Arbitrary Practices

Tarun Pradhaan

*This article informs the general public about the dangers of arbitrary spiritual practices. This is not meant as an expert or professional advice. Always consult your guru for more information.*

### Spiritual practices
A spiritual practice is a set of actions prescribed by a guru to a student in order to achieve a spiritual goal. These practices are time tested and well known since many thousands years. Each path has its own specific practice. Practices are taught after a long and thorough preparation of the student, which involves a lot of first hand knowledge, theory and examination. The guru is present to supervise the practice for a reasonable amount of time.

### Corrective practices
These are prescribed by the guru in order to correct any faults in the body-mind of the student or in the spiritual practice itself. These are not given to every student, only to those who need it. Only a guru who knows the student personally can prescribe such practices.

### Arbitrary practices
Any practices that are done without any prescription from a reputed guru but are simply assumed to be beneficial are arbitrary practices. People do them due to ignorance about the subject matter. These are also known as faulty practices.

### Reasons for arbitrary practices

* The person has no knowledge about spirituality or is misguided.

* The person has no spiritual path.

* The person has no guru.

* The person was never formally initiated by a guru.

* The person is often less intelligent and is impulsive in nature, and does not think before starting the practice.

* The practices are often something that was read somewhere or was heard somewhere from unreliable and cheap sources.

* The person has no specific spiritual goal. Does not know what they want.

* The person does it for entertainment or just to see what happens.

* They get the idea from a friend or from the internet.

* The person copies other seekers mindlessly hoping to get the same result.

* Sometimes corrective practices are assumed to be the main practice, which becomes a faulty practice as it was not meant to be done.

* The person has fantasies about the miraculous nature of the practice.

* Some practices, especially the occult ones, are done just for the thrills or adventure or out of boredom.

* The person gets the idea from strange experiences or dreams and assumes it is valid just because it was an unusual event.

* They blindly believe anything written anywhere and any person.

* The person is a minor, less educated or is of a young age.

* The person blindly follows the advice of ignorant people about a particular practice, or believes in rumors or superstitions.

* The person is genuinely curious about the practice but does not want to do the hard work of finding a guru, joining a path or formally learning it.

* The person is well educated and intelligent, but has some superiority complex and refuses to take guidance from a lesser guru.

* The person has a path and a guru, but does something else as per his or her own wish, ignoring the advice of the guru.

* The person has a path and a guru, but mixes random practices into the prescribed practice.

* The person has a path and a guru, but does many practices prescribed by many gurus from different paths at the same time.

* These people are often found seeking help or seeking answers from the internet, public forums such as facebook or in comment sections of entertainment services such as YouTube. They get equally dubious replies from these sources.

* There can be many more reasons. Humans are strange and irrational creatures.

### Consequences of arbitrary practices

**No progress**
The first obvious consequence is that there is no spiritual progress at all. Since there was no goal to start with and no one to guide this person. The result is failure. But this is probably the most harmless consequence.

**Waste of time**
Sometimes people waste many years doing random practices. Sometimes they waste their whole life. Sometimes an arbitrary practice may work slightly which convinces them that this is best for them and keep going in this delusion.

**Stagnation**
Sometimes the practice works partially and then there is no progress. This causes confusion and even more waste of time. Since any intelligent person will drop the practice on failure, but partial success prevents them from dropping it completely and approaching an experienced guru for advice.

**Strange behaviour**
Often the person becomes deluded and behaves strangely, wears strange clothes or eats unusual food etc. assuming this is the practice. The unusual behaviour leads to failed relationships, loss of social reputation, loss of job etc. A spiritual practice is surely not meant to make anyone stupid.

**Loss of money**
Not surprisingly, there are many who take advantage of stupid and deluded practitioners and rob them of their money. Women are tricked more often compared to men. Sometimes in desperation people fall into traps of some cults. The practices or solutions given by these fraudulent people are even worse than the imaginary practice the person was previously doing. Now they are ready to be exploited again and again.

**Mental harm**
If continued mindlessly some practices can affect the mind. People become less intelligent, crazy or lunatic. They suffer from strange mental illnesses. Most of the spiritual practices are about mental issues, so obviously they may affect the mind. Some practices work directly on the nervous system and those who do them without any supervision suffer from diseases of the nervous system and brain. Unfortunately, some people mistake the strange symptoms as signs of progress and continue doing them with even greater enthusiasm.

**Physical harm**
Many practices involve manipulation of breathing or some convoluted postures, these are meant for well trained and healthy students, but when performed by uninitiated people, can cause physical harm or diseases. Often these diseases are incurable. Sometimes deeper mental issues or impurities appear as diseases in the body. Symptoms can be treated but the cause is incurable. Doctors do not understand these issues, and so they also fail to cure it. Fortunately the number of cases where someone died from a faulty practice is very less, probably it can happen when someone does something really stupid and dangerous or is a member of some cult etc.

**Paranormal harm**
This is indeed very rare. It happens mostly in case of arbitrary occult practices. If it has happened, it usually means the practice succeeded, but in a bad way. The effects are many but mostly include madness, loss of personality, extreme terror, possession, person gone missing, physical abuse of women, suicide, murders and many more strange phenomena. They are accompanied by above mentioned symptoms, which are forewarnings. The so-called practitioner has ventured into the dark side of the occult. Usually there is no cure of this. Even a guru will not be able to help here. This means a good life has been ruined.

**Prevention**
* It is always better than cure.

* Knowledge is half prevention. Know what you are doing.

* Act intelligently, think before you act, and make wise and informed decisions.

* Research on the topic, give it many months.

* Determine your spiritual goal, it is that for which you are born. You are not born to do random practices.

* Determine your path which can lead to your goal. Your guru can help with that.

* Find a guru. This can be a hit or miss. So experiment and do not simply accept everyone as your guru.

* Follow the instructions of the guru. Ask when in doubt. Do not decide anything yourself. Take full advantage of guru.

* Do not pay an unreasonable amount of money to anyone. Do not fall for false promises.

* Always check if you are progressing nicely.

* A suitable practice is always natural, effortless and blissful.

* Drop the practice if it causes any kind of discomfort and consult your guru immediately.

* Do not try to treat the symptoms or do corrective practices yourself. Ask your guru.

* If you find that there is no progress for a long time, perhaps many years, it is better to change the path or the guru or both.

* Do not hope for overnight progress or miracles, be rational and objective. Do not lose your sanity. Spirituality is not magic.

* Never recommend unknown practices or gurus to anyone. Be responsible.

* Stay away from fraudulent gurus and cults and warn others about them.

* Spirituality is not blind belief or superstition, always be logical and rational.

* Do not follow any path or guru or practice if you doubt it. Always clear your doubts first via valid evidence.

**Conclusion**
May you reap the benefits of a well planned and well executed practice. Enjoy the fruits. Hopefully you will progress spiritually and achieve the highest spiritual goal. My best wishes are with you.