Srila Prabhupada looked at the depressed looking man sitting before him. "So, what can I do for you?"

Amogha had so far been unsuccessful in finding any students of philosophy to talk with Prabhupada. The best he could come up with was a psychiatrist, who arrived that night at around 8.30. Srila Prabhupada looked at the depressed looking man sitting before him. ?So, what can I do for you?? ?I have no question,? the man replied. Prabhupada turned to Amogha for confirmation. ?He has no question?? Amogha verified that this was true. ?Then what shall I say?? Amogha said he didn?t know, but added that the man had read Bhagavad-gita As It Is. Amogha, trying to prompt the conversation, asked the man whether he had any questions about the book, or whether he had understood it. The man, however, his head drooping forward, looked at Srila Prabhupada over the top of his spectacles and simply answered, ?I just wished to meet you?. Prabhupada decided to give the Vedic perspective on psychiatry. ?Our viewpoint is that in the material world, everyone requires treatment. Everyone is mentally diseased, and therefore everyone is unhappy. Anyone who has no sense of God consciousness, he is diseased mentally. The whole Krishna consciousness movement is for the mass treatment of the materialistic persons who are mentally diseased.? Prabhupada told an amusing story to illustrate the point. ?In India there was a case. A man committed murder, and his lawyer pleaded that he was mad at that time. We also accept that unless one becomes mad, one cannot commit murder or suicide. So the civil surgeon was brought to give evidence whether the man was actually mad. The civil surgeon said that: ?So far my experience is concerned?I have treated so many persons?in my opinion everyone is mad. So, if on account of madness one should be excused from the law, then it is Your Honour?s discretion, but so far I have studied, more or less, everyone is mad.?? ?Similarly,? Prabhupada continued, ?our study is that unless one is mad, he cannot remain in this material world. So everyone is mentally diseased, and they are concocting different ideas that are overlapping?my idea, your idea. Therefore there is clash, unhappiness, violence, individually, socially, family-wise, nation-wise. This is going on. Therefore everyone requires a psychiatrist?s treatment. And the best treatment is to induce a person to become Krishna conscious. Then everything will be alright. Otherwise, he is basically a madman.? Prabhupada described a typical example of madness?a ghostly-haunted man. Because a ghost has no gross body, Prabhupada explained, but only a subtle one made of mind, intelligence and ego, ?he can go ten miles away, immediately.? Sometimes, such a ghost enters a man?s body to enjoy and takes it over. In that way, the ghost acts through that person?s body. Subsequently, the person forgets himself and speaks and walks according to the direction of the ghost. ?He talks nonsense. Suppose his father comes before him. He calls him ill names, and talks nonsense. This is called a ghostly-haunted man.? The psychiatrist sat in silence. After a short time, Prabhupada brought the conversation to a close. The man took a little prasadam and left. Later, the devotees asked Srila Prabhupada why he had brought up the topic of ghosts. Prabhupada smiled. ?Indirectly,? he said, ?I told him he was possessed by a ghost.?