Virtues and ethics development in Society responsibility of whom?

As the day progresses we today constantly hear of violence, unrest amongst citizens and in addition in paralle hear the common moto of peace promised by different political parties.
Is Peace possible without a systematic training and development of moral and ethics in the society?

Today;  families,  until the top government ; lay less importance to moral and ethics development in children; rather emphasize on technical growth and development in the children. Thus we see parents and political leaders boast of their children handling technology in ease from their young age; but disregard their relegious and spiritual education which influences moral and ethical balance in the society. Today although the society has become advanced in the use of technology; we see a parallel exponential rise in crime rate among men, against women, children, elders, amongst family members for simple reason of greed. In addition we see exponential rise in suicide rates amongst children unable to cope up with material competition.

A systematic spiritual education in  Sanatana Dharma culture not only creates mental strength; but also inner peace and satisfaction deep within the heart of the individual, thus acts as an instrument in maintaining harmony amongst individuals.

Traditionally a Kshatriya King acted as a true father by taking full responsibility in its citizens by facilitating their spiritual development along with their economic development.

Its upto todays government to take true ownership in this regards and thus being instrumental to peace in the society instead of giving blind promise to communal peace in exchange of power.

Hands that serve are better than lips that pray ??

Today we hear this common saying quoted by everyone; that is " Hands that serve are better than lips that pray". Is this saying a recent invention? or has been practised since the past?

According to our Sanatana Dharma; our eternal preceptors in this line have practised the art of " lips that prays along with hands that serve". Just like two parallel running railway tracks that accompanies each itself in the path; similarly hands cannot serve truly until it is empowered with true determination and selfless service which is obtained by praying unto the Divine.

Today we hear people engaged in different social welfare activities from the NGO's and in addition different influential business magnates and politicians performing different social services to the common men. But are these activities truly dedicated to others without a hidden agenda of material profit, self adoration, display of power, political domination etc...?
Unless each individual is helped to understand and develop its lost relationship with the Supreme Divine and trained to pray, there is no chance for individuals hearts to get purified of all material contamination. Unless the hearts are purified, there is no chance of sincere selfless service to sprout from the core of ones heart.

The Ultimate Poison!!

In Samskritam Subhashitham there is a wonderful verse which says

"दीपो भक्षयते ध्वान्तं कज्जलं च प्रसूयते 

यादृशं भक्षयेदन्नं जायते तादृशी प्रजा      ||"

The lamp consumes darkness and generates soot/smoke. (Similarly) The type of food you eat has a corresponding influence on the offspring.]

Another variation of the subhashita ends as 'तादृशी मति: ' which means that the food you eat produces the quality of thinking that emanates from you.

Now a question arises, what kind of food do we need to consume?

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita says 

"Bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt." 

 "Anyone who eats for sense pleasure, or cooks for himself, not offering his food to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari, eats only sin."

All the variegated objects in the material worlds are of 3 kinds i.e Sattva ( Goodness ), Rajas( Passion ) and Tamas( Ignorance ).

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita has described elaborately on the 3 kinds of food that must be consumed and that must be avoided.

Bg 17.8

āyuḥ-sattva-balārogya-
sukha-prīti-vivardhanāḥ
rasyāḥ snigdhāḥ sthirā hṛdyā
āhārāḥ sāttvika-priyāḥ

Foods dear to those in the mode of goodness increase the duration of life, purify one’s existence and give strength, health, happiness and satisfaction. Such foods are juicy, fatty, wholesome, and pleasing to the heart.

Bg 17.9

kaṭv-amla-lavaṇāty-uṣṇa-
tīkṣṇa-rūkṣa-vidāhinaḥ
āhārā rājasasyeṣṭā
duḥkha-śokāmaya-pradāḥ

Foods that are too bitter, too sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry and burning are dear to those in the mode of passion. Such foods cause distress, misery and disease.

Bg 17.10

yāta-yāmaṁ gata-rasaṁ
pūti paryuṣitaṁ ca yat
ucchiṣṭam api cāmedhyaṁ
bhojanaṁ tāmasa-priyam

Food prepared more than three hours before being eaten, food that is tasteless, decomposed and putrid, and food consisting of remnants and untouchable things is dear to those in the mode of darkness.

The Supreme Lord Sri Hari who is situated in the pure sattva platform purifies the food we offer to him, and thus the food consumed purifies our mental and physical existence, creating a suitable platform to help understand the absolute truth.

Representatives of Supreme Lord Sri Hari!

                                                Srih:

The need for guidance is strongly felt in todays society right from Youngsters to elders in pursuit of their respective materialistic and spiritual goals of life. Even the highly intelligent and knowledgeable Arjuna was perplexed on the performance of his duties. People fail to realize the temporary nature of their material pursuits and thus drown themselves in the ocean of anxiety and fleeting material pleasures.

We observe in our general lives the great distress and separation a mother feels for her son who is away abroad although another son is with her; similarly the Supreme Lord Narayana being the Supreme Father and Mother of all living entities feels great separation for his jivatmas residing in the other side of Viraja Nadhi in Samsara Mandala although he is being served with all devotion and opulence by unlimited eternally liberated souls(Nitya Suris) in Sri Vaikuntha. This is confirmed in the Vishnu Suktha i.e “tad visnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti surayah”. If a normal father and mother who is related to us for few years can have so much attachment to their children; one can hardly imagine the unlimited affection the Supreme Lord can have for his jivatmas who are eternally related to him as his part and parcels. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita “mamai vamso jiva loke jiva bhuta sanatana” i.e every living being is a part and parcel of the Supreme Lord Narayana i.e Shariram of the Supreme Lord. When someone harms any part of our body we immediately experience pain as it is a part of my own body; similarly as all jivatmas are his own shariram; the Supreme Lord experiences severe pain and anxiety seeing them suffer in the samsara which is an ocean of birth and death. Thus out of his natural affection for his children (jivatmas); he takes several endeavors’ to reclaim the fallen atmas from the deep and dangerous ocean of samsara marked with repeated birth and deaths. He first decided to create Vedas, which is in the form of instruction for the mankind, taking help of which anyone can attain the goal of moksha. Unfortunately on account of its extreme complexity there were hardly any to attain him. He then decided to himself reincarnate and practice what he himself preached to set an example for the common men to attain him, however this was in vain as only vidwans and rishis could recognize him and follow his path. As a last endeavor he decided to empower certain jivatmas with his shakthi so that they could make some difference in the lives of common men by their own example just like an hunter catches an elephant using  an another elephant. Thus arose galaxies of acharyas in our Sanatana Dharma fold who not only preached the esoteric philosophies with its meanings from the Veda- Vedantam to the common men but who also practiced what they preached in their daily lives thus establishing a wonderful Role Model for the common men to follow.

The word Guru means one who is heavy in Knowledge. He is competent to destroy the   ajñāna of his disciple by his instructions. The Supreme Lord Krishna in his Gita stresses the importance of Guru and the necessity to surrender ourselves to him i.e “tad viddhi pranipatena pariprasnena sevaya upadeksyanti te jnanam jnaninas tattva-darsinah”. The Srimad Bhagavatham 11.17.27 says “acaryam mam vijaniyam navamanyeta karhicit na martya-buddhyasuyeta sarva-deva-mayo guruh:” i.e. An Acharya is a direct representative of the Supreme Lord and non-different from him, he is an embodiment of all the devas as his life is dedicated to the mission of the Supreme Lord to establish Dharma all over the world. Thus he must not be envied by the common men either in their mind, words, action or deeds. He is an embodiment of mercy of the Supreme Lord as he acts as a media to understand the spiritual truths hidden in the Vedas. The common men on account of the defects of their materialistic sense organs do not have the capacity to either perceive or understand the absolute truth by their own mental speculation as bhagavan and the spiritual subject matters are transcendental i.e above the influence of the 3 Gunas i.e. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Thus it is confirmed in the Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12 “ tad-vijnanartham sa gurum evabhigachhet samit panih srotriyam brahma nistham” i.e “ In order to learn the transcendental science, one must approacha guru in the disciplic succession who is fixed in the absolute truth. The Vana Parva 313.117 of the Mahabharatha states “ dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam mahajano yena gatah sa panthah “ It is very difficult to understand the science of the Supreme unless one learns under the footsteps of acharyas in diciplic succession.“. Bhagavat Gita confirms “evam parampara praptam..” i.e “ This Supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession “ . Also as confirmed by Adi Sankaracharya “Narayana paro avyakthat”. The nature of the Supreme Lord as being superior to the Prakrthi is also confirmed in the Srimad Bhagavatham which is the essence of all the Puranas i.e  “namasye puruṣaḿ tvādyam. īśvaraḿ prakṛteḥ param “ . Its confirmed in the Upanishads “ tamasah: parasthat “ i.e “ The supreme Lord is transcendental to the Prakrthi Mandala. Thus as Bhagavan is superior to the ordinary conditional souls, is there any possibility for the jivatmas to realize and attain him? ; as bhagavan stresses in Gita : “ janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatah: “ i.e “One who understands in truth the nature of my appearance and actions; upon leaving this body does not take birth again but attains the Supreme abode of the Lord. Also Upanishads confirm “ tattva jnanat moksha labah: ajnanat samsarah:” i.e “ One who realizes the Truth attains Moksha and the others take repeated births in Samsara. “ . Thus in answer to this; the Upanishads reply “ yasya deve para bhakthir yatha deve tatha gurou “ i.e  “ Only unto those who has unflinching faith and Bhakthi unto both Guru and Bhagavan; unto him all the imports of the vedic literatures are automatically revealed.  The Mundaka Upanishad(3.2.3) states “ nayam atma pravacanena labhyo na medhaya na bahuna srutena” i.e  “ One cannot become self realized by ordinary mundane academic education neither by ones own intelligence but by only the causeless mercy of the Supreme Absolute truth. This mercy is obtained via the medium of an acharyas.

Thus the importance of acharyas/ vaishnavas who are the torchbearers of vedic knowledge is deeply stressed and elaborated in all the vedic literatures. Now we shall study some of their unique qualities which what makes them very dear to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari with the light of some of their pastimes mentioned in the Guru Parampara

Sleep and Material Suffering

A diseased person mind in deep sleep forgets his material suffering and pain he is undergoing. Similarly the vedas provides a simple solution towards bliss for all i.e control of Mind. 

In Sri Bhagavad Gita; Sri Krishna says 

Bg 6.5

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ
nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur
ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

The Process of control of mind is called Yoga which is the subject matter of discussion in Sri Bhagavat Gita wherein Sri Krishna illustrates different types of Yoga and finally culminates with the Supreme type of Yoga i.e Bhakthi Yoga and Saranagathi.

A person whose mind is absorbed in devotion to the Supreme Lord Sri Hari and his topics does not feel the pangs of sufferings of the material world and thus becomes transcendental to its sufferings in the form of janma(birth), mrthyu ( death ) , jara (old age ) , vyadhi ( disease ) , fear of maintenance and suffering caused by individuals etc

'Company' , Supreme Lord Sri Hari and Onsite Opportunity.

A fresh college graduate sincerely desires to get into a job and thus applies to different companies who visit his campus. He gets selected after a rigorous selection process and joins as a trainee in a company. The company spends and provides complete training for his technical growth. Seeing his sincere work, the company itself facilitates and provides him onsite opportunity to represent his company on different projects.
The concept of Saranagathi is similar to this. The only qualification a saranagatha must process is a deep hunger to attain the Supreme and complete depandance on the mercy of the absolute truth. Just like the college graduate completely depends on the company for his technical training and growth, a saranagatha completely depends on Sri Hari. Thus the supreme lord acts as an upayam ( means ) step by step by providing various opportunities to attain him. He himself sends an acharya ( a spiritual truth ) and trains him in the esoteric meanings of the vedas. He himself destroys the papa ( sins )  of the saranagatha which act as an obstacle to attain him. He finally provides the saranagatha with the ultimate visa ( moksha ) to attain the ultimate onsite destination; that is; the Supreme land of Bliss 'Sri Vaikuntha'. All this is possible on account of the supreme quality Karuna ( compassion ) of the supreme lord towards his children the jivatmas ; which is contrary in the case of company ; who subjects the candidates to rigorous and strict selection process and scrutinization before recruiting them.

  

Secularisim and Sanatana Dharma

In todays world, the politically leaders are in dire need of a society where people do not discriminate between gender, community, age, caste and creed and possess an equal vision to all. Although the desire is great, are we progressing in the right direction to achieve such a goal? Does today educational institutions provide a practical framework or a methodology to train future leaders or students to achieve this ? The answer is 'NO'.

In the 5th Chapter of the Sri Bhagavad Gita; Sri Krishna says: "
 vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
suni caiva sva-pake ca
panditah sama-darsinah"

" The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and a gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog eater " 

Now what is this true knowledge ?

Sri Krishna in the 2nd Chapter of Sri Bhagavad Gita says. "

prajahāti yadā kāmān
sarvān pārtha mano-gatān
ātmany evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ
sthita-prajñas tadocyate

"

Arjuna, a person who is pleased in mind realizing his own atma; is a person of true steady knowledge."

Sri Krishna again glorifies that education of atma as being the topmost in the 9th Chapter 2nd Sloka of the Sri Bhagavad Gita as 

rāja-vidyā rāja-guhyaṁ
pavitram idam uttamam
pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ
su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam

"This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge and because it gives direct perception of the self ( atma ), it is the perfection of relegion. It is everlasting and joyfully performed."

That educational institution which teaches this supreme science of aquiring this equal vision is the topmost educational system.

Sri Krishna declares in Sri Bhagavad Gita 4th Chapter; how this great Supreme science was thus handed over through eons of generations in our culture of Sanatana Dharma ( the eternal relegion ) through lineage of Raja Rishis.

imaṁ vivasvate yogaṁ
proktavān aham avyayam
vivasvān manave prāha

manur ikṣvākave ’bravīt

" I instructed this imperishable science of yoga to the Sun God, Vivasvan and then Vivasvan instructed it to Manu, the father of Mankind and Manu in turn instructeit to Iksvaku"

evaṁ paramparā-prāptam
imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ
sa kāleneha mahatā
yogo naṣṭaḥ paran-tapa

"This supreme science was thus recieved through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings undesrstood it in that way. "

Thus unless this practical knowledge of the Science of the Soul ( atma ) is brought into our current  fabric of the educational institutions, there is no way our country could produce a perfect gentleman with equal vision and true secularisim.