DISTORTION OF TRUTH

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

DISTORTION OF TRUTH

 

 

 I have heard of adhikara in connection with the Vedas, but I never knew that the Gita required the qualifications that the bank manager had in mind. It would have been better if he had stated the nature of the qualifications he required. The Gita clearly states that it is meant for all but scoffers. If Hindu students may not read the Gita they may not read any religious works at all. Indeed the original conception in Hinduism is that the student life is the life of a brahmachari who should begin it with knowledge of religion coupled with practice so that he may digest what he learns and weave religious conduct into his life. The student of old began to live his religion before he knew what it was, and this conduct was followed by due enlightenment, so that he might know the reason for the conduct prescribed for him. Adhikara then there certainly was.

But it was the adhikara of right conduct known as the five yamas or cardinal restraints—ahimsa (innocence), satya (truth), asteya (non-stealing), Aparigraha (no possession), and brahmacharya (celibacy). These were the rules that had to be observed by anybody who wished to study religion. He may not go to religious books for proving the necessity of these fundamentals of religion. But today the word adhikara like many such potent words has suffered distortion, and a dissolute man, simply because he is called Brahmin, has adhikara to read and expound Shastras to us, whereas a man, if he is labelled an untouchable because of his birth in a particular state, no matter how virtuous he may be, may not read them. But the author of the Mahabharata of which the Gita is a part wrote his great work for the purpose of meeting this insane objection, and made it accessible to all irrespective of the so-called caste, provided, I presume, that he complied with the observances I have described: I add the qualifying expression “I presume” for, at the time of writing, I do not recall the observance of the yamas as a condition precedent to a person studying the Mahabharata.

 Experience however shows that the purity of heart and the devotional frame of mind are necessary for a proper understanding of religious books. The printing age has broken down all barriers and scoffers read religious books with the same freedom (if not greater) that the religiously-minded have. But we are here discussing the propriety of students reading the Gita as per of religious instruction and devotional exercise. Here I cannot imagine any class of persons more amenable to the restraints and thus more fitted than students for such instruction. Unfortunately, it is to be admitted that neither the students nor the instructors in the majority of cases think anything of the real adhikara of the five restraints.