other substances interfere with spiritual purification and with the body’s natural healing processes. The way to free yourself from these addictive substances is to set the intention to really love yourself, and then choose the path that will lead you to that self-love. Once you dedicate yourself to really loving yourself, the way will open up for you.

Regular, daily spiritual practices help develop self-love. The spiritual practice that has helped me the most in loving myself more fully is cultivating the witness. The Witness Consciousness is that part of ourselves that objectively watches everything we are. Once we begin to witness, allow, and accept all parts of ourselves, then we begin to love ourselves unconditionally. (I describe the practice of cultivating the witness in my new book, Radiance Rising: Spiritual Practices for Daily Living.)

After doing regular, daily spiritual practices for a while, the readiness and the willingness to give up the substances will spontaneously arise. As a Reiki practitioner, I am ready and willing to send distance Reiki healings to support anyone who is ready and willing to quit alcohol, tobacco, and other harmful substances. Reiki is a gentle, hands-on energy healing system, but the healing energy can also be sent to people at a distance. (Reiki is pronounced “Ray-key.”)

So, when you are ready, consider taking the Teja Challenge: you give up alcohol, tobacco, ganja, and other harmful substances for a one-year period, and I will send you Reiki healing energy daily for that year. To begin the Teja Challenge, go to the Contact page of this website and send me an email saying that you are ready to take the Teja Challenge. I will reply with a letter of encouragement and natural healing ideas, and I will request that you email me back a photo of yourself. I will then send you the Reiki healing energy daily for that year, during which time we will correspond by email as needed. I am offering this Teja Challenge by donation. (There is a donate button on the Store page of this website, and 10% of every sale and donation on this website goes to Amma’s charitable organizations.) Please consider what it means to you, and then donate accordingly.

I have one last quote to share on this topic, from Essential Reiki, by Diane Stein: “Many healers believe, as I do, that a smoker or recreational drug-user can never be a fully clear channel for Reiki, nor can an abuser of alcohol. Never do healing when under the influence of alcohol or drugs. These states at any time invite in negative entities and attachments unwelcome in healing. They are wholly negative for the healer…. If you wish to quit smoking or break addictions to alcohol or drugs, Reiki… is a powerful self-healing tool. Remember that as a Reiki practitioner, you are a sacred channel for the life force energy…” (Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art, by Diane Stein, The Crossing Press, Inc., Freedom, CA, 1995.)

Cheers to good health and happiness for all! For those of you who are ready and willing to renounce addictive substances for a year, I look forward to meeting you on the Teja Challenge.

May all beings everywhere know Peace and Happpiness.

Om Shanti (Peace),

Yogini Tejaswini

Sunlight on fabric photo by Teja Shankara.