We live in the world of consumerism characterized by "devotion to the overwhelming plenty." It all started with free enterprise where consumer was supposed to be the king and could dictate to the producers what he wanted. The myth of consumer's sovereignty was, finally and firmly, exploded by John Kenneth Galbraith. In his book, The New Industrial State, he made it clear that the consumer was a slave rather than a king. Advertisements constantly bombard us to buy and buy more. The popular slogans are, "shop till you drop," "neighbour's envy, owner's pride," etc. Nobody seems to speak or think of austerities. However, when people flock to gurus, ashrams and retreat centres for peace of mind, they realize that it is impossible to buy truth, knowledge, wisdom or peace of mind.
While practising austerities we need to use discrimination and learn to distinguish between true and false asceticism. Practising austerities does not mean becoming puritanical. A puritan may practise all the cardinal virtues—prudence, fortitude, temperance and chastity—and yet remain a thoroughly bad man. Often practice of such virtues is accompanied by and causally connected with pride, envy, chronic anger and uncharitableness, leading to active cruelty. Religious persecutions were often a result of extreme puritanism. A puritan is only stoically austere, but he mistakes the means for the end. Real holiness is total denial of the separative self and abandonment to the Will of God. The extent to which there is attachment to "I," there is lack of knowledge of the Divine. Austerity may actually not reduce self-will but increase it. A hedonist may do much less harm than a proud puritanical stoic. The hedonist may be ashamed of himself, while the stoic may have an untroubled conscience.
Originally, Gandhiji had put "humility" at the top of the list of qualities that the inmates of his ashram should cultivate, but seeing that this could lead to pride (people could be proud of being humble!) he wrote in his list that all virtues must be accompanied by humility.
Asceticism could be of sattvic, rajasic or tamasic nature.
Austerity practised with supreme faith and by those who long not for a reward is of the sattva quality. Austerity which is practised with hyprocrisy, for the sake of obtaining respect for oneself or for fame or favour, and which is uncertain and belonging wholly to this world, is of the quality of rajas. Those austerities which are practised merely by wounding oneself or from a false judgment or for the hurting of another are of quality of tamas. (Gita, XVII)
We need to practise asceticism at the level of body, speech and mind. Many people, especially in the East, think that the body should be tortured or at least disciplined in a harsh manner. In fact, we have ample chance of practising mortification as we live our ordinary everyday life. We need much patience and resignation, to carry our daily cross. That mortification is best which results in the elimination of self-will, self-interest, self-centred thinking, wishing and imagining. Every self-denial should be inconspicuous, non-competitive and non-injurious to health. People with a rajasic (or a tamasic) bent of mind or those who are ignorant, regard severe physical austerities as true and proper. There are numerous examples in history and mythology, and among those following Hatha-Yoga, of people standing on one foot or with one arm raised or even allowing their bodies to be eaten by worms. Shri Krishna condemns such mortifications in the Gita, thus:
Those who practise severe self-mortification not enjoined in the Scriptures are full of hypocrisy and pride, longing for what is past and desiring more to come. They, full of delusion, torture the powers and faculties which are in the body, and me also, who am in the recesses of the innermost heart; know that they are of an infernal tendency. (Gita, XVII)
Many such extreme austerities are practised for a specific gain or to fulfil some selfish desire. Women are no exception to this. In the Mahabharata, when Amba found that her former fiancé was unwilling to marry her, and Bhishma too refused her, she vowed to take revenge on Bhishma. By practising severe austerities she transformed herself into Shikhandi, a male, and mortally wounded Bhishma in the war. Austerities practiced for the attainment of specific gain or for favour from some deity very often lead to pride, followed by inevitable downfall. Torturing the faculties of the body is not true penance, since the body by itself is incapable of action. Body is merely an organized aggregation of physical matter, to be used and controlled by the thinker. It is the thinker who needs to change his modes of thought and action. Although it sounds much simpler than standing on one foot, control and training of the mind is very difficult. It is very tough to change one mode of thought and replace it by another. It may be controlling the temper or changing the habit of overeating. At times we are unwilling to accept the fault in us, and even if we do accept, we try to explain it away or make excuses. The Gita describes true bodily austerity thus: "Honouring the gods, the Brahmans, the teachers and the wise; purity, rectitude, chastity and harmlessness are the mortification of the body."
Mortification of speech means refraining from saying anything uncharitable or merely frivolous and behaving calmly and cheerfully when external circumstances predispose us to anciety or gloom or excessive elation. "Gentle speech which causes no anxiety, which is truthful and friendly, and diligence in the reading of the Scriptures, are said to be austerities of speech" (Gita, XVII). Practice of silence that is recommended as mortification of the mind, is mortification of speech as well. "Serenity of mind, mildness of temper, silence, self-restraint, absolute straight-forwardness of conduct, are called mortification of the mind." (Gita, XVII). The necessary and unavoidable corollary to "Thy Kingdom come" is "my kingdom go." For, the more there is of the self, the less there is of the divine. We live on the borderline between two worlds—the temporal and the eternal. If we do not watch ourselves, we may lean too much towards the mundane and the physical world to gradual total exclusion of the divine. Austerities are simply for the purpose of making space for the divine, for giving us time for the contemplation of the higher ideas and values. Austerities are means to an end and therefore should never be mistaken for the end nor undertaken for any other purpose. Mortification is the broom which removes the dross from the field, which if not cleared, would not be ready for the divine.
We must formulate for ourselves a noble aim and mortification should be made subservient to that aim. For instance, people like Gandhiji and Maharshi Karve, first made resolve to alleviate the suffering of the poor in India, of widowed women, etc. In order to fulfil this aim they had to undertake austerities. The giving up of western clothes by Gandhiji was not important in itself. The hardships in terms of losing his job and living on very little income were not the desired things, but when they came upon Maharshi Karve, there was no regret for the path chosen. Deeds of mortification became a way of life. Prince Siddhartha gave up his kingdom and went into the forest and hardly felt that he was undertaking austerities. It was merely what was necessary to do in order to try to achieve what he had wanted to achieve. But later he gave up the very carefully modulated fast he had undertaken because he realized that it was not the way to Sambodhi.
True austerity or mortification is not physical deprivation like total fasting, torturing one's body, etc. Severe mortification of Hatha-Yoga may help in acquiring some psychic powers. But spiritual teachers have warned of the dangers of attaining such powers. Without real spiritual knowledge such psychic powers are like a weapon in skilled hands that are guided by unskilful and usually selfish minds. Sooner or later, the person possessing such powers is tempted to misuse them.
Lord Krishna says:
Deeds of sacrifice, of mortification, and of charity are not to be abandoned, for they are proper to be performed, and are the purifiers of the wise. But even those works are to be performed after having renounced all selfish interest in them and in their fruits. (Gita, XVIII)
