Detachment from Social Affairs

There is a question which arises in terms of when to cease one’s interest in social affairs. Should that be done abruptly or gradually? When should it begin, where one greatly reduces the interest one has, or one is compelled to have, in the social affairs of relatives and friends?

Social pressure comes from every side. It powerfully disrupts yoga practice. The worse of it comes from relatives and friends. Relatives are people whom one is related to physically. Friends may be yogis or non-yogis. The main humbug surprisingly is not relatives but yogi friends. This is due to the fact that when someone is related to a yogi, it is expected that this person may pressure the yogi to keep him in the social loop of relationships and services shared in a family and with in-laws or people who are closely related to family.

But there are also fellow yogis who feel that a yogi should assist in their social responsibilities by being interested and by keeping track of their social affairs. This is injurious to a yogi because it exposes the yogi to more social trauma. It is one thing to be a physician and to open a clinic for treating diseases. It is another issue for the said physician to get so close to his patient that he develops a disease he treats in a patient.

How about if the patient request that the physician should meet at the patient’s residence? What would happen there? How involved should the physician be with the patient’s relatives and friends?