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sauterelle

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  1. It is right that there is a connection in shaivism where Lord Shiva is known as the protector of the cannabis plant and said to constantly be high on charas or ganja or bhang, which are the three intoxifying products of cannabis widely used in India. I did a study on this subject for my degree at the university of Oslo (can be found at http://homefree.freewave.no/~s1331172/ - unfortunately for most of the world written in norwegian), and as a part of this I was staying for six months in Varanasi interviewing the monks (sadhus) of different shaiva-traditions on their view on the connection between Lord Shiva and cannabis. So even though orthodox hindus tend to deny this fact, a lot of sadhus use cannabis. Of course you can argue that their use of cannabis have nothing to do with religion, but is just normal drug abuse, and partly I would agree that this is the case. But the main reason why Shiva has been connected to cannabis is because this drug in a way favours meditation and experience of God. I was also meeting a yogi in Varanasi who didn´t use any drugs; not even tea; he was practising pranayama and japa and dhyan to get the union with Shiva. But once, during Shivaratri, he had tasted some bhang who was presented and he compared the feeling he got from this to the feeling from his dhyan. But still he warned against using drugs, and the reason was according to him that it keeps you attatched to prithivi; the Earth. If you are depending on a drug to experience God´s presence, you will always come down again, and then you have to deal with all the earthly stuff in relation to that; getting money, buying drugs etc. And the idea in yoga is the non-attatchment which is underlying the meditation and favouring this; opening for the union of your self and God. I have had intense religious experiences under the influence of cannabis and other drugs. But the more the time have gone I have shifted into regarding the use of these substances as a hindrance in the long run. So now I mostly stay away from cannabis and stick to drug-free yoga. The thing also with cannabis-use (at least in Europe; I don´t know in USA where they seem to smoke mostly pot) is the mixing with tobacco, and the addiction to this drug and the pollution of your body. When I smoke I get a feeling of the smoke and tar clogging up my body, and it definitely makes the nadis impure and hinder the flow of prana. I definitely agree with you on what you say about the meditational qualities of cannabis, and I have also experienced that it have a muscle-relaxing effect which is very good when doing yogasanas. So if you feel like smoking and meditating, you can continue knowing that you fit into a long tradition both inside shaivism/shaktism as well as some mystic branches of Islam; sufi-sects as Qalandaris, Malangis and others.
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