Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/58

58 satisfy this soda-water or whisky thirst. Why? Simply because it is a craving of an appetite which is not a natural thirst, but which is, on the contrary, an abnormal appetite—a perverted taste. The appetite has been created—the habit acquired—and it is asserting the mastery. You will notice that the victims of these abnormal "thirsts" will occasionally experience a real thirst, at which time water alone will be sought, and the tipple of the appetite not thought of. Just think a moment—is not this so with you? This is not a lecture directed against the fancy drink habit, or a temperance sermon, but just an illustration of the difference between a natural instinct and an acquired habit, or appetite. Appetite is an acquired habit of eating or drinking, and has but little to do with real hunger or thirst.

A man acquires an appetite for tobacco in any of its forms; or for liquor, or for chewing-gum, or for opium, morphine, cocaine, or similar drugs. And an appetite once acquired becomes, if anything, stronger than that natural demand for food or drink, for men have been known to die of starvation because they had spent all of their money for drink or narcotics. Men have sold their babies' stockings for drink—have stolen and even murdered in order to gratify their appetite for narcotics. And yet who would think of calling this terrible craving of appetite by the name of Hunger? And yet we continue to speak of, and think of, every craving for something to put into the stomach as Hunger, while many of these cravings are as much a symptom of Appetite as is the craving or desire for alcohol or narcotics.