"I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe tears of a widow or bring bread to the mouth of an orphan"
-Swami Vivekananda
Talk by Dr Mahesh Mehta on Dharma in our life -
Religion is not important, what is more important is Dharma. It encompasses religion. We often talk about dharma in our daily life, but where are our rights?! Ancient Indian literature doesn't quite account for rights and the reason is very simple. Dharma of each individual gurantees rights of others. Thus, when I follow my Dharma as a son, my father's rights are established. My dharma as a husband ensures rights of my wife, and vice-versa. One may lead to a conclusion that neglecting dharma amounts to taking away someone else's rights. So, dharmic principles may never be allowed to flounder.
Succinctly, one may outline 5 major principles of dharma, and they are given below:
a) Everything is God - tree, snake, you, I. There is Unity in all. That's why various objects and creatures are worshipped by Indians. This philosophy is taken from the Isopanishad - Isa vaad avisaM sharnam.
b) We are divine. We do not worship many gods. Nor is there ONE God. There is only THE God. The distinction is important. In quatifying God as one, two, or 330 million, you are setting an artificial limit. THE God just is. And that divinity is within us. Someday, when the veil of ignorance that shapes the body, mind, and intellect, is lifted, we will be able to see the supreme Reality.
c) Truth is One - Ekam Sat. We accept a multiplicity of faiths. When we worhip Hanuman, we are not worhipping the idol itself. There is "PratisthapanA" in that idol. When we write a small infinity on a piece of paper, is that Infinity? What if we write a huge circle? Is that nothingness, a void, a zero? Ofcourse not. These are representations of the infinity and zero.
d) Awareness of cosmic consciousness. Vasudeva Kutumbukum. Independence should not be worshipped, rather, society should be cherished. This is ONE family, where we are all connected. The current scenario of a Global Village is not one of Unity. It is where the entire world is a market place and the humans are nothing but consumers. Vyasti, sRusti, Parameshwara --> there is a connection between these and our relationship with each other is similarly connected.
e) Relative truth changes. If I ask you the time, you may say that it is 4:10pm. Five minutes later if you're asked the time, you will say that it is 4:15pm. Were you lying earlier or are you lying now? Ofcourse not. The reality as changed and this kind of statement is called relative truth because it changes. The Vedic seers were on an eternal quest of Truth -- and that should be the goal of our Dharma. Goal of life is gathering knowledge. Modern science believes in objective truth. Spiritual science believes in subjective truth. This knowledge was gathered over time. The vedic seers said 1000s of years ago that everything in this universe is vibrations. String theory essentially propounds the same thing that the essential component of every elementary particle is waves, or vibrations.
To do:
solicit position papers on dharma; new economic world order - currently it is money-centric. we need it more dharma centric -- dharma pradhaan artha vyavastha. For eg. friendly behavior towards the environment and how to monitor it. We can also have a position paper that expresses the deep-rooted cultural aspect of India.
-Swami Vivekananda
Talk by Dr Mahesh Mehta on Dharma in our life -
Religion is not important, what is more important is Dharma. It encompasses religion. We often talk about dharma in our daily life, but where are our rights?! Ancient Indian literature doesn't quite account for rights and the reason is very simple. Dharma of each individual gurantees rights of others. Thus, when I follow my Dharma as a son, my father's rights are established. My dharma as a husband ensures rights of my wife, and vice-versa. One may lead to a conclusion that neglecting dharma amounts to taking away someone else's rights. So, dharmic principles may never be allowed to flounder.
Succinctly, one may outline 5 major principles of dharma, and they are given below:
a) Everything is God - tree, snake, you, I. There is Unity in all. That's why various objects and creatures are worshipped by Indians. This philosophy is taken from the Isopanishad - Isa vaad avisaM sharnam.
b) We are divine. We do not worship many gods. Nor is there ONE God. There is only THE God. The distinction is important. In quatifying God as one, two, or 330 million, you are setting an artificial limit. THE God just is. And that divinity is within us. Someday, when the veil of ignorance that shapes the body, mind, and intellect, is lifted, we will be able to see the supreme Reality.
c) Truth is One - Ekam Sat. We accept a multiplicity of faiths. When we worhip Hanuman, we are not worhipping the idol itself. There is "PratisthapanA" in that idol. When we write a small infinity on a piece of paper, is that Infinity? What if we write a huge circle? Is that nothingness, a void, a zero? Ofcourse not. These are representations of the infinity and zero.
d) Awareness of cosmic consciousness. Vasudeva Kutumbukum. Independence should not be worshipped, rather, society should be cherished. This is ONE family, where we are all connected. The current scenario of a Global Village is not one of Unity. It is where the entire world is a market place and the humans are nothing but consumers. Vyasti, sRusti, Parameshwara --> there is a connection between these and our relationship with each other is similarly connected.
e) Relative truth changes. If I ask you the time, you may say that it is 4:10pm. Five minutes later if you're asked the time, you will say that it is 4:15pm. Were you lying earlier or are you lying now? Ofcourse not. The reality as changed and this kind of statement is called relative truth because it changes. The Vedic seers were on an eternal quest of Truth -- and that should be the goal of our Dharma. Goal of life is gathering knowledge. Modern science believes in objective truth. Spiritual science believes in subjective truth. This knowledge was gathered over time. The vedic seers said 1000s of years ago that everything in this universe is vibrations. String theory essentially propounds the same thing that the essential component of every elementary particle is waves, or vibrations.
To do:
solicit position papers on dharma; new economic world order - currently it is money-centric. we need it more dharma centric -- dharma pradhaan artha vyavastha. For eg. friendly behavior towards the environment and how to monitor it. We can also have a position paper that expresses the deep-rooted cultural aspect of India.
posted by yash | 1:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home