Hindu Dharma: Dharmas Common To All

How to Control the Mind	What is the obstacle to one-pointed meditation? The answer is the unstill mind. All problems are caused by the mind, by the desires arising in it. It is not easy to control the mind and keep it away effectively from desire. If we ask the mind to think of an object, it seems to obey us for a moment, but soon it takes its own course, wandering off. When I speak to you about meditation and tranquillity, for a moment your mind will perhaps ...
Ahimsa	According to the Manusmriti, ahimsa is the foremost among the dharmas that are common to all. It is included in the yoga of mind control. Ahimsa means much more than non-injury; it implies not doing harm to others even by thought or word. By nature none of us wants to cause any hurt to other people. But if others do us harm we want to retaliate in anger. Suppose one of our children sets ...
Truthfulness	Truthfulness means mind and speech being well integrated. The wise say that speech being at variance with the mind is untruthfulness. Vangmanasyoh aikarupyam satyam God has given man the gift of speech so that he may give expression to his thoughts and feelings. If what we speak is at variance with what we think (with our ...
Sesame And Water: Where Do They Go?	All human beings must express their gratitude to their fathers (pitrs) and to the gods- they have a debt to pay their fathers, rites to perform for the gods. We must serve our fellow creatures to the best of our ability and extend hospitality at least to one guest a day. This is atithya or what Thiruvalluvar calls 'virundu', also known as manusyayajna. Then there is Brahmayajna to perform, the word 'Brahma' here denoting ...
Puja	Every family must perform puja to Isvara. Those who find it convenient to do so may conduct elaborate types of puja after receiving proper initiation into them. Others need perform only a brief puja, not lasting more than ten minutes or so. Officegoers must offer at least this brief worship. The sacred bell must ring in every home. Images must be installed to worship Siva, Amba, Visnu, Vinayaka, and Surya. ...
Philanthropy	[ In the chapter entitled, 'Sesame and Water: Where do They Go? ', the Paramaguru spoke of the debt to be apid to our fathers, our duty to worship Paramesvara as well as to feed the creatures of the earth. He stated that Tiruvalluvar also spoke of the same dharma in his 'Kural':'Tenpulattar deivam, virundu, okkal tan enru angu aimbulattaru ombal talai. '] Here (in the foregoing ...
To Serve Others Is To Feel Blessed	A man can be fortunate in many ways. But there is nothing that makes him more fortunate than the opportunity he has of serving others. When we serve our family we are not conscious of how we help it. We must learn to help people who are not our kin - other families, our village or home town, our nation, indeed all mankind. We have so many problems ourselves, we suffer so many hardships, and we have so many ...
Making All Creatures Happy	We must not fail to perform sacrifices to the celestials, offer libations to our fathers and perform sraddha. In the past, apart from these, our ancestors did puja to the gods, fed guests and performed vaisvadeva which rite is meant for all creatures. You must have some idea of these rites even if you do not perform them. I will speak to you about ...
Towards Mental Purity	There are a number of simple rites the performance of which will free you from inner impurities. From generation to generation our forefathers performed them and earned happiness and contentment. We must follow in their footsteps. We do not have to go in search of any new way of life, any new doctrine or belief. We can learn from the great men of our past who have left us lessons not only in Atmic matters ...
Fault Finding	To live a life inspired by dharma means coming under a certain discipline and following certain rules of conduct. It is important for people to acquaint themselves with these rules. It would be ideal if they lived according to them on their own because to abide by them out of compulsion is not a matter of pride. 'Sampradaya' or tradition is something that has evolved naturally and it is naturally that people adhere to them. The ...
Anger	It is customary to speak of kama(desire) and krodha(anger) together. Krsna Paramatman says in the Gita that desire and anger goad a man into sinful action. When we intensely desire an object we try to get it by fair means or foul. It is a deadly enemy, desire: it eggs us on to commit sin. Equally deadly is anger. ...
Are We Worthy of Being Angry?	Often we find ourselves angry with some person or other. Anger is provoked in two ways. When we see a man guilty of an offence we lose our temper. But we do not pause to think whether we too are not like him. Even if we have not been guilty of sinful deeds we must have had sinful thoughts. Perhaps we have reason to think that we have sinned less than others. This must be because we are a little more mature. Even so, how difficult do we find it ...
Love and Sorrow	The purpose of human birth is to live a life full of love for all. No joy is greater than that of loving others. Amassing wealth, acquiring property, earning fame, bedecking oneself give but transient pleasure, not any sense of fullness. The happiness that permeates our inner being is the happiness of loving others. When we love others we are not conscious of our suffering the physical exertion we make and the money we spend: indeed the joy of ...
Love	What is called love may be divided into three categories. We love great men for their high qualities, I mean distinguished men, men of truth, philanthropists, jnanins, men of grace. We mix with our friends and relatives intimately and affection develops between them and us. Then we love people- love them ostensibly for a specific purpose, for the reason that we stand to gain from them. For instance, we may seem to love a rich man hoping that he ...