THE ROLE OF A SADHU

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

THE ROLE OF A SADHU
People on this earth can be divided into three broad classes. The first type of people believe
only in this life on earth. The second type consists of people who do a little service, but lack the
spiritual vision. There is the third type of beings in whom, the spirit of enquiry is awakened, in
whom a higher discrimination is working, who conceive of life, not as some period of existence to
be finished here, after which they don’t know—and, therefore, are not concerned—what is going to
happen. They conceive of this life as an opportunity, given for attaining something higher which
belongs to a sphere transcending this. These Sadhakas have also got a knowledge that in essence
they are not earthly, and that their life does not end with this earth-life. They have some glimpse that
their life is really eternal existence in self-awareness, and of the nature of peace, bliss and wisdom.
They think that their earth-life is a temporary bondage.
They are impatient that somehow or other they should recapture the pure experience of that
real life, which is theirs in truth. Therefore, they use this present earthly existence for carrying on a
determined struggle, so that they may transcend this ignorance and regain that experience, the
eternal life in the spirit. They are known as aspirants and seekers.
In order to bring together this class of people who are living for a spiritual ideal and to
inspire it and take it near that spiritual goal, societies like the Divine Life Society have been founded
by men of realisation, like Sri Gurudev. The Sadhu’s Federation was started with an additional aim,
i.e., to gather together all the forces in the form of the various devotees, so that a unification may be
brought about among all saintly persons—a sort of universal brotherhood of seekers, aspirants and
Sadhakas. There is a prevalent idea that a Sadhu means a Sannyasin putting on ochre-robes.
Swamiji says “No” to this. A Sadhu or a Sannyasin is one in whom the spiritual ideal is the only
ideal, whether he is a householder or a renunciate.
In what way shall we be able to propagate the Sadhu-life, the life of divine quest, and what
can we practically do in our own walk of life to awaken more and more people to the greatest
sublimity of this life of seeking after God? Sadhus form a class diametrically opposite to the
“normal man” of the world. If the man of the world holds a certain thing as desirable, the seeker
looks upon it as something more insignificant than dust. What is pleasurable to the worldly man is
extremely painful to the seeker. What the man of the world regards as necessary for life, the seeker
regards as the greatest obstacle to real progress. And, in the very conception of progress even, the
two are totally opposed to each other. If this is true, then the Sadhu must be amisfit in the world! To
some extent it is true. But the real Sadhu is not a total misfit. The Sadhus’ community forms only a
minority in the world. A Sadhu has got tremendous amount of adaptability. He knows that God
Himself is tolerating the world and so he is also prepared to tolerate the world.
The Sadhu is essentially universal. Though he looks at the world with pain in his heart, he
has great tolerance. He adapts himself with others, but is firm in his own ideals.
Look at Sri Swamiji—you have a living example of this truth in him. Sometimes politicians
come and air their views and place their problems before him. He listens patiently to them and he
gives the advice as though he is very much interested in these problems, while all the time he is in a
consciousness which makes him realise that it is like a whiff of smoke.

These saints know that this worldly life is meaningless. The only meaning it has got is that it
can be taken as a field of Sadhana. What we think of the life of animals, the enlightened souls too
think the same of the life of an unprincipled man who leads a purposeless life.
You cannot get happiness from this work. If you go to a neem tree, pluck a fruit from one
branch and then eat it, you discover that it is bitter. Imagining that you made a mistake by choosing
to pluck from that particular branch which alone might be yielding bitter fruits exclusive of other
branches, you suddenly change to another branch, pluck a fruit from it and find that it is bitter too.
How can you get a sweet fruit from a neem tree? Expectation of pleasures from worldly
objects is exactly similar to this. No happiness can be got from the world.
A Sadhu knows this very well. Sometimes, on account of previous Samskaras, the Sadhu
may deviate from the path just a bit, but he is never eternally lost. In the aspirant or seeker, there is
always the Viveka and Vichara alive. Therefore, the reaction of Nachiketas to the temptations of
Yama, is the reaction of a Sadhu to worldly pleasures.
The Sadhu, intent on treading the path of Sreyas (real good) tries to cut at the very root of the
cause of Preyas, the apparently pleasing, by means of prayer, Japa of the Lord’s Name, Sankirtan
etc. The hallmarks of all seers are more or less the same—compassion, selflessness, purity,
oneness, renunciation, tolerance, and above all, returning good for evil. There are many examples
from the lives of saints to illustrate this.
Therefore, in order to be able to propagate the Sadhu ideal, the ideal of divine quest, the
quest after Truth, I pray with folded hands that you should:
(1) Get all the books on the lives of saints, that you can and study them.
(2) Hold a Satsanga in your own house and narrate the lives of saints to your family and
children and friends.
(3) Save the money that you waste on luxuries and with that amount print and distribute
widely leaflets and pamphlets embodying the lives of saints.
Thus your own life will be transformed. Thus thinking constantly of saints, you will
yourself become a saint. And, you will help others transform their lives, too, and grow into saints.
This is the best and the most practical way in which you can promote the ideal of a Sadhu life.