Raja-Yoga

PRATYAHARA AND DHARANA. 65
mind yourselves, remember that until you are a diseased
person, no extraneous will can work upon you, and
avoid everyone, however great and good he may be,
who asks you to blindly believe. All over the world
there have been dancing, and jumping, and howling
sects, who spread like infections when they begin to
sing and dance and preach; they also come under this
heading. They exercise a singular control for the
time being over sensitive persons, alas, often, in the
long run, to degenerate whole races. Aye,
it is healthier
for the individual or the race to remain wicked than
to be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous
control. One s heart sinks to think of the amount of
injury done to humanity by such irresponsible, yet wellmeaning
religious fanatics. They little know that the
minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under
their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply
making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and
opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever
so evil. Little do these ignorant, deluded persons
dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves
upon their miraculous power to transform human
hearts, which power they think was poured upon them
by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the
seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of
death. Therefore, beware of everything that takes
away your freedom. Know that it is dangerous,
and avoid it
by all the means in your power. He who
has succeeded in attaching or detaching his mind to or
from the centres at will has succeeded in Pratydhdra%