Curing Mental Aloholics 🍷

Today's reading at Self Realization Fellowship in Pukalani was from Yogananda's book Man's Eternal Quest, page 199. He gave this talk in 1949.

The individual who drinks too much forms a pernicious habit. If he makes no effort to curb his indulgence in liquors, he may become an alcoholic and helplessly suffer from an overwhelming desire to drink without any limit, without rhyme or reason. Such unfortunate people often spend all their money on drink; they eat very little and seem to get some nourishment from the liquor itself. The normal sense of responsibility toward maintaining good health and an honourable standing in the family, society, and the world is lost. They may eventually lose all sense of pride and be picked up dead drunk anywhere— in a ditch, or in the middle of the street—exposed meanwhile to the dangers of being robbed or run over.

The foregoing description of liquor alcoholics serves to illustrate what I mean by "mental alcoholics." The latter may be individually classified according to their particular psychological extreme, which might be chronic anger, fear, sex, sadism, gambling, stealing, jealousy, hate, greed, moods, craftiness, or stupidity. When from the very beginning of life a person displays extraordinary tantrums of anger, fear, jealousy—or any other of the aforementioned characteristics—then one may know that he has acquired those abnormal mental habits in a previous existence. Parents who notice any such evil psychological tendencies in their child, even in its infancy, should get busy and take some steps to prevent the child from becoming a psychological alcoholic; if possible, by placing him in another environment under the good care of spiritual teachers. Through continued good company and proper environment for many years, a mental alcoholic may become free from the octopus grip of the inborn evil...