Side by side with the evolution of the various constituents of the love of truth, there developed in me the following different feelings of ‘vairagya’ or aversion or repulsion for untruth as under-
1 Complete repulsion for all forms of speaking untruth.
2 Complete repulsion for false promises.
3 Complete repulsion for accepting or assimilating any untruth.
4. Complete repulsion for supporting any untruth.
5 Complete repulsion for hypocrisy or insincerity.
6 Complete repulsion for darkness born of untruth.
7 Complete repulsion for all forms of pleasures obtainable by untruth
8. Complete repulsion for all forms of gains derivable from untruth.
What is ‘vairagya’? Vairagya (aversion or repulsion) is opposed to anuraga (love). What is true ‘vairagya’ ? It consists in the evolution in oneself of complete aversion for, and conscious concern to keep away from, every one of the thoughts and actions which harm or damage soul life. This true vairagya does not and cannot develop in a soul till he has evolved the various constituents of the love of truth and goodness. So all-sided true vairagya can blossom in that unique soul who is endowed by heredity with highest psychic forces of the love of truth and love of goodness. Apart from this highest vairagya all other forms of vairagya which are practiced by persons in this and other countries are either absolutely harmful as they are based on absolute false beliefs or if they are beneficial and true, they are only partially so.
The form of vairagya that is practised in India is in the main as much false as it is harmful. There are at
present ninety two lacs of persons who are called ‘sadhus’. What is the kind of life which these ‘sadhus’ live? There are lacs among these sadhus who make begging their profession for earning their livelihood. There are thousands of other sadhus who have lost all members of their family and are without property or social status and choose to live on the charity of others and spend their time in reading and recitation of scriptures and worship of some imaginary god and in doing other religious exercises. It is about such sadhus that there is current a saying in Hindi:
‘Naar mari ghar sampad naasi; Moond mundai bhaye sannyasi”.
(With the death of wife and loss of wealth and property, one gets oneself clean shaven and accepts sannyas! )
There are several who criminals are and who in order to escape arrest by police become sadhus. Several others become sadhus to cheat others for their livelihood. There are some who become ‘mahants’or priests in some ‘muths’ and come to own vast lands or Jagirs attached to these religious places. There are lacs of persons who give up domestic life under the teaching that man invites lot of suffering and pain on himself by getting entangled into house-holder’s life and abandoning it he becomes a free bird going about wherever he pleases, untrammelled and un-restricted.
He gets a full chance to roam about the whole world in the company of sadhus and thus enjoys a liberal dose of happiness. There are others who have sapped their ties with their family and lineage and become sadhus or sanyasis under the temptation to secure after death imaginary happiness of heaven, Vaikuntb, Goloka, Shivaloka etc. which they are taught to believe can be had by the worship of Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, and Shiva. There are again, those who join the class of sadhus to practise ‘Yoga’ which they believe would bestow extraordinary power to them. These lacs of so called`sadhus’ in the absence of true knowledge of the life of soul not only grope in darkness concerning soul life but after renouncing familial and social ties, they become far more degraded and evil by taking to immoral conduct to satisfy their pleasure-seeking passions. They take to most harmful intoxicants. They indulge themselves in gross sins and vices such as unnatural offences, adultery, theft, cheating, ostentation, pretence, hypocrisy, idleness etc. etc., and thus ruin themselves. By such sinful activities they do harm in different ways to their own countrymen and others. Such persons, who wear the garb of a sadhu to pose as men of renunciation and sacrifice, prove a source of ruin to their own soul-life and the soul-life of thousands of people. Millions among the followers of various faiths, instead of looking down on the most degraded life of lacs of such ‘sadhus’ enthusiastically serve their needs with their money and personal devotion and thus contribute to their greater degradation.
There would hardly be one in a thousand among this sea of the so-called `vairagies’ or sadhus who possesses ordinary character and who is worthy of reverence for some noble feeling and conduct. The persons in this small section among lac of the so-called sadhus, who are free from ordinary evils of life and command respect for some altruistic feelings, are vairagies only to the extent to which they, on being conscious of some sinful thought and conduct in them, develop aversion for it and who are engaged in some welfare work without being moved by the consideration of name and fame. This is the limit of the excellence of their life. How few are the souls among these ninety-two lacs of sadhus who are engrossed in some true welfare work for the people of their country or other countries and thus
live life of even partial vairagya!
In Europe and America there are found persons in thousands who give up their selfishness in some aspects of life for one or other good of their countrymen and live true, though partial, life of `vairagya’. They live true life of ‘vairagva ‘to the extent that they give up selfishness for some welfare work even though they put on full western dean dress, live in dean houses and observe civilized way of life or take to ochre dress when they come to our country. There are rare souls in our country, who could be called
‘vairagies’ for acting on the maxim Swarath naashastuvairagyam (true vairagya is sacrifice of selfishness for service of others), they rise above their passions and give up their selfishness in some aspect and serve the good of others out of some noble altruistic feeling. But even such true vairagies are yet devoid of all such various feelings of vairagya which can and do develop in a soul who has evolved in him various constituents of the love of truth and goodness and which can and do develop fully and completely when these constituents of love evolve fully and completely. They are devoid of these various feelings of vairagya to the extent they are biased and bound to their false faiths, false traditions and their evil desires, are engaged in some kind of untruth and evil conduct due to slavery to their evil passions of vanity, jealousy and vindictiveness, spread disrespect for persons worthy of reverence, show callous disregard to truth and defend untruth and in these various ways indulge in acts injurious to them and other men, animals, plants and inanimate existences.
Our India has not only suffered and does suffer from dearth of true vairagies which is the reason for its present degraded condition, but its people, illiterate, no less educated, are so warped by their false beliefs that not to say of appreciation of the soul of complete renunciation and sacrifice, and complete and all-sided doer of good, they fail to show appreciation for the few among them who are partially but truly`vairagies’. How painful it is! What a sad influence has been of our prevalent scriptures, sermons and missionaries which have been with us for thousands of years!
Love and hate go hand in hand. When one is there, the other is there too. For every love in a man, there is the counterpart of hatred in him. One who loves cleanliness necessarily hates dirtiness. When I evolved various constituents of the love of truth and goodness, then naturally there evolved in me corresponding hates for whatever was opposed to them. I became altogether unique in comparison to millions of persons who were devoid of these highest and noblest feelings of loves and hates. My thoughts and actions became different from their thoughts and actions. We ceased to belong to the same category of human beings. They began to feel distance from me and I began to feel my great difference from them.