TRUTH v. BRAHMACHARYA

[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]

 

 

 

 

TRUTH v. BRAHMACHARYA

 

 

The complaint does not come to me as a surprise. When Non-co- operation was in full swing, and when during the course of the struggle I confessed to an error of judgment a friend innocently wrote to me: Even if it was error, you ought not to have confessed it. People ought to be encouraged to believe that there is at least one man who is infallible. You used to be looked upon as such. Your confession will now dishearten them. This made me smile and also made me sad. I smiled at the correspondent’s simplexes. But the very thought of encouraging people to believe a fallible man to be infallible was more than I could bear Knowledge of one as he is can always do good to the people, never any harm. I firmly believe that my prompt confessions of my errors have been all to the good for them. For me at any rate they have been a blessing. And I may say the same thing of my admission about the bad dreams. It would do the world a lot of harm if I claimed to be a perfect brahmachari without being one. For it would sully brahmacharya and dim the luster of truth. How dare I undervalue brahmacharya by false pretences? I can see today that the means I suggest for the observance of brahmacharya are not adequate, are not found to be invariably efficacious, because I am not a perfect brahmachari. It would be an awful thing for the world to be allowed to believe that I was a perfect brahmachari, whilst I could not show the royal road to brahmacharya. Why should it not be sufficient for the world to know that I am a genuine seeker, that I am wide awake, and that my striving is ceaseless and unbending?

 Why should not this knowledge be sufficient encouragement to others? It is wrong to deduce conclusions from false premises. It is wisest to draw them from things achieved. Why argue that because a man like me could not escape unclean thoughts, there is no hope for the rest? Why not rather argue that if a Gandhi who was once given to lust can today live as friend and brother to his wife and can look upon the fairest damsel as his sister or daughter, there is hope for the lowliest and the lost? If God was merciful to one who was so full of lust, certainly all the rest would have his mercy too! The friends of the correspondent who were put back because of knowledge of my imperfections had never gone forward at all. It was a false virtue that fell at the first blast. The truth and observance of brahmacharya and similar eternal principles do not depend on person imperfect as me. They rest on the sure foundations of the penance of the many that strove for them and lived them in their fullness. When I have the fitness to stand alongside those perfect beings, there will be much more determination and force in my language than today. He whose thoughts do not wander and think evil, whose sleep knows no dreams and who can be wide awake even whilst asleep is truly healthy. He does not need to take quinine. His incorruptible blood will have the inherent virtue of resisting all infections. It is for such a perfectly healthy state of body, mind, and spirit that I am striving. This knows no defeat or failure.

I invite the correspondent, his friends of little faith, and others to join me in that striving, and I wish that they may go forward even like the correspondent quicker than I. Let my example inspire those who are behind me with more confidence. All that I have achieved has been in spite of my weakness, in spite of my liability to passion,—and because of my ceaseless striving and infinite faith in God’s grace. No one need therefore despair. My Mahatmaship is worthless. It is due to my outward activities, due to my politics which is the least part of me and is therefore evanescent. What is of abiding worth is my insistence on truth, non-violence and brahmacharya which is the real part of me. That permanent part of me however small, is not to be despised. It is my all. I prize even the failures and disillusionments which are but steps towards success. Brahmacharya means not merely mechanical celibacy, but it means complete control over all the organs and senses enabling one to attain perfect freedom from all passion and hence from sin in thought, word and deed.