Acharya Tulsi
Our culture had some special symbols of faith and belief. The soul, the Supreme Being, religion, worship, and heaven-hell can be included in these symbols. Times changed. The way of thinking changed and the way of life also changed. The new symbols of faith in the present age are space travels, scientific inventions, modern technology, magic of electric power etc. Faith in the soul, God etc revolves round character. Attraction of heaven and harrow of hell too can change the direction of guilt-consciousness. But where conduct gets marginalised, there is no check of any kind on proclivity towards crime and society heads towards ruin.
I do not keep the past and the present out of the purview of my thinking. But I do not think that they are all important. The past becomes the basis of a person’s present and the present can be well channelized in the light of his imagination of the future. From that point of view, the present owes its gratitude to the past and the future. But the moment man starts giving a secondary place to the present, the direction of his manners and morals also changes. That is why people who wish to live a good and genuine life would have to concentrate their full attention on the present.
Man engages himself in action, but usually he does not act but reacts. He makes the behaviour of other people the criterion of his own behaviour. So long as he has that criterion before him, man would not be in a position to think and behave without expectations. I do know that it is not an easy thing to keep oneself away from reacting. But living only by reacting is no particular achievement. Inspiration to do one's duty and consciousness of responsibility compels man to think independently. Awareness about one's duty and responsibility alone commits mm to the present.
If man wishes to live in the proper manner, let him know the present, understand the ‘moment’ and put it to use. The ‘moment’ is very precious. If the ‘moment’ is lost, man is left with nothing but regret. It may be asked how one can put the ‘moment’ to use. There are so many pursuits like austerities, meditation, study, service, etc. But it is not within the power of everyone to carry on these pursuits. Under these circumstances, anuvrat says that man may or may not be able to do anything else; he would fulfil the purpose of his life, if he makes himself an honest and a moral person.
Some people say that the security of the country is in danger. Some people think that the dissipation caused by the diversity of communities and political parties is a great danger. Some people believe that the greatest danger is the crisis of character. There can be crises in many forms. There is only one principle which can give protection against them and that is morality. Anuvrat is the torch-bearer of morality. The society or country whose people move along carrying that torch, the darkness of insecurity dissipation and lack of conduct would not be able to persist.
