On the spiritual path, discrimination is not negativity. It is essential protection.
The yogi must learn not only what to seek, but what to avoid. Many seekers are ruined not by obvious evil, but by confusion, compromise, wrong company, false teachers, emotional dependency, empty religion, and the subtle pressure to conform to worldly values.
The following counsels are deliberately direct. They are meant as practical warnings for those who are serious about inner life. A yogi cannot afford to drift. He must know what strengthens the soul, what weakens it, and what must simply be left alone. This article is excepted from Living the Yoga Life: Perspectives on Yoga, by Swami Nirmalananda Giri.
Gurus, Teachers, & Spiritual Influence
Avoid all supposed yogis and gurus that make annual tours around the world.
Avoid spiritual dabblers and followers of fake gurus or false religions. Sincerity counts for nothing when a person is sincerely ignorant.
Avoid all Western “advaita teachers” and most of the Eastern ones, too.
Avoid all religious and spiritual teachers and teachings that are not based on yoga and spiritual experience. (I use “yoga” here in the broad sense of any consciousness-opening methodology.)
Religion and False Spiritualities
Avoid the merely religious–the more religious, the more they should be avoided. Remember that crazy religion makes crazies, lying religions make liars and hypocrites, and ignorant religion makes ignoramuses.
Avoid those whose religion is nothing more than believing in some book or doing merely external observances.
Avoid proselytizers of all sorts, whatever their philosophy.
Avoid those that claim to be “spiritual but not religious.” They are not. True religion is the science of the spirit, and that alone opens the path to spirituality.
Avoid those who advertise themselves (and their religion if they have any) as “inclusive” and “non-judgmental.” They are morally and spiritually bankrupt, and usually immoral.
Company, Companionship, and Emotional Entanglements
Avoid shallow people of all types.
Avoid those who do not respect your spiritual orientation and life.
Avoid people who are hell-bent on making themselves and others “nice.”
Avoid those who cannot take a stand on anything.
Avoid those that are “offended” when your ideas do not suit them and “hurt” when they cannot bully or blackmail you into conforming to their ways or get you to do what they want. HOLD TO YOUR PRINCIPLES. Once you lose them you have nothing at all–and are nothing at all.
Avoid those that have no sense of humor–especially about themselves.
Avoid those that are not willing to “go it alone” just as you are doing.
Avoid monotonous and boring people. As a wonderful American saint once said to me in reference to man I knew: “Why carry around empty space?”
As said previously, avoid women that want to be your “mother” and men that want to be your “father.” Even in India this is always a prelude to attempted sexual impropriety. And remember: old people can have very “young” ideas about you-know-what.
Character, Conduct, and Self-Mastery
Avoid the impure and the materialistic.
Avoid those that always “need to talk to someone.”
Avoid people who have to be consoled and cajoled to keep up spiritual life.
Avoid those who continually claim to be “disturbed,” “worried,” and “confused”–especially in relation to you and your ideals and way of life.
Avoid those who claim to be liberal or broad-minded. They never are.
Avoid those who claim they need spiritual “help.” God truly does only help those that help themselves.
Avoid anyone who habitually says: “I am a ‘doubting Thomas.’” They are not doubters, but deniers who will become very unhappy with you if you prove to be true the things they pretend to doubt.
Worldly Entanglements, Addictions, and Crazes
Avoid all political entanglements.
Avoid all “good deeds” and social activism–and those addicted to them.
Avoid like poison those who use any kind of mind-altering substance, pretending it “opens” them to higher consciousness and perceptions.
Avoid all addicts of any kind, including nicotine and alcohol addicts, because they are next to demons.
Avoid becoming addicted to anything yourself, material, intellectual, or spiritual (God excepted).
Avoid thinking you can help others when they will not help themselves. You have to do it alone, and so do they. Point them to your sources of wisdom and let them go for it on their own steam. Otherwise you are just churning water in hope of getting milk and trying to dig a hole in the sky–it will never happen.
Avoid food-faddism and be very wary of what the “experts” say about diet. In fact, pay very little attention to “scholars,” “experts,” and (especially) “scientists” and “science.”
Avoid health crazes, but do learn about alternative therapies, especially vibrational medicine and those that deal with bio-energy such as homeopathy and naturopathy. (But avoid the outrageous fakes that charge huge fees.) They are the most suitable for a yogi, though other modes of medicine should not be ignored or rejected.
The Yogi’s Own Path
Avoid vows of any kind, and that includes any of your own making. Do not vow: Do it. Live it.
Avoid useless thought and talk about “getting rid of the ego.” Meditate and the ego will vanish like the ghost it really is.
Avoid compromise like the death-bearing evil it is.
Avoid thinking there is anything you cannot live without–except God.
Avoid the world of men and live in the world of God.