Hypocrisy in Spirituality

In today’s day and age, it often happens that man needs to struggle to live his life according to his own beliefs and morals. There are a variety of aspects that end up influencing an individual’s lifestyle; most of which the individual himself is completely unaware of. These aspects are usually so subtle and yet so influential that simply by being unaware of it, an individual runs the risk of not truly knowing what are the motives that drive most of his decisions and what are the factors that influence his daily lifestyle.

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At the onset of the article, I found it particularly necessary to emphasize that the task of truly realizing the influencing factors is a more arduous one in the current times. This is owing to the fact that due to the our rapidly expanding purview of the entire world, we are constantly being made aware of different ideologies that are prevalent in other parts of the world. Even though consciously we might feel that such ideologies or practices are not something that would appeal to our own taste; truth of the matter is that on another level we are subtly influenced by all that we see and thus many desires are born out of such influences.

I am not venturing on decreeing any influence as being bad or good; for that depends on every individual and varies greatly with each person. Thus this is something that is best left to our own discretionary powers. However it is pertinent to understand that the ideological influence which pragmatically go against the morals or samskaras which may be instilled in us since our childhood, tend to completely disrupt the semblance that our thoughts have with our words; and our words with our actions.

Thus from this disparity, hypocrisy is born. Hypocrisy is a trait wherein our thoughts, words and actions don’t necessarily bear semblance. Even though the interpretation of this is word is open to our individual understanding, it is pertinent to realize its true nature. Often it may happen that what we say to this world might not really be the way in which we tend to act. The reason for such behavior is the fact that we don’t place ourselves in the same situation when we tend to advise or admonish people. Often when a prude would berate a promiscuous individual of being loose in character; there would be no saying what the same person would do, would he be faced with the same scenario or the same inner instinctive urge to copulate. Hence in these circumstances it is best not to judge so that you in turn won’t be judged either.

But the point of this article is to really address the hypocrisy that lives in our hearts; not necessarily the one that is displayed to the world at large. This is where true spirituality addresses the issue; categorically insisting that the seeker be true to himself; for acceptance is the first step to improvement; and improvement is ultimately pertinent in any sort of spiritual evolution that the seeker aspires to. True spirituality never makes the distinction between good and bad karma; for all karma is in the end unrequited energy that needs to consummated in one way or the other. Hence there is no question of your guru or God admonishing you for being promiscuous; however the fact of the matter is that a true seeker must know of his true nature and have in him the spiritual desire to evolve through time; not doing that is the only hypocrisy that is deemed as an unpardonable crime in spirituality; for in the end it is but a journey of evolution.

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admin | September 26, 2012 10:17 pm

3 Comments

By Medha, September 27, 2012 @ 5:09 pm

First of all thanks a lot for this article that I have been eagerly waiting!!!As usual it is a great delight.As far as hypocrisy is concerned,I feel that it has become very necessary to practice it in our day to day life.One finds it so as our society won’t allow anybody to speak his/her mind.If anybody speaks his mind then he is considered a ‘loud mouth’as we call it.Truth is not accepted here as it is,but one has to present it in a twisted form so that it becomes acceptable to our people.This is the biggest drawback our society has.It encourages hypocrisy and lies.so many people have to get adapt and present the truth in a twisted form just to get their work done.I think this is the practical solution one can have.If we want to live peacefully in our society we have to put a mask on our real face.The important thing is one should never forget that it is the mask he/she has put up,and that it not the real face.At least you should know your reality.As you have aptly said in your poem that one should put away the mask when the work is done.And most importantly our sadguru has always told us “KNOW THYSELF’,this we should never forget.
By Umesh, October 4, 2012 @ 2:04 pm

Article after along time. hope to see more in future.
By Umesh, October 5, 2012 @ 12:14 am

how to resists this external influences that give rise to desire.
as rigtly said they are so subtle, varying in nature, in so many forms, temptational. how we can detect and get rid of them. its slow poison.
how one can realize the self nature, is nature means quality that one has or doesn’t have like sincerity, honesty, respect for other, aggresiveness, patient.
its again vicious circle desire, action and desire. can only acceptance helps?