An e-devotee in Edmonton Canada asks Gurudeva what mental illness is. Gurudeva, in a short answer, explains the Hindu perspective that mental illness is seen generally as a congestion of the vasanas, the memory patterns of the mind connected to the emotion that created those memory patterns.

Unedited Transcript:

A cyberspace question from Edmonton, Canada. Wondering what is mental illness? Can You explain it from a Hindu perspective?

When people have experiences and even thoughts and fears that they can't rationalize or handle, they don't feel very good inside and it is termed in English "mental illness." We would look at it as a congestion of the vasanas, the memory patterns of the mind connected to the emotion that created those memory patterns. But whatever the name given it's very real to the individual that's experiencing it.