Page 107 - Wisdom Unfurled
P. 107

The Master makes the point about virtue and vice making their appearance at a particular stage of the unfolding of the manifestation. The question of right and wrong has engaged the minds of savants and sages for eons. The philosophers of the humanistic and socialistic persuasions have defined right as something which brings about maximum good to the majority and which does not at the same time take away the rights of the rest to life and property. Jesus said a man should treat his neighbor exactly the same way in which he would like to be treated by the other. We normally tend to think that which pleases us or rather our senses as good and the contrary as bad. Every religion has defined its own moral and ethical code and laid down punishments and atonements for transgressions of the code. Moral violations attracted severe tortures of every imaginable variety in equally variegated hells depending on the type and severity of the violation.
Thus at least fear of such intense and unbearable suffering which could be even interminable in the case of the most pernicious and dastardly crimes would keep the flock on the right path, even if conviction in the intrinsic truth and justification of the moral injunctions may be found wanting. Those who have determined to travel on the narrow path of spirituality know that it is absolutely right to follow all the yamas and niyamas as that would be conducive for growth and any omissions in this regard is wrong more because that would defeat the very purpose of their endeavor. In today’s milieu of downright individualism every one is right in doing anything whatsoever as long as it does not cause a public nuisance or offends the sensibilities of a section of the people. That is moral relativism at its worst. Having said so, we do find persons who are willing to take up the cause of the offending individual if only to protect his so called right to free expression and the adherence to a way of his persuasion. These are the times when no one wants to be governed by any ethical and moral code of an absolute character. Undoubtedly there would arise situations in which it becomes difficult to say which is morally the right thing to do with clarity and certainty. Under such circumstances we consult the sages for illumining our decisions. There are many such situations involving dharma sankata or moral dilemmas which we come across in the apocryphal stories in the itihasas and the puranas in which even the avatars have listened to the elders for finding a way out of the moral impasse.
Howsoever this may be, the problem is not so acute for a person who has surrendered his all to the Divine Master. When Arjuna faced the daunting prospect of having to fight his cousins and elders and possibly kill them too and was perplexed by the moral implications of such an act, we find the Lord asking him to leave the matter of Dharma entirely to Him, take refuge in Him as the last resort and merely do his duty as a kshatriya which is to fight for
































































































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