Petty Dictators by Paramhansa Yogananad

Paramhansa Yogananda

Often we find that the breadwinners in a family – father or son or, sometimes, mother or daughter – display a tendency toward mental alcoholism because of the consciousness that they are in a position to dictate. Such LITTLE dictators in families should not freely unload their moods on innocent, harmless dependents, and thus lose the inner respect of those around them. When a family dictator thinks he can get away with doing what he pleases at home, he gradually begins to do what he pleases in expressing unpleasant moods or evil traits outside the family. Eventually he does this anytime and anywhere. If petty family tyrants don’t check their indulgence in these sadistic habits, they gradually become mental alcoholics, behaving immaturely and causing untold trouble to those who are closely or even casually associated with them, as well as to themselves.

If you are a mental alcoholic, try to cure yourself; but meanwhile refrain at least from trying to infect or influence others. For whether or not you succeed, you will probably cause yourself added trouble. Think what pandemonium would break loose if suddenly somebody dropped a skunk in your peaceful home, where you had been sitting quietly meditating or reading a book by the fireplace. You and those around you would no doubt try to evict the skunk, and in so doing be drenched with its malodorous chemicals. Both the family and the skunk would suffer. (Anjuli)

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So it is not wise for a HUMAN SKUNK to enter an environment where he is unwanted. He is likely to cause trouble for everyone around him, and in the end may suffer harsh treatment. Please remember that a human skunk carrying a mental vibration of terrible moods, and the reflection of it on his face, creates incalculable harm in peaceful environments; this biped is unwanted anywhere.

It is better even to hide mental alcoholism than to give in to its influence in public. Continued shameless indulgence is the soil in which prenatal or postnatal tendencies thrive. The individual who is prenatally disposed to mental alcoholism must be doubly careful not to live in an environment that waters the innate psychological seeds of his bad habits or moods.

Of course, when you meet a person who treats you formally, and with a galvanized smile says, “How do you do, I am awfully delighted to see you,” while inside he is thinking, “I could cheerfully chop off your head for disturbing me,” you sense his inner feeling and you don’t like it. I myself like to know where I stand with people. I prefer blunt treatment to hypocritical behavior. No one likes to risk having the snake of insincerity dart out at him from under a rosebush of smiles.

However, it is better for a mental alcoholic to be friendly toward people, even if hypocritically, than to vent on them his evil moods. Self-control practiced daily, even in insignificant matters, will help the mental alcoholic to come out of his drunken indulgences little by little.