Virtue par excellence

Published - February 23, 2016 11:02 pm IST

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra places a high value on the basic rules of conduct which are to be practised without any reservations as to time, place, purpose or caste rules. These are grouped under the term ‘Yama’ which includes abstention from certain practices such as refraining from harming others, and avoiding falsehood, theft, incontinence and greed. Abstention from harming others is ahimsa and this means one should not hurt others in thought, word or deed. A further corollary to this implies that one should not only do no harm to all living creatures but also that one shows them kindness. In this basic practice is subsumed all ethical codes and violating this is equal to hurting oneself.

In a discourse, Sri B. Sundarkumar drew attention to the fact that this injunction is likely to be misunderstood in different contexts when individuals uphold principles of dharma in keeping with one’s beliefs.

An incident in Saint Tukaram’s life illustrates this dilemma. In keeping with the practice of saints, Tukaram lived by observing Uncha Vritti and he used to feed others from what was thus obtained.

Chatrapati Shivaji, an ardent disciple and devotee, keen to assist the saint in this act of poor feeding, once offered him gold. Tukaram was upset and refused this as it went against his principles. Shivaji too was equally hurt. Could the saint be accused of being harsh and going against the principle of kindness and compassion in this context, one may wonder. In an atmosphere where there is freedom of speech, behaviour, beliefs, etc, the yardstick is the practice of individual dharma in accordance to the universally accepted code of ethical behaviour.

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