Premanand Ji Maharaj on depression and a heavy heart

Devotees ask whether bhakti can help with depression. His answer holds two things together, and both matter.

Premanand Ji Maharaj seated calmly before a floral backdrop

In short

  • He speaks about heaviness of heart often, and gently.
  • He tells people to keep chanting even when nothing is felt.
  • He also sends people to doctors.
  • He has never treated illness as a failure of faith.

Both at once

He speaks about a heavy heart often and gently. He tells people to keep chanting even when nothing is felt, because feeling is not the measure. And he sends people to doctors.

When you are ill, go to the doctor. Take the name alongside.

Feeling is not the measure

Depression often makes practice feel empty. In his teaching that does not mean it has failed: practice done without emotion still counts, and practice abandoned because of no emotion does not. The dry stretch is part of the road.

Do not stay alone with it

To devotees who feel alone he says the name is with them, and he also tells them, practically, to sit in satsang: company changes the mind faster than resolve does. Being with people is part of the answer, not a distraction from it.

Treatment comes first

Nothing here is a reason to stop treatment or delay seeing a professional. He has long-standing kidney illness himself and speaks about it openly. If you are in crisis, contact a doctor or a helpline in your country today.

Where this comes from

Everything on this page is drawn from what this site records of his public satsang on the questions page and the teachings page. It summarises his position; it does not quote him word for word.

This is a fan website, not the official site of Shri Hit Radha Keli Kunj. The article summarises what he teaches in public satsang; it does not quote him. If something here is wrong, tell us and it is corrected the same week.

Quick answers

Questions people ask about this

Can bhakti help with depression?

He speaks about it gently and tells people to keep chanting even when nothing is felt. He also sends people to doctors and has never treated illness as a failure of faith.

Should I stop medicine and only chant?

No. Take your treatment and chant alongside it.

Why do I feel nothing when I chant?

In his teaching, feeling is not the measure. Practice without emotion still counts.

What else does he suggest?

Company: sitting in satsang, because company changes the mind faster than resolve does.

Keep reading