From time immemorial, India has been a land of piety and devotion. Every Indian is inherently religious minded. Indians show a great respect to sadhus who are found in a very large number in every part of India.
There are hundreds of sects among the sadhus. Some grow long matted hair and remain naked except the loin cloth around their waists. They besmear their bodies with ashes and sit day and night beside a burning fire.They are heavy smokers. Their eyes are always bloodshot.
Some are clean-shaven. They put on purple coloured robes. Some are great scholars and fascinate the people with their sermons. Some are rogues in the guise of Sadhus. They exploit the ignorant and superstitious people. Sadhus generally keep wandering from place to place.
Ordinary sadhus who possess no merit and who have nothing to give to the worldly people, beg and wander from place to place. They have made begging a profession. They are hangers-on and idlers. They do not deserve any charity.
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There are others who own rich estates and have a number of followers. They live in a grand way and do not beg from door to door. Their disciples supply them all their needs and donate handsomely for the causes dear to them.
There are others who can call nothing their own. They have renounced the world and all that is worldly. They are true devotees of God. They have merged themselves into God. Their one aim in life is service of humanity. They are really superb men.
But they do not live in a city or a town. They generally live in the far off Himalayas or in some such secluded place where men cannot go. They do not wander after the people, the people wander after them. They can work wonders.
They can transform the world. Swami Dayanand, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda and Swami Ram Tirath were such noble souls. We may call them Sadhus or we may call them Rishis. They certainly lived a life of prayer and penance.
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They made this world a better place to live in than they found it at their birth. They made their mark wherever they went. The world worships them. The people kiss the dust under their feet.
All sadhus are not good. Some of them are rogues and hypocrites. They are a curse to society. They are devils in the garb of sadhus. They are the worst sinners. Some of them are kidnappers. They kidnap young girls and children. They are drunkards, smokers and gamblers. They are pick-pockets. Beware of such bogus sadhus.