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DISCOURSE 20
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and again, yet he failed to understand it. He had taken a vow, "If I cannot understand any shastra or any theory and if anyone makes me understand it, I will become his disciple. Whatever condition that scholar puts forth in order to make me understand the shastra or theory, I will act according to it”. He had not openly stated that vow but he had taken it and kept it in his mind firmly. This was his valued worth of himself. It is not an easy thing to act according to one's vow or determination which is not openly stated. People break even the vows that they openly make or take. They do not even care to conform to their stated determinations and vows. When that is, so, where is the question of people acting according to their unexpressed vows ?
Now-a-days, the will-power of people, has grown weak and broken. Man has become mentally weak. It has become difficult for people to carry out their spiritual vows. It has become easy for them to break a vow taken to carry out an austerity. Just as people do not have the strength of mind to carry out their spiritual vows, they do not have strength to act according to their words and vows even in their worldly life. Now-a-days, divorces have become common. What is a marriage? Marriage binds man and woman to live as husband and wife and to be loyal to each other in thought, word and deed, throughout their lives. This is a sacred bondage. Weak-minded people cannot conform even to the sacred marriage vows. The special worth of great men is this. They possess great strength of mind and so they carry out their vows not caring even for their life. This special virtue appears in a man at the very beginning of his pilgrimage to attain spiritual development.
__ 'प्राणान् त्यजति धर्मार्थ, न धर्म प्राणसंकटे ।' “They give up their lives for dharma; but they do not give up their dharma in order to save their lives.” THE PRIEST HARIBHADRASOORI MEETS THE SADHVI IN THE UPASHRAY
Haribhadrasooriji himself has described this event in his work, Yogadrishti Samucchaya. He could not understand the
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