Thursday, August 14, 2014

Shikha and Sootra, Symbol of Hindu Dharma1


Continue from the first article - This, in short is the four fold duty of a person who puts on Yagyopaveet. He has to develop his capabilities, has to be generous and utilize his talents in the service of others. Thus alone can he attain peace and happiness for himself and help others to attain these.
According to Gaya tri-Geeta, nine fibers of Yagyopaveet represent nine virtues which are as important and precious as gems. These virtues are:- the science of life, awakening of inner hidden energies, superiority, purity, divine insight, righteousness,  wisdom, self control, and service.
By achieving knowledge of the science of life man understands the mystery behind birth and death. He has no fear of death and is always fearless. He has no attachment to or craving for worldly objects. He, thus, escapes from the pendulum like swings of ups and downs of life created by the illusory play of dualities of success and failure, pleasure and pain, birth and death etc from which ignorant people are perpetually tormented.
A person who is able to awaken his dormant energies becomes more and more healthy, learned, wise, generous, cooperative and respectable, as the inner energies gain prominence in his soul. A weak person is often a victim of bad habits, destined and of wicked persons who are stronger than him, but a strong and noble person himself enjoys life and extends a helping hand to those weaker to him. Injustice flourishes when there are no checks and balances in the exercise of power. Acquisition of power by persons of nobility of character acts as an antidote to this unbridled and evil exercise of power by those who are evil-minded tyrants.
Superiority does not lie in power and pelf but in the richness of high ideals and aims and feelings of compassion, kindness, sharing and carrying. Persons who possess only power and pelf and lack inner refinement and balance are crude, fickle-minded, mean and disturbed. They live lives of utmost inferiority. On the other hand, persons of high thinking generosity of nature and noble actions lead lives of superior quality even if they are not materially affluent. It is this aristocracy of spiritual richness that gives unshakable peace and unalloyed happiness.
Purity is true beauty. Not only human beings but even animals and birds, insects and worms like beauty. Wherever there is impurity, ugliness is bound to be there and nobody would like to stay there. A person having impurities in his body is bound to be weak and sick. Then what to say of a person whose mind, intellect and inner-self are full of dross? He is no better than an animal or devil. The only way to rise above these infirmities is to cultivate all-round purity. One who is pure internally as well as externally, whose means of livelihood, ideology, body, speech, dress, residence and other materials of use are clean and pure, will be happy, cheerful, sweet-tempered and contented.
Divine insight means establishing relationship with divine qualities of the world. Like attracts like that. Persons having an outlook of seeing goodness in the world find good persons all around them. If we pay attention to philanthropic deeds, goodness, service-mindedness, cooperation and good deeds done by the people we will find that by and large there is far better in the world than evil. To a person with perverted mind, all objects and person will appear perverse. Likewise one who looks with eyes of love and understanding will find the same qualities reflected back from all around him. He will discover that the world is a multi-hued, beautiful and sweet-smelling garden of God.


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