Saturday, October 24, 2009

Dharma

I beg your sincere apologies for taking your time while you read this...
Thought of writing something on Dharma "Closest world in english may be.. religion".

According to the Hindu epic Mahabharata "Dharma upholds both this-worldly and other-worldly affairs"
Dharma is a set of beliefs and practices which gives meaning to one's life.
When we say meaning to one's life it means 'it take takes its followers towards the ultimate goal of Humanity which is considered as Salvation and for those who don't believe in this : Dharma guides you to lead a happy, Saatvik (pure),contended and devoted life.
It is very unfortunate that we people at time cannot understand the true meaning of religion and start descriminating god's beautiful creation (Humans) on the basis of their religion.
Whereas all the religions guide us towards universa; brotherhood, towards one common power that belongfs to the divine almighty...who is omnipresent,formless,omnipotent and eternal.
"Consider others as yourself" This extract is present in Luke's Gospel and is believed to said by Jesus, but the same and I repeat "Exactly the SAME" quote comes from Dhamapda, the sayings of Buddha some 600 years before Jesus.

"Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling"
Words of Apostle paul (Early Christian Missionary)were same as Buddha's last words "Work out your own salvation with diligence" some 600 years apart.his shows that there are many paths to the same Goal.
In Srimadbhagwadgeeta god said "Arjun even those devotees who endowed with faith,worship other gods (with some interested motive) worship me alone,though with a mistaken approach"
A saint gave a very beautiful ex. of this
"Like water that descends from the skies and flow into the seas,
offerings to all gods, reach the supreme Deity"

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitaha
This popular hindi dictum (Dharma protect those who protect it)is a very interesting statement.
Dharmo rakshati = Dharma Protects. If we follow the principles of Dharma then we are assured of this freedom.
Rakshitaha = Protect it.It says the CONCEPT of Dharma itself needs protection too.
Now I know I am asking you to protect that whose protection you are seeking.
We should always be careful that this governing Concept of life should never be in jeopardy.
This phrase is almost similar to the fact that we need to protect our house from damages so that the house can protect us from natural calamities.

Ramakrishna Paramhansa discouraged this dogmatism witha very beautiful .
A no. of blind men came to see an elephant. Some one took them to elephant.
The blind men ask what is elephant like??? and they began to touch its body.
One of them said,"Its like a pillar" That blind man had only toched his leg."
Another man said "The elephant is like a husking basket" This fellow has only touch its ears.
Similarly, he who touched its trunk said its cylindrical tube need to water plants.
The person toched on the belly said its like a big urn pot.
Since they are able to n see some part of the elephant and you are not able to see the whole elephant.
The same thing applies to god and religions.
No one see him completely.

Oh divine soul please give us the wisdom so that all of us start believing in the true religion of manking which is Universal Brotherhood and the true God "Nirankar".

Rgds,
Gaurav

Tolerance

Tolerance
“Tolerance” : Its our permissive attitude towards the practices and views of others which conflict with ours.
When we say how much tolerance do we have, It indicates “how much of something we can stand-stress”,

For a true human being tolerance should be the capacity to accept differences, respect one another and stand up for right opinion.

We must know that there is a lot of difference in being Tolerant and being Ignorant as being ignorant is having a negative attitude towards others.



Eg When I say I am tolerating his mischief’s this means that I may not agree with all of their beliefs but I accept some of them and may implement some of them, while being ignorant points to that Since I don’t agree with any of their beliefs I am not going to react.



We need to know the true meaning of tolerance which leads to compassion and truthfulness among people around us.



At times we can solve even unavoidable circumstances via this virtue,



Would like to share a very short story on this :



There was very mischievous boy who used to stay in Hostel. His warden was quiet aware of all his activities but didn’t criticized him ever.

One day he wanted to go out and play but the hostel walls were very high, so he took a bench , climbed over it and crossed the wall.

Hostel’s warden was on round that night and he noticed the bench adjacent to wall. He got a fair idea of what would have happened.

He decided to wait for the boy in order to teach him certain lessons. The warden heard someone’s footsteps on the other side of wall, so he moved the bench, and squatted next to the wall with both hands holding his knees. The student thought the black shadow was the bench he put there. He jumped down and felt that what he landed on was unexpectedly soft, so he was frightened. He turned around and saw that it was the warden, so he quickly ran to his room. He was lying in bed and waiting for the warden to come enraged, and he could not sleep for the whole night. In the early morning class of the next day, the student felt restless in anticipation of being punished by the warden. The warden had a very solemn expression but did not bring up this matter. A few days passed, and the warden found that the boy was not so playful as before and studied harder. From then on the boy persevered, and reached great heights in his morale.



In this story, the warden did not use a simple and crude method of criticizing when he dealt with the mistake of the boy, but looked for chances to let the boy realize his shortcoming and correct his own behavior. Because of the warden's tolerant and ingenious actions, that boy was able to improve and become a great cultivator.

Rgds,
Gaurav