Is it necessary for a practitioner to reduce or stop his intake of alcohol, cigarettes, tea, coffee and drugs?
The answer to this question is that everyone needs to reduce or better still completely stop the usage of alcohol, cigarettes and drugs. As far as intake of tea and coffee is concerned it should be reduced significantly, maybe to just two cups a day. This is because whether a person is a learner of yoga or no these things are just not good for the system. For a student of yoga the practices of pranayama, asanas and meditation are such that they invoke a burst of energy inside the system and any undue interference from external source could cause great harm. The case of tea and coffee is still not strong enough. A student of yoga can do with two cups of tea or coffee per day but drugs are completely out as their interference into the system can be extremely harmful. As far as cigarettes are concerned perhaps one cigarette once a week or once a fortnight may still be okay. Taking a small drink occasionally can also be withstood by the body. But just like it was said earlier about vegetar
