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has been going on in favour of drinking wine. The states in which there was prohibition have lifted prohibition and have been licensing the selling of alcoholic liquors. The governments have been permitting the drinking of liquors. Liquor-shops are being opened.
From the Audience : People drink liquors to get relief from their mental tensions and worries; is it not so ?
Maharajashri: Yes. Some people drink liquors for mental relaxation and for relief from their mental tensions and worries; but most drinkers drink liquors to enjoy sensual pleasures, to warm and excite their bodies; and to satisfy their addiction to them.
THE WAY TO FREE YOURSELVES FROM TENSIONS
There are many methods by which men can get relief from mental tensions. Drinking is not really a method. I agree that by drinking, men may forget their tensions and worries for sometime. Forgetting tensions and worries for a while is not a real method to get free from tensions and worries. You must organize your life on sound principles, so that there are no tensions at all. In fact, to-day, there is no organization at all in life. Disorganization, disorderliness, anarchy and lawlessness are the other names for life at present. Those qualities characterize modern life.
Only that man who maintains mental and emotional equanimity, can lead a serene, wholesome and felicitous life. The man who takes alcoholic drinks and other intoxicants cannot retain his mental equanimity and poise. His thinking power becomes paralysed. On account of this, his social life and family life become upset. He will not be able to carry out his proper duties. Tensions will appear in his mind; and in his family. Diseases also increase in the body of such a man.
In order to get rid of your mental worries and tensions, you should meet noble men and stay in their company; you should carry out scriptural studies and yogabhyas and you should live in the midst of beautiful nature. The company of noble men,
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