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Book: Hindu Dharma, Written by Swami Chandrashekarendra
Saraswati |
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The goal of dharma is universal welfare. The great men who produced the
works on Dharmasastra didn't have a trace of self-interest in them and
had nothing but the thought of the happiness of all creatures. These
treatises are the authority on which dharma is founded. You find the
form
of things, the image, with your eyes; you perceive sound with your ears;
you know dharma with the help of Dharmasastra.
The Vedas (Sruti) are the root of all dharma. After Sruti comes Smrti.
The
latter consists of the "notes" based on Smrti. It is the same as
Dharmasastra. Another guide for the dharma is the example of great
men. The Puranas provide an answer to how great men conducted
themselves. Then there is sistacara to guide us, the life of virtuous
people
of noble character. Not everybody's conduct can be a guide to us. The
individual whose life is an example for the practice of dharma must have
faith in the sastras and must live in accordance with their ordinances.
Besides, he must be free from desire and anger. The conduct of such men
is sistacara. Another authority or guide is what we know through our
conscience in a state of transparency.
In matters of the Self, of dharma and religion, the Vedas are in the
forefront as our guide. Next come the dharmasastras. Third is the
conduct of the great sages of the past. Fourth is the example of the
virtuous people of our own times. Conscience comes last in determining
dharma.
Now everything has become topsy-turvy. People give importance first to
their conscience and last to the Vedas. We must consult our conscience
only as a last resort when we have no other means of knowing what is
dharma with reference to our actions. Why is conscience called one's
"manahsaksi"? Conscience is fit to be only a witness (saksi), not to be
a
judge. A witness often gives false evidence. The mind, however, doesn't
tell an untruth - indeed it knows the truth of all things. “There is no
deceit
that is hidden from the heart (mind), “says Auvvai. Conscience may be
regarded as a witness. But nowadays it is brought in as a judge also in
dharmic matters. As a witness it will give us a true report of what it
sees
or has seen. But on the basis of it we cannot give on what is just with
any
degree of finality. "What I think is right,” everybody would try to
satisfy
himself thus about his actions if he were to be guided only by his
conscience. How can this be justified as the verdict of dharma?
We often hear people say, "I will act according to what my conscience
tells me.” This is not a right attitude. All at once your conscience
cannot
be given the place of a judge. It is only when there is no other way
open
to you that you may tell your mind: "You have seen everything as a
witness. Now tell me your opinion. “The mind belongs to each one of us
as individuals. So it cannot be detached from our selfish interests. The
place it has in one's personal affairs cannot be given to it in matters
of
religion. On questions of dharma the opinion of sages alone is valid,
sages
who were concerned with universal welfare and who transcended the
state of the individual concerned with his own mind [or with himself]. |
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