Friday 7 October 2011

Thursday, October 6th 2011

Identifying the Wrong In Us

Toronto, Ontario

This morning our little Bhagavatam group talked about some sins that spiritual practitioners can commit. It has more to do with attitude than an incident of offense, pre-meditated upon or an accident.

The basics of our discussion was the story of the poisoning of the child born of King Chitraketu and Queen Krtadyuti. Here was an obvious offense laid against an innocent child. It was cold blooded murder! We identified crime as such found common amongst the more physical ksatriyas (warriors in the Vedic context). Six aggressive acts committed in the field day of warriors are 1) administering poison 2) stealing riches 3) stealing land 4) stealing another's wife 5) burning another's property and 6) using a lethal weapon to an unarmed person.

Our discussion zeroed in more on subtle offenses, perhaps what brahmins (priests) may be found guilty of. For an exercise we were looking at what to be prudent about in the execution of temple/ashram services, the category we, as a group, more of less fall into.

The number one cardinal sin according to our consensus was criticism of those on the devotional path. Another was the attitude of cynicism. Another sin was stubborness or the unwillingness to bend to time, place and circumstances. Another was to bear a permanent grudge. Taking into account a saying from Chanakhya Pandit, "the beauty of a brahmin is in his ability to forgive," there is the need to let go and bury the hatchet.

Jealousy, contempt, self-righteousness are all symptomatic of our current age. We are encouraged by the Vedic message to become clean in what we do and at least attempt to transcend the lowly tendencies.

8 Km

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