Father Sergius and What It Is To Be A Monk

"Who is a monk?" My friend had asked.

"One who is pure at heart," I had said.

"But what is it to be pure at heart?" He had asked.

To this question I did not have a ready answer. Scriptures enlist virtues which are generally attributed to being a good human, but these virtues do not necessarily endow a human being with purity of heart.

What it takes then, to be pure at heart?

I remembered a book read long ago. Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy. The one character created by the legendary literary maestro through whom he had so well explained his idea of a pure human heart.

Let me tell you about this Father Sergius then.

In this book Tolstoy has described the life story of the young aristocrat Kasatsky who has a promising career in the Tsar's military, is betrothed to a young woman of high society and is himself in Tsar's good book. But he abandones everything and becomes a hermit after he learns that his betrothed used to sleep with Tsar and also the fact that he himself is the Tsar's illegitimate child. He scorns and spurrs Tsar's attempt at making him happy in life and embraces the life of a hermit.

But Kasatsky fails to overcome his lust and his craving for human praise. His search for truth drives him relentlessly. In a dream he has a vision of a childhood relative, a timid and simple girl named Pashenka whom he and others would tease as a child.

Kasatsky takes this vision as a prophetic one and goes looking for Pashenka. He fnds out that Pashenka, now a poor, aged woman, lives with her daughter's family and supports them with her labour and her earnings.

What moves Kasatsky is that Pashenka, despite the harsh way life has treated her, still retains her simplicity and humility.

Kasatsky realises that in order to become a monk he should have become what Pashenka already is. He should have overcome his craving for human praise and sought God in simple acts of kindness.

So this is the idea of a pure human heart presented through Father Sergius.

A pure heart is the one which does not do a noble work in the expectation of praise from others, but simply does what is expected of him as a human being.

A pure heart is the one that does not brood over how others have wronged him, but goes on performing simple acts of gentle kindness towards everybody.

To be humble and graceful towards others is what it takes to be truly praiseworthy in the eyes of Him.

This is what a true monk is.