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Namah Vol. 28, Issue 1, 24th April 2020

spiritual and psycho-pathological elements of Lenin but after some years, took out that
are concurrently manifest as the following painting and put two doves on Lenin’s
case study shows. Here the subject not only shoulders! His poetry camouflaged his
suffers from delusions but is also a creative delusional self-references in such a way that
artist and simultaneously a sincere spiritual only those who knew him understood the
aspirant. hidden meaning. He was an avid viewer of
Hollywood movies of the 1960s and 1970s,
Vignette and much to the delight of the votaries
of Bleuler’s loosening of associations (a
A youngster was exceptionally talented in characteristic of schizophrenia where illogical
multiple modalities. He painted exquisitely, associations are made), he would discover
played cricket with sophistication, was an impossible similarities. For example, he
amazing flautist, developed marked percussion declared a renowned Indian film director
skills, wrote poetry with an intellectual flair, as a cheat as the movement of a ripple in
and practis=ed hathayoga exercises together a lake just prior to the blooming of a lotus
with meditative sessions. Sometime in his late was copied from a similar ripple in the sand
thirties, around 1970, he developed schizophrenic of Sahara desert just before a skeletal hand
symptoms at a time when his family lost its affluent jutted out in a Hollywood film!
stature due to a mismanagement of funds. He
had a delusional idea that Indian politicians All along, he practiced his spirituality. He
deposited black money in Swiss banks, which harboured some queer persecutory ideas
legitimately should have been distributed about an occultist with whom he was once
among the citizens of the country. This idea acquainted. Yet his core spiritual insight was
became so compelling that in the late 1970s, intact and he meticulously performed his
he stopped going to his office for he felt the aasanas (yogic postures in hathayoga) till his
wrongdoing should be corrected. (It is eighties. It is very difficult for anyone with
interesting that the Indian Parliamentary even a good physique to practice intricate
election in 2014 was mainly fought around the aasanas (including the posture of meditating
issue of illegal money being stashed in Swiss while standing on one’s head) but his deep
banks that needed retrieval for distribution spiritual conviction carried him through.
in the country). In his mid-fifties, he suddenly decided to
marry in order to have someone to look after
Subsequently, after a gap of nearly a decade, him in old age! He had a marriage, which
he started going to the office again when clicked as his wife regarded his spiritual
he was put on a very light dose of anti- perspective with awe and respect while
psychotic medication. His dosage was kept choosing to downplay his delusional ideas.
at a minimum so as not to interfere with His interpersonal relations also remained
his creativity, for he pursued his paintings amicable. Due to his sterling qualities, people
with great enthusiasm up to his mid-70s. chose to ignore his mental aberrations. To an
There were, of course, certain pictures that average person who knew him, his spiritual
he modified in accordance with his mental perspective was always more important than
state. For example, he drew a splendid portrait his crazy ideas.

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