Shiva and the Chilum Mantra

He is invoked before taking the first puff by shouting one of many chilam-mantras:

"Alakh!"; "Bam Bam Bholanath!"; "Bom Shiva!"

Mantra for offering ganja to Balarama:

Baladev Baladev Hara Hara Ganja.

Other: "Om Shiva Shankara Hari Hari Ganga!"

In India, the Aghora sect of Tantra and a significant section of Shaivite Tantrics ritually partake of marijuana as part of their sadhana (spiritual exercise).

"With the first drag, Shiva (a Hindu deity) made the sky. With the second, he made the earth and with the third he made this world." This, according to Dr Molly Kaushal, research officer at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi, is how the Gaddi tribals of the northern Indian hill state of Himachal Pradesh describe he act of Creation. The 'drag' here, of course, refers to a puff of cannabis.

As she tells me this, an excited Madhusudan Baul, a folk singer from the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, chips in: "These three puffs are extremely important. There is a proper ritual involved in taking them. There should be a gap of at least 90 seconds between each puff. And the high that you reach after three puffs is the climax. No further smoking will make any difference."

And what does he feel when he is on such a high? Madhusudan closes his eyes in bliss as he recalls: "We all know that God resides everywhere. But we see Him in bits and pieces. Cannabis makes me see God in His entirety. It is a sight of such unalloyed joy that tears well up in my eyes."

Neem Karoli Baba forwarded a similar view when he was asked by one of his disciples whether taking hashish helps spiritual development. "You should smoke hashish like Lord Shiva," he said, "only to be with God. But smoking hashish is not necessary to reach God. The effect only lasts a short while. Devotion to God is an addiction that lasts all the time."

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