Daily Readings
Dharma – Basic Ethics
Spiritual Message for the Day – Dharma – Basic Ethics by Swami Krishnananda
Baba Times Digest© | 10 November 2014 18.53 EST | New York Edition
Dharma – Basic Ethics
Divine Life Society Publication: A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India by Swami Krishnananda
The Mahabharata is an epic of life. It depicts the truth that life is a journey and its meaning is in the practice of dharma. Virtue triumphs in the end and vice is put down by the universal justice. The things of the world are perishable and human glory is short-lived. The accumulations that one makes do not last long. Every rise has a fall. All union ends in separation. Life ends in death. As logs of wood meet one another and get separated in the vast ocean, so do beings meet one another and get separated here.
Desire does not cease by fulfilment; on the other hand, it increases when it is fulfilled, like fire over which ghee has been poured. All the wealth of the world is not enough to satisfy the cravings of even one person; knowing this, one should attain tranquillity of mind.
We had innumerable mothers and fathers, wives and children in several lives. To whom do we really belong? What is the relation that obtains among us? Every day, people are seen dying and being cremated; and yet the remaining ones imagine that their death is not near. What can be a greater wonder in this world?
A wise person does not grieve over the pains or is exhilarated over the joys of life. He is a fool, who gets sunk in them and forgets his destiny.
Dharma is supreme in this world. Dharma brings material prosperity (artha), fulfilment of wishes (kama) and final liberation (moksha). It is surprising that people do not pay attention to the need for practice of dharma, when everything can be achieved through it. The essence of dharma is that no one should do to others what one would not like others to do to oneself. Selfishness is death. Unselfishness is immortality. Both death and deathlessness are in one's own person and not in some distant place.
The individual may have to be abandoned for the good of a group, or family; the group for the good of a larger community; the community for the good of the country or nation; and, even the whole world for the realisation of the Atman.
Heedlessness (Pramada) is death. There is no other death. The sense of 'mine'-ness is death. The knowledge, 'nothing is mine', is immortality.
The Mahabharata Epic, emphasises in different ways that life in the world is transitory and the realisation of God is the goal of life.
Excerpts from: Dharma – Basic Ethics - A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit: The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at: generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \* Email to BT Digest Editor* ****( dlsusa.org@gmail.com)**