Danger of getting stuck with symbols and peculiar practices

Haridwar Kumbha Mela

 (from "The Himalayan Master and the Sixth Sense: I Dared to Travel the Spiritual Path"):

Priyabhishek Sharma: Closely monitoring the saints during my stay at Haridwar [during Kumbh Mela], I observed that they had different classes of spiritual evolution. Some were not only modest but grossly weird perhaps unaccustomed to spiritual truths. A Naga saint with only a loincloth had lodged in the camp for a week. He would motionlessly remain in a standing posture on one foot with a garland of flowers on his shaved head throughout the day. No movement, nothing, just standing like an effigy at one place in the burning hot sand. For these saints, perhaps, the true essence of these practices of Hath Yoga aimed at warding off unnecessary movements of the body as a means to attain unwavering focus of the mind was not fully known. A slight movement of the body was directly related to a motion in the mind and vice versa. It often happened with every seeker on the path to enlightenment that she or he got stuck with symbols and practices forgetting that these were merely stepping stones to a higher end.