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Understanding Hypocrisy in the Context of Spiritual Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  In the legendary novel by Alexander Dumas, The Count of
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  Monte Cristo, an interesting anecdote is woven into the text
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  as the underlying cause of the great fortune Edmund Dantes
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  eventually recovered is related as due to the actions of a
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  corrupt Pope who coveted money and who sold positions of
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  cardinal in the Roman Church to wealthy men and then contrived
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  to have them killed so he could resell the position.
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  One of these men, understanding the risk he was undergoing,
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  secreted his fortune on the Isle of Monte Cristo.
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  The story of the corrupt Pope in this instance, who lived the
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  life of a power hungry libertine with a lust for control of great
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  wealth to indulge his desires, including a number of affairs
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  with various mistresses, is based on an actual Pope,
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  Alexander the 6th, who came from the infamous Borgia family and
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  who used his holy robes as a means of indulging in behavior
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  that remains shocking and infamous to this day.
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  Modern day society has seen various individuals rise to
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  great prominence as religious leaders and thereby accumulate
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  enormous amounts of money which they use to fuel a lavish
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  lifestyle and to enhance their power and prestige.
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  What they preach and how they live their lives wind up in
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  opposition to each other. In whatever form someone can
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  acquire power and influence and use it for personal self
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  aggrandizement, it is certain that some individuals have
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  abused that power and influence and thereby besmirched the
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  dignity that they have assumed under false pretences.
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  This occurs throughout the world and is not limited to a
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  particular religion or teaching. It is one of the misuses of
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  power that the vital nature utilizes in some case to fulfill
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  its desire. While we pay attention to
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  headline cases, the same dynamic takes place at every level of
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  human activity. The Dhammapada makes this point
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  clear as we see in the below reference.
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  Quote he who puts on the yellow robe while he is yet impure,
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  lacking in self-control and lacking in loyalty.
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  Truly he is unworthy to wear the yellow robe of the monk.
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  End Quote. The damaputa, the mother
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  observes quote. It is noteworthy that the two
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  defects insisted upon here are lack of self-control and lack of
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  loyalty. Loyalty means here sincerity,
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  honesty. What the Damapada censures most
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  severely is hypocrisy. To pretend that you want to live
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  the spiritual life and not to do it.
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  To pretend that you want to seek the truth and not to do it.
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  To display the external signs of consecration to the divine life,
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  here symbolized by the yellow robe, but within to be concerned
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  only with oneself, one's selfishness, and one's own
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  needs. End Quote.
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  Reference through your window and the Mother looking from
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  within. Chapter 5.
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  Attitudes on the Path, page 118.