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Overcoming depression with number chant

I have been doing spiritual practice under the guidance of His Holiness Dr. Athavale since 1991. From the year 2000 onwards, I started facing a lot of physical and mental difficulties. My family life too was adversely affected.

I got to know from His Holiness Dr. Athavale that the cause of the increased problems was due to ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies, etc.). In November 2004, I suffered from severe depression due to a number of difficulties that my family was facing. My mind was inundated with thoughts about the difficulties and it was preventing me from doing anything.

I tried to at least chant the Name of God and pray for strength, but due to the depression my mind was too muddled and this was preventing me from doing so. Along with the depression, I experienced an immense amount of fatigue.

I consulted a psychiatrist and started anti-depressant therapy as per her advice. As there was no response to medicines even after two weeks, I was worried. The non-response to conventional anti-depressant medication along with my history of distress by ghosts alerted me to the possibility of my depression being the handiwork of ghosts.

Through His Holiness Dr. Athavale, I had come to know about the number chants for symptoms of mental illness. In my despair that the medication was not working and I could not concentrate on the lengthy deity Name chants, I remembered about the number chants. I looked up the list of chants according to symptoms and started chanting the number 59, which is the specific number chant for depression. I repeated this number almost continuously. The very next day, I experienced some relief. This was a confirmation of the diagnosis of the root cause of my depression. Encouraged by this, I persevered chanting the number chant with faith for as much time as possible. Within 4-5 days, I was relieved of most of my depression. It seemed like a big weight had been lifted from my mind and I was also able to think more clearly.