This is a difficult dictum for monastics of the current order but possible to follow if earnestness be there. The demands of philanthropic activity enjoined on them by Swamiji as the necessary means of spiritual culture make social intercourse complicated for monks these days. Interaction with politicians, the requirement of funds, legal complications of organisational life and the stresses of survival in a market flooded with competitive NGOs, all tend to divert the monk's attention from pure spirituality to an admixture of spirituality and materialism.
To keep the balance in this precipitous detour to the Divine calls for a genuine spiritual hankering that undeflected moves on to the summit of realisations. But for the renunciate of more modest spiritual means, the demands of interaction with the world of the senses by way of discharging one's organisational duty becomes a challenge, with the possibility of a fall. Thus, it is the spiritual duty of the lay public as well to to provide all sorts of help to the monks without inducing them into making compromises with the world out of organisational necessity. The laity must always serve the monastics to make their material and organisational survival easier, but all along maintaining the required distance that decency demands. Overmuch of devotion in explicit verbal and behavioural terms that complicates relations must be assiduously avoided by the laity. This will help preserve the purity of the monastic, speaking from the perspective of the lay public. The attitude of the monk and the man will then be one of mutual reverence at a distance and most conducive to the preservation of purity which is the primary condition for civilised living and the attainment of the higher objectives of life.
Written by Sugata Bose
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