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MOKSHA
63 to constitute an excuse for a policy of procrastination, which not only delays and retards one's own progress, but also misleads those others children, dependents, friends and the likewho naturally follow one's lead in matters pertaining to religion and morality.
We come now to the second class of the causes which interfere with the steadiness of dhyāna. These comprise all those tendencies and traits, including passions and emotions, which have their root in desire. Whenever the mind is engrossed in the pursuit of desire, it displays & tendency to wander away after its objects, thus robbing the soul of serenity and peace and the body of ease and restfulness. The remedy for this kind of disturbance consists in the development of the spirit of renunciation, which will engender the state of desirelessness. Renunciation is developed by study (svādhyāya), the company of saintly persons (satsanga) and the dwelling of the mind on the twelve kinds of bhāvanās already described. They have always been found to be unfailing weapons of the ascetic against the temptations of the flesh and the world.
The third type of the causes of distraction have reference to the unsteadiness of the body, and arise from want of control over the bodily limbs, ill-health, the habit of luxury, i.e., inability to bear hardships and the like. The observance of rules which directly aim at imparting health and strength to the body and the avoidance of the habits of luxury would be generally found sufficient to bring the physical tabernacle of flesh under the control of the will, and to render it capable of bearing the constantly increasing strain of trials and hardships involved in the severest forms of self-denial. Food, it should be clearly understood, plays the most important part in the physical training for asceticism, since it directly affects the constitution of the body and the condition of nerves, which have to be purified of their grossness before they can respond to impulses of the will, in the desired manner. Hence, where impure food is allowed to coarsen the matter of the brain and nerves, it is idle to expect any happy results from the practising of yoga (asceticism). The aspirant after immortality and bliss must, therefore, make up his mind to exclude, from his daily men, all those articles which augment the prostration of nerves together with those that do not increase the vitality of the system. Meat and
