Acharya Tulsi
Man's faith can be seen in two dimensions. One dimension is the mentality to indulge in comfortable living. People with such a mentality avoid any kind of exertion. They like a high standard of life, by which they imply the availability of a big house, a car, a television, a refrigerator, a room cooler, an air conditioner etc. For obtaining these things, they can take to a wrong path, resort to doing wrong things, and indulge in mischievous and mean activities. At the same time, they spare no efforts to prove themselves good, because they believe in enjoying happiness of life.
The other dimension of man's faith is the highest standard of conduct. The individual living by such faith believes that the degeneration within opens the doors for degeneration without. The person who considers wealth, luxury and comforts more important than conduct cannot awaken in his mind yearning for honesty. Without that yearning, life cannot have ease and it cannot be neat. One would have to change oneself in order to remain untouched by the irrelevant things in life, to live by human values and keep away from the violent completion underlying the prosperous state. He, who cannot change now, can never change any time. Man can reach the high peak of character only if he is inspired by this faith.
Some people regard Mahavira as their ideal. Some people believe in Buddha. Some people are followers of Gandhi. Some people can have faith only in great men of that status. Now the question is: are such great men ideals for people in the real sense? It is one thing to accept someone as the ideal in words. The important thing is to shape oneself after that ideal. It is not sufficient to sing the praises of one's ideal. Only the person who considers that great man as a model and makes determined efforts to shape himself according to him can become ideal himself one day. For that purpose, it is necessary to get acquainted with the complexities and hardships of life. The person should at least know how life is lived. Those who are scared to face this reality can never become Mahavira, Buddha or Gandhi.
Conduct is man's greatest measure. To what extent a person would feel impoverished with the decline in the strength of his character can be experienced only by himself. The declining physical and mental power with the decline of character makes the person absolutely inadequate. His self confidence is broken. He thinks that it is not possible to live except by resorting to immorality. This way of thinking is that cloud of doubt which hides the sun of reality. The darkness which penetrates deep into man's mind thereby is very hard to dispel.
It is futile to expect anything from the people who live by the first kind of faith. But it is the responsibility of those who live by the second kind of faith, to resolve to protect human values, culture and civilisation on their own strength. Such people never wait for favourable circumstances. Building a beautiful future for the society or the country depends entirely on the second kind of faith.
