INTOXICANTS

official source: Shabda Cayanika' Part 26

cross-references: Prout in a Nutshell Part 21none

this version: is the printed Prout in a Nutshell Part 21, 1st edition, version  	(spelling mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most  	up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition.

      Gur'oteanna. Gur'oteanna means "liquor" or "alcoholic beverages made from fermented molasses." If you walk by some sugar mills in India, you will sometimes smell a particular type of molasses. This type of molasses is used to make liquor in government controlled distilleries. Mrtasainjiivanii sura' and mrtasainjiivanii sudha' [varieties of wine which make a sick person well] are also prepared in such factories. In my youth, I observed that these distilleries were often located beside sugar mills in North Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. However, as molasses is valuable as a food, it is undesirable to use it in the preparation of liquor, although it may be used to manufacture alcohol for use in medicines.

      Fermented rice gruel can also be used to make a kind of rice wine, although this is less intoxicating than wine or date wine. Besides its use as a liquor, fermented rice gruel has medicinal value. It induces sleep, sometimes aids digestion, and removes physical weakness to some extent in pregnant women. Wine or date wine can sometimes relieve irregular kidney functions. When wine ferments it is transformed into vinegar, loosing its intoxicating power and developing a few sentient qualities. The sediment from the production of wine is called "yeast" and is particularly useful in the bakery industry. When a pregnant woman is on the verge of death because of labour pains, she may survive if she is administered dra'ks'a' ris'ta', a kind of wine, mixed with the sugar of gurichi [an Indian variety of maple syrup]. If dra'ks'a' ris'ta' is not available, then mrtasainjiivaniijabaii [a type of wine which makes a sick person well] can be used.

      Although country rice wine is considered to be the cheapest liquor available in India, liquor made from barley pulp is cheaper. Country rice wine has done tremendous harm to the rural population of Bengal. Many tribals and people from the economically backward classes have become poverty-stricken under the spell of country liquor. It disturbs the peace of their families by causing unnecessary quarrels in the home and eventually brings about their degradation.

      State control alone over the preparation and distribution of alcohol is not enough. Strict social controls are also required. In fact, both the state and the society will have to work hard in this regard. The poisonous nicotine in tobacco creates cancerous ulcers in various parts of the body; wine is enormously harmful for the liver, and opium destroys vitality. Intoxicated by opium, people sit idle and doze off. Hemp destroys general intelligence and the faculty of understanding. None of these intoxicants are good for human beings. The use of wine should be restricted in the name of religion or on any other pretext. No one should drink liquor without the permission of a physician, and only then as a medicine. A physician should prescribe liquor only after securing the written approval of another doctor.

      As a result of taking liquor, twenty percent of the latent potentialities in a student is destroyed. Extreme intoxication leads to inertness. Youths lose their dynamism, and their spiritedness disappears. In such a state, the nerve cells cannot be fully utilized.

      I request those who use wine as part of their religious rituals to desist from this practice if there is no recognized alternative. In certain Tantric practices, there is a provision that the water from a dry coconut can be left in a brass pot for some time and used as an alterntive to liquor. In such cases, coconut water should be used instead of liquor.

      People practise meditation to make their intellect and intuition sharper and to achieve greater expansion. The use of liquor destroys these faculties and is detrimental to the all-round development of human beings. Alcohol destroys the glands, sub-glands, nerves and nerve cells in the human body. If one consumes alcohol, it is partly ejected from the body through perspiration, partly through defecation and partly through urination. Poisonous nicotine from tobacco is ejected in a similar manner after harming the body in various ways. This is why the perspiration, faeces and urine of those who are intoxicated by liquor smell very bad. If a drunkard or a heavy smoker enters a room, one can easily understand that he or she is addicted to intoxicants.

      When a person smokes tobacco through a hooka, the tobacco smoke is mixed with the water in the hooka so it is slightly less harmful for the body, but this does not mean that it is harmless. You must have noticed that after a hooka has been used, the water is a balckish yellow colour. Those who smoke bidis [indigenous Indian cigarettes] and cigarettes -- particularly cigarettes -- develop a reddish yellow layer of nicotine on the lining of their lungs, and in many cases the lungs also get carbonated. Lungs which have been damaged by smoking are very vulnerable to cancer.

      If someone indulges in chewing tobacco, when the tobacco comes in contact with the tongue it creates an unpleasant sensation, and consequently the person starts spitting repeatedly. This clearly indicates that chewing tobacco is detrimental to health. Dohta and jarda' used in India with betel leaves are also types of small tobacco leaves.

      It is desirable that people keep themselves free from intoxicants and stimulants and move steadily towards the higher realms of physical, mental and spiritual development through all possible ways.

      As stimulants, tea, coffee, and cocoa are less harmful. Of these three, cocoa has some food value. Tea has little food value. It causes temporary stimulation, decreases the need for sleep and lessens the digestive capacity of the body. Coffee also has the same effects, but as a stimulant it is more powerful than tea. Coffee has slightly more food value than tea. The excessive use of tea is almost poisonous. If tea that has already been used is boiled again, it will have a poisonous effect on the body. The name of the poison contained in tea is "tannic acid". In ancient India, ordinary people were not acquainted with tea. Only itinerant monks, who crossed intractable mountains and lived in remote caves, would take tea by extracting the juice from certain leaves.

27 September 1990, Calcutta
Shabda Cayanika' Part 26