Realisation of truth

Tapascharya is certainly necessary for the realization of truth. Some sage who had realized truth revealed to the world the goddess of non-violence from amidst the prevailing violence,and said:"violence comes of illusion;it avails not.Non-violence alone is true."Without non-violence,it is not possible to realize truth. The vows of brahmacharya, non-stealing and non-possession are of importance for the sake of non-violence,they help one to realize it in oneself. It is the life- breath of truth. Without it, man is a beast. The seeker after truth will discover all this very early in his quest, and then he will have no difficulty at any time in understanding the meaning of Shastras.

The second rule to be followed in determining the meaning of a text in a shastras is that one should not stick to its letter, but try to understand its spirit, its meaning in the total context. Tulasidas's Ramayana is one of the greatest works because its spirit is that of purity, compassion and devotion to God. An evil fait awaits one who beats his wife because Tulasidas has said in his work that a sudra, a dull witted person, a beast and a woman merit chastisement. Rama not only never raised his hand against Sita, He did not even displeased her at any time. Tulasidas merely stated a common belief. He could never have thought that there would be brutes who might beat their wives and justify their action by reference to his verse. Maybe Tulasidas himself, following the practice of his time, used to beat his wife ; what even then? The practice does not cease to be reprehensible. In any case, his Ramayana was not composed to display the character of a perfect man, to tell us about sita, the noblest among chaste and devoted wives, and to delineated the ideal devotion of Bharat. The support which the work seems to lend to evil custom should be ignored. Tulasidas did not compose his priceless work to teach geography. We should, therefore, reject any erroneous statements of a geographical characters which we may find in it.
Only those who have experience in the practice of truths can realize the real meaning of shastras(the ultimate truth) .