drinking alcohol while on spiritual path is like driving car with one foot on accelerator and other foot on brake. in meditation you try to raise your consciousness whereas the alcohol makes you more unconsciousness.
i had alcohol on many occasions. its not that i was interested or very fond of it. but in college time when friends used to insist so much then its difficult to say no. its not that you have to drink and you cannot say No. but for me it was difficult to say No as i didn’t wanted to hurt their feelings.
moreover unconsciously i fooled myself with the belief that i will drink and will try to stay alert. i guess many people use some or other excuse to get drunk. deep down we know drinking alcohol is not good and we are just fooling ourself with a good excuse.
in my case the silly excuse was meditation. during my college days i started practicing meditation. so i used to take 2-3 pegs which was like 5-6 pegs for other people. reason being if you meditate then your fourth body develops and the effect of alcohol will be more on meditators than on non-meditators. i read this theory in osho (acharya rajneesh) books. i find some truth in this theory as sometimes even the smell of alcohol make me feel that i am getting drunk. i know few people who also have the same experience with alcohol smell.
what i found during my experiments that you can stay alert after drinking alcohol but it was difficult for me keep the body in control. in tantra they use snake poison (last stage is cobra poison) and alcohol to test their inner centering. enlightened mystic gurdjieff used to be drunk all the time but he was always in control. such was his mastery over his body and mind. many tantric practitioner also achieve such mastery. but i won’t advise drugs or alcohol to any one. because it can really damage your nerves and psyche and make you unfit for doing any serious sadhana. never get involve with drugs or alcohol. i was fortunate that as i graduate from college this habit of taking alcohol once in a while got over with time.
3 reasons i stay away from alcohol:
1. it lowers your consciousness
while on spiritual path you need to increase your consciousness. you need to put every effort to become more aware and conscious. the alcohol does the very opposite. so its definitely not for people who are walking on spiritual path. even the tantrik practitioner take alcohol, when they want to test their mastery over themselves. they don’t take alochol just because they want to have a high or they want to escape from life. however in very dangerous tantra sadhanas, alcohol do help but those are rare cases and not applicable to normal spiritual aspirants. the lesson is stay away from alcohol if you want to grow spiritually. you can also check this post – spiritual harm of alcohol.
2. not good for health and wealth !!!
everyone who drinks knows the harmful effects of alcohol. but still people drink it. such is the hold of alcohol over people. any type of addiction is not good. whether its the addiction of alcohol, drugs, money, fame or anything else. all addictions are bad because they make you slave. you lose your dignity of being the master of your life. choose to spend money on better things. buy some good books or visit a good ashram or donate it to someone who needs it badly rather than wasting it in alcohol.
3. you run away from life problems
one of the reason people drink alcohol is that it gives them a high and they get to forget their life problems. i guess this is single most important reason for drinking alcohol. for a poor person who has no source of entertainment, then the cheap alcohol is like a divine gift. but in long run, you miss the chance to grow in life. because when you struggle and face life problems then some intensity comes in you. you learn from life problems. you become more integrated and mature person. on the other hand, people who take to alcohol big time become escapist in long run. its like wasting the valuable human birth and not giving due respect to the chance which you get to grow in human birth.
over a period of time, alcohol breaks your inner spirit and the chance to grow spiritually. if you are serious about growing spiritually or growing deeper in meditation then keep alcohol away from your life. not only alcohol but any form of addiction is not good. so stay away from all addictions which makes you slave.