| |
and torturing others. In the name of religion it is very easy because you can give a motivation to people -- that if you torture yourself, you will gain much in the other life.
That motivation, that greed... they don't call it motivation or greed, and they don't call torture what I am calling torture -- they call it tapascharya, sadhana, 'spiritual discipline'. But just giving a good name to an ugly thing does not change its nature. It is not a spiritual discipline, it is simple torture. But under the name of spiritual discipline you can torture yourself.
Down the ages, in how many ways have religious people tortured themselves? If you come to know the whole story you will be simply amazed. There have been Christian ascetics whose practice consisted -- still consists, they are still in existence -- in beating themselves, early in the morning, naked. And the person who managed to beat himself the most was thought to be the greatest saint. The blood would be oozing out of the body, and they would go on flagellating. And the crowd would gather around their monastery to see this scene. And that crowd would support them, appreciate them, clap them, and help them to beat themselves more. And of course when a big crowd is appreciating you, you can go to any limit. Many times a person would die beating himself. Then he would be declared a saint by the pope. These people are still in existence.
There has been a Christian sect which uses shoes with nails inside, going into the feet, so there are wounds in the feet, and the nails are going into the feet, and they will walk on these shoes. And those nails will keep those wounds alive, bleeding. They cannot heal; there is no way of their healing, nothing is being done to heal them. On the contrary, the nails are put in the shoes in such a way that they go on and on creating the wound, so the wound may not be allowed to heal naturally.
They used belts also around their waist, with nails going into their body... with wounds all around. And these people have been worshipped. You have been worshipping mad people; these people needed psychiatric treatment. They were not religious; they were simply mental
|
|
|