There are two extremes to the type of people who would become a Sadhu: those who want to show their religious devotion by giving up all except the necessities to live and those who have no other means of supporting themselves and are incapable of doing anything else.
For those who are trying to follow the Bhakti Marga, becoming a sadhu seems to be one of the most intense ways of showing your total devotion to a god. Sadhus literally have nothing; they must be given food and other necessities by those around them. When one is completely absorbed in a god they do not desire anything more than these bare necessities. Living with so little makes the sadhu even less attached to the world and therefore closer to realizing that the differences in the universe are merely an illusion. The lifestyle of the Sadhu sounds like the one of a person in their final stage of life, the Sannyasin or wanderer. They are to remain detached from the world after returning from their solitary time in the forest to sever most ties that bind them to the physical world. Sadhus hardly interact with other people they are being given food or are blessing a person.
However, the reality is that there are some in the population who are deceptive and dishonest. People also become sadhus because there is no other choice. They are too poor to support themselves other than begging for food and necessities. Under the guise of being very holy, these people are able to beg with society’s approval. It also gives them opportunity to catch people unawares and steal from them as they are blessing them. This doesn’t necessarily mean the sadhus are harmful for the society. Those who give food to the sadhus get good karma which gives them a good feeling and gives the sadhu something to eat when he or she might have gone hungry instead. In this way the poor are taken care of with the other member of the community receiving spiritual benefit in return.
3 comments:
This is good! I agree with everything you said especially what you mentioned about the people who become Sadhus because they have no other means of living. Do you think that people in the community still respect these Sadhus, do they even know the difference? I find it interesting and ironic that the real Sadhus are those who give up everything to try to achieve moksha and and then there are those Sadhus (or poor people) who just want money or other material things, kind of the reverse of what a Sadhu should be. There are so many questions to be asked about these types of Sadhus, what does this mean for them in their next life? Are they also trying to achieve moksha?
Do their motivations even matter? Isn't it enough to live a life without material possessions, dependent on the generosity of others? Many Hindus venerate Sadhus even with full awareness of their transgressions.
What you said is interesting. I am wondering though, if it matters why a sadhu is a sadhu. Whether they are trying to achieve Moksha or whether they are just poor, they are still at a larger diconnect from the outside world than those people who are attactched to their belongings. The motive I wonder more about is whether the people of the villiage give the sadhus food because they genuinlly care about them or whether they are just trying to recieve good karma.
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