The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode we had witnessed the continuation of Sage Sukhaachaarya’s discussion on the various categories of people who reach the “Naraka Lokha”. In that, we’ve witnessed yesterday as an extension to an already discussed point on refraining ourselves from harming other living beings, including small and insignificant ones. Sage Sukhaachaarya explains that more than not just harming them, we should also make it a point to feed them and ensure that they’re taken care of in an adequate manner. This is where we discussed why we have a traditional practice of consuming food on a banana leaf. Apart from few health benefits that we might know of, consuming food on a banana leaf opens up opportunities for feeding thousands of other living beings in some way or the other. We witnessed that the leftover food items that we dispose along with the banana leaf, serve as primary food items for some stray animals like dogs and cats on the streets, for cows if we have a cowshed nearby, etc. More than all of these, this leftover food and the banana leaf is fed upon by thousands of invisible microbial organisms and eventually all of it put together, we’re indirectly serving food to all of these living beings. This accounts for a great level of “Punya” (Good deeds) that we would accumulate in our human birth.

This apart, there are few other traditional practices that are in place for years and generations, and all these practices have a deeper meaning behind. Let us take another example here – Especially in the south of India, we have the practice of drawing a “Kolam” in front of every house, two times a day. This “Kolam” is nothing but a beautiful drawing or art work that is done during the dawn and the dusk of every day. This “Kolam” is traditionally drawn with rice flour. Now why do we have such a practice? Spiritually, it is believed that if the entrance of a house is decorated with this “Kolam” in a beautiful manner, this sends an open invite of Goddess Lakshmi to come and reside with us! All of us know what the result would be if the Divine Mother resides at our home – The house would be devoid of all sorts of problems and dangers! This apart, there is a scientific reason too, as to why this practice is of significance. By laying the “Kolam” with rice flour, it serves as food for ants and other small insects. Especially, if we try and understand the life cycle of ants, they tend to “collect” maximum amounts of food grains during the dry season and store it for the rainy season, so that they do not need to come out of their homes in search of food, amidst the water. Thus, if we have a “Kolam” comprised of rice flour, this serves as a vital food component for these ants, and by doing so, we are serving food for tens of thousands of ants! We should imagine what amount of “Punya” are we accumulating here! More than the “Punya” accumulation, as per Sage Sukhaachaarya, it is our bound duty to ensure that all living beings are happy, peaceful and contended!

But in today’s scenario, hardly anybody is aware of all these positive effects behind these important practices. Nowadays we’ve started to have “sticker Kolams” in front of all houses! 😊 Especially if we reside in big apartments wherein, there are many houses within a restricted area, this has become the norm of the day! By “sticking” kolams in front of our house, the key purpose behind having the Kolam gets defeated totally, isn’t it? Which ant will come behind a “Kolam” that is drawn on paper and stuck on the floor?

Thus, the point here is that, with the passage of time, we’ve forgotten the science behind each of the traditional practices that we’re following. These practices have thus become mere “rituals” and we follow these rituals just for the sake of doing so! This is where, many people in the present day are losing faith in our Sanaathana Dharma – The main reason being, “Lack of Awareness”! Thus, we should make it a point from today that we make a conscious effort in knowing and understanding the science behind every traditional practice that we follow as part of our Sanaathana Dharma. Of course, as part of this “Indian Dharma” blog, we are also making conscious efforts to bring out the significances behind many traditional practices, however, owing to various human limitations, I might not be able to address all of them at one go! Hence, it is up to the readers to take a conscious effort in this direction to understand the science behind every practice that we follow.

Thus, the overall point here is that, we should make sure that we do not harm any form of living beings, as much as possible and at the same time, we should ensure that they’re well fed, happy, peaceful and contended.

Moving on to the next point thus, Sage Sukhaachaarya drops the next bombshell! He says thus, “Oh Parikshit! Those people who are trying to create false narratives and false propaganda about Bhagawan and those people who squarely put the blame on Bhagawan for all what they go through in life would definitely reach the Naraka Lokha!” Now, from this point, one thing is very clear – In the present day scenario, especially in India, there are few people who directly qualify for entering the “Naraka Lokha”, with just this one point! We see many people of late, trying to spread false narratives about Hinduism and Sanaathana Dharma, for their own personal gains! We see many people spreading a venomous agenda and inciting communal violence amidst the society! We see many people trying to use this opportunity to make money, name and fame! Sage Sukhaachaarya sends out a stern warning to all of these anti-Hindu elements that they’re going to face the heat from Bhagawan, sooner or later in their lives!

A detailed discussion on this point awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

As we’re amidst the important and an interesting discussion on those who would reach the “Naraka Lokha”, in the yesterday’s episode, we had taken a slight deviation from our main path and have discussed why is Bhagawan holding human beings accountable for all the sins that are being done. This is an important question for which all of us should know the answers. To summarize in a nutshell from the previous episode, Bhagawan is holding us accountable primarily because He has blessed us with the sense of discrimination, which is supposed to be the sixth sense. All other living beings do not have this sense in them, which means that they cannot differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, what is to be done and what should be avoided, etc. However, as human beings, since we are bestowed with this important sense, Bhagawan expects us to use it in the proper way, to differentiate between what is “Punya” (Good deeds) and what is “Paapa” (Bad ones). In addition to this, Bhagawan has given us a huge “manual” called the “Sanaathana Dharma”, wherein He has explained with minute detail as to what is the “Dharma” of a human life and how do we follow it. Thus, given all of it, it is upto us to take it in the right direction, follow it and attain Moksha.

Also, we had witnessed another important aspect in yesterday’s episode that, even if we had committed innumerable bad “Karma” till date, and if we seek whole-hearted forgiveness to Bhagawan for all our misdeeds, Bhagawan, being an embodiment of compassion and love, would definitely forgive us for all of what we’ve done till date. However, the only expectation from Bhagawan is that from today and from this minute onwards, we should make sure that we do not go back to our misdeeds in any way. This is one assurance that Bhagawan would take from us. Once we give Bhagawan this assurance, it is again upto us not to revert back to our old bad ways. This is where, we need spiritual progress in the form of controlling our mind, which would otherwise run here and there like a mad monkey!

Now moving on further with Sage Sukhaachaarya’s discussion on the “Naraka Lokha”, he had previously explained how we shouldn’t harm even small insects and ants, just because they are around us and are insignificant. In fact, Sage Sukhaachaarya goes one step further and explains that it is not just that we shouldn’t harm these small insects, but we should also feed them with some food! This is another important point that we should discuss today. In fact, there is a reason why there are certain practices that we follow as part of our “Sanaathana Dharma”, with respect to food habits. For instance, most of us might be aware of the practice of consuming food on a banana leaf. This is a traditional practice that is in place for thousands of years now, particularly in South of India. It is commonly seen in all South-Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Many of us might be aware of this practice but might be having less or zero awareness as to why do we eat on a banana leaf. Let us now witness some of the enormous benefits that we accumulate by consuming food on a banana leaf.

By consuming food on a banana leaf, we have the opportunity of feeding hundreds and thousands of other living beings that live around us. How? As we finish eating, we fold the banana leaf, take it to the outdoors and put it there, isn’t it? Now what happens here? There might be some leftover food items that would still be sticking on to the banana leaf after we finish eating. These leftover food items would become food for other animals – For instance, some stray dogs, cats, etc. that would be roaming around on the streets, would come and feed on them. Moreover, these leftover foods along with the banana leaf is a good food for cows. Even beyond this, there might be tens of thousands of bacteria, viruses and other living beings that we might not be able to see with our naked eyes. This is why we would be able to see that after a day or two of disposing the banana leaf with the leftover food, the colour of the leaf and the food items would change. In addition, there would be a foul smell that comes too. Why do such changes happen? It is because there would be thousands and thousands of small microbial beings like bacteria and viruses feeding on it. Even ants, squirrels, lizards, flies, etc. would get to have some food through this. We might think that this practice is not very significant by any means, but it is not the case! By doing so, what do we gain? We gain the greatest “Punya” of serving food to all these thousands of living beings, when otherwise, we might not do so formally! Can we afford to miss this golden opportunity?

Nowadays, this practice of consuming food on a banana leaf has started reducing a lot. In the present day, usage of banana leaves for serving food is primarily seen only during marriages, some other religious functions, etc. In all other times, we have started using plates to consume food. The plates might be of silver or any other metal. By consuming food on the plate, what do we do? We generally drop off all the leftover foods into the dustbin, wash the plate with water and keep it in our kitchen racks. By doing so, we are denying food for all the thousands of living beings, which are perhaps waiting for it! Can we afford to deny food for all these poor creatures? Unfortunately, in today’s scenario, all of us are doing this! This is where in the modern day, we deviate from the principles of our “Sanaathana Dharma” and the reason behind it is lack of awareness of the significance behind each of the principles and practices. Unfortunately today, we being in a so-called “scientific and technological revolution”, we’ve forgotten the basic principles of humanity and the science behind whatever practices that our Sanaathana Dharma has prescribed. Moreover, we do not wish to take interest in knowing all this as well! In fact, sadly we even discard many traditional practices under the umbrella called “superstition”. It is to be understood that no principle explained by our Sanaathana Dharma texts is a superstition. There is an enormous level of science associated with each of them. It is only that we do not understand any of them!

This situation should change. Youngsters should come forward to understand and appreciate our traditional practices and spread it across the world. We should never give into any false propaganda that tries to demean our Sanaathana Dharma. We should understand that all the anti-Hindu propaganda that is going on currently has no base at all! If we stand up and ask tough questions to them, I’m sure that we would be able to make them run for their money! Thus, the point here is that, we should realize the significance of consuming food on a banana leaf. We should try and make it a regular practice, and in turn, we should have the noble heart to serve not only our stomach, but also thousands of other living beings which are waiting for food. We shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further. Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sage Sukhaachaarya’s continuation on who would reach the “Naraka Lokha”. He is in the process of listing out various categories of people in this regard and yesterday, he had included one more category of people – Those who even harm the smallest of the small insects or any forms of tiny living beings are also on their way to reach the “Naraka Lokha”! This is indeed a word of caution for all of us here. Even at home, if we find a small ant or group of ants or flies or mosquitoes, etc. we should be very careful not to kill them at one go! Instead, we should try our best to relocate them to some other place. Even if they try to create harm by biting us, we should not go to the extent of killing them with our palms. Rather, we should have the graciousness to chase them away with minimal damage to them.

Of course, this might sound a bit awkward or funny for few of us wherein some of us might ask questions thus – How on earth can we be careful to this extent of not even killing a mosquito or an ant? Is it really possible for us to live this way in today’s scenario? How can Bhagawan and Sage Sukhaachaarya be so merciless upon us? How is that, those mosquitoes, ants or whatever animals get away even after harming us, whereas we human beings are being penalized for anything and everything by Bhagawan? Are human beings Bhagawan’s scapegoats? If such is the case, is there no way that we’re going to liberate ourselves from all what we’re doing every passing day? Of course, these are very valid questions and after reading such episodes from the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana, we would obviously be concerned and scared of what might dawn upon us in future! But there are few points to ponder over, as we continue our discussion on the “Naraka Lokha”. Let’s discuss these points one by one and these points would perhaps serve as (possible) answers for the above questions as well.

Firstly, we should note here that all what Sage Sukhaachaarya is listing out (the various categories of people who go to the “Naraka Lokha”) is not to scare King Parikshit or us. He is just trying to create an awareness amongst all of us to lead a peaceful life. We should not consider these points to be “fear-mongering” or “blackmailing” or “moral-policing”. All what he’s trying to explain here is that, we should mend our day-to-day routine life in such a way that we create a peaceful environment for us as well as for the surroundings. For instance, if we’re restraining ourselves from unwanted killing of any kind of living beings, we not only create peace and harmony for ourselves and for the other beings, but also play an important part in maintaining the ecological balance of Mother Earth. It is an awareness creation process wherein Sage Sukhaachaarya is emphasizing and re-emphasizing through these points that every living being on this earth has the right to lead its own life in whatever way it wants to. Just like how we respect our fellow human being’s life as important as ours, we should also learn to respect the life of every other living being, irrespective of whether it is small or big, significant or insignificant, etc. The moment we go in for killing of any living being, we should understand that it creates a bad vibration, which is extremely harmful and detrimental for our spiritual progress, and this is the main reason why Sage Sukhaachaarya is asking us to avoid. We should make sure that we understand this point in the right sense and make considerable progress spiritually.

Secondly, we asked the question as to how come other living beings get away even after harming us or others and why are only human beings being held accountable for all of these. The reason behind this is that, human beings are the only species on this Mother Earth, who has the ability and power of discrimination. All other living beings do not have this capability. Since Bhagawan has gifted us with this unique ability, He expects us to use it in the right way. He expects us to understand what is right and what is wrong. He wants us to think once, twice or thrice before committing into any action. More than all of these, Bhagawan It is only because human beings have this ability, we are held accountable for all what we do. Since, other animals are devoid of this ability, Bhagawan doesn’t hold them accountable, even if they commit the worst of the worst crimes of killing each other for their daily food.

If this is the case, the third point is more important here – We might feel that we’ve committed innumerable such wrongdoings all these days and it is going to be inevitable for all of us to reach some form of “Naraka Lokha” at the end of this birth. Here is where we should note that, so far whatever we’ve done is out of ignorance. We might have not known about the consequences of doing such actions. Now that, we’re slowly gaining the awareness about the possible repercussions of certain wrong actions, we would be able to still make spiritual progress towards Moksha if we start taking all these points seriously from today onwards. This is where Bhagawan is an embodiment of love and compassion. If we wholeheartedly surrender ourselves and our hearts to Bhagawan and cry to Him that we’ve been on the wrong path till date and that, we’re willing to correct ourselves as per His will and wish, Bhagawan would definitely be kind upon us and accept us with all his love and compassion. Ultimately, Bhagawan wants all of us to be His messengers of peace in this world, and if we try and fall in line with what Bhagawan expects from us, we can be sure of attaining Moksha. So, there need not be any worry amongst any one of us that we would be penalized for all what we’ve done till today. If we take the pledge that we would mend our ways from today onwards and if we’re steadfast in the pledge that we’ve taken, this itself would melt Bhagawan’s heart. In turn, He would take over the responsibility of washing away all of our sins. Therefore we always emphasize that fate can be changed through strong willpower and meticulous spiritual practices.

So for today, let us realize these three important points as we are in progress with our discussion on “Naraka Lokha” and who goes there. In the next episode, we are going to witness few examples as to how normal people like us have achieved this feat of escaping death and “Naraka Lokha” through meticulous devotion to Bhagawan as we move on further. Stay tuned for an interesting episode ahead! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important extension on Sage Sukhaachaarya’s point of illicit relationship leading us to “Naraka Lokha”. As an overall blanket view, Sage Sukhaachaarya mentions that those people who try to involve themselves in affairs outside of their marriage, would end up reaching the “Naraka Lokha” and in yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed how exactly this “affair outside marriage” typically takes shape in today’s scenario. The point here is that, we should be extremely careful and watchful within ourselves as to what kind of actions are we involving ourselves with. This is why we repeatedly keep emphasizing that we should think twice before committing ourselves into any action and there is no point thinking about at a later stage, when we’ve already committed into something. This applies for relationships too, in particular.

Of course, having spoken at length about illicit relationships outside marriage, the rule of “Naraka Lokha” applies also to those people who are trying to torture women, just to satisfy their physical pleasures. In today’s world we are witnessing an increasing number of such instances wherein women are being raped and killed by voracious and barbaric men. Such people too, according to Sage Skuhaachaarya would definitely reach the “Naraka Lokha” wherein the same punishment as discussed in the last episode would be meted out to them! I don’t wish to talk any further on how women are tortured in this context, and it is for all of us to know and understand from whatever is going on. The only point which we should remember is that, never in life, for whatsoever compelling reason, should we indulge ourselves into such heinous crimes!

Moving on thus, Sage Sukhaachaarya drops the next bombshell! He now extends this point on women to all other living beings in this world! For instance, if we see some small insects crawling at some corner of our home, or if we see some mosquitoes or flies flying around in our living room, what do we immediately tend to do? We make sure that we bring that insect or mosquito or fly within our palms and kill it immediately! According to Sage Sukhaachaarya, this itself is a huge sin, because we do not have the right to kill any living being in this world, be it small or big, significance or insignificant! So, from today, whenever we see any insect like an ant, cockroach, flies, etc. crawling past us in our home, all what we need to do is to drive them away to a different place by not harming them in any way!

If we think of this practically, why do insects enter into our home? Just like how we require food for our everyday survival, insects too require food for their survival, isn’t it? Thus they come out of their dwelling place in search of food. There is a huge “food chain” that Bhagawan has designed as He created this world! One insect becoming a food for another insect and this insect becoming a food for lizards, lizards becoming food for another living being….. This cycle continues. Thus, if we’re going to kill one insect, just because it has “allegedly” entered our living room, we’re going to disrupt the ecological cycle and balance! More than that, we’re denying food for another variety of living beings, which might solely be dependent on these insects for their daily survival! Indirectly, by killing one insect, we’re pushing another variety of living beings into “poverty” and “hunger”! Just like how we feel bad if our fellow human beings suffer from the want of three meals a day, we should also feel bad that other living beings might also face a similar form of struggle! This is the empathy we should create within ourselves, not only for our fellow human beings, but also for all the living beings in this world – Be it an ant or a fly or a lion, tiger, etc. till a human being! More than anything else, there is a bigger cause of worry for all of us – If we’re going to kill an insect, we’re still killing a living being and as per Bhagawan’s “law book”, we are a murderer and a criminal! Thus, whatever punishment Bhagawan might give us if we kill a human being, would be exactly applicable even if we kill an ant or an insect too! This is the danger that we are facing! Thus, the point here is not to scare anybody with all the punishments and stuff, but to mend our ways in such a way that we create a peaceful environment, not only for mankind, but also for all living beings in this world! We should always remember in life that just like how we have the right to live in this world, every living being including animals, plants, insects, etc. also have the equal right to make a living in this world. Just like how we do not have the legitimate right to kill or torture a human being in this world, we do not have any legitimate right to torture or kill an animal or plant or a tree, or any living being in this world. Just like how we consume water for our survival, all living beings excluding humans also have the same right. Just like how we have the right to inhale fresh oxygen for our survival, animals excluding humans also do!

Thus, we should make it a point not to kill any form of living being, as much as possible. Even if an insect or any animal comes dangerously close to us and tries to hurt us in any way, it is always better to “push them” aside, rather than going to the extent of killing them! So, for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us try maximum not to harm any kind of insect that comes by our way, wherever we are! We shall continue with the next point of discussion on this important topic of “Naraka Lokha” in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the discussion on who are those people entitled to enter into the “Naraka Lokha”. In fact, there are different categories of sins and people who get entangled into any of these categories, will enter into the corresponding categories of “Naraka Lokha”. In that way, we’ve discussed various categories so far, including those who’re trying to abduct another person’s property, those who’re trying to rejoice over other people’s problems and poverty, those who’re ill-treating and killing animals for no fault of theirs, those who’re consuming more than what they consume, those who’re greedy and trying to accumulate more money or property than what is required, etc. Finally in yesterday’s episode, we have witnessed an important category of sins wherein if a person goes behind the wife of another person in the form of an illicit relationship, to satisfy physical pleasures, would get the worst possible place in the “Naraka Lokha”. Sage Sukhaachaarya follows up this point by explaining the punishment that would be meted out to such people who go behind other women for satisfying their physical pleasures. He explains that, such people would be pushed into a place wherein there would be an idol of a beautiful woman, burning in a hot pot of oil. Yama-Dharma-Raja would push us to hug this hot burning idol and by doing so, he would inflict severe burns to our body! This is where, we need to be extremely careful and, in this regard,, we commenced an important discussion yesterday as to why should we maintain a safe distance from people of the other gender. Of course, this applies to both men and women – If we are men, we need to careful of our contacts with women and vice versa.

We concluded yesterday’s episode with a series of questions thus: If we work in an organizational setup, we might have to interact with fellow colleagues and employees who might be married and of the opposite gender! How do we refrain from interacting with them? How can we distance ourselves like this, for no reason? Isn’t it trivial for us do so? Doesn’t this sort of a “rule” kill our communication ability and employability in the long run? Now let us look at the answers for these questions as we move on with the discussion. Of course, yes! These are very legitimate questions and is of great importance in the present day! When we work in an organization, we are bound to come across people from the opposite gender and invariably we would have to work with them to fulfill the organizational requirements. Of course, it might not be possible to stay away from people of the opposite gender. But here comes the aspect of “self-control”. We must interact with people of our opposite gender, but at the same time, we should ensure that the interaction is well within permissible limits. In other words, the interaction should only be at a “professional level” and never should it transcend into the personal space.

At first, it might sound very easy for us to understand, but when it comes to practicality, it becomes difficult to implement. In fact, this is where many people get into problems. The common thing that happens in day-to-day life is that, we might (for some reason or the other) have a bitter fight with our spouse at home and would enter into the office with the same bad mood! Just because we are not in a peaceful personal space to perform the day’s tasks at office, we tend to show off and vent out our frustration to someone. In that way, psychologically, we would require someone to share our feelings, emotions, etc. If we happen to meet someone in our workplace from the opposite gender, and if he or she tries to understand our feelings and emotions in a better way than our spouse at home, we tend to go along with that person and open up to him or her about all what we have in mind! Eventually this would become a routine affair and slowly we would start finding a “good solace” outside the four walls of our home. Eventually thus, the “trust” with the “new person” would start building up and at one stage, we would start getting attached to this person, even more than our husband or wife at home. Eventually thus, we would start sharing our “personal secrets” too, with this “new friend” of ours! Eventually thus, we would start getting into a relationship with this person and this would start initially as a “secret” one! We would slowly be induced into going after this person in an illicit way. As this “new relationship” outside of our house starts to prosper over a period of time, we would slowly lose interest on our spouse and children and would tend to spend more time and energy with the “newly found pleasures” of our life!

This is the influx point where the rupture would start at home! Our spouse would start complaining that we’re not giving importance to him or her anymore and would start monitoring our daily activities closely, which otherwise wouldn’t happen. Eventually if our spouse comes to know of our “newly blossomed relationship” with a colleague at our workplace, what would ultimately happen to our married life? Won’t it come to an end drastically? Won’t we end up messing our family life completely? This is what happens if we are breaching our limits of interaction with our colleagues of opposite gender from a professional to a personal level. This is a simple psychological chain of events that are bound to happen if we get dangerously close to colleagues of the opposite gender at our workplace. Of course, I’m not saying that this chain would hold true every time, but chances are high that we might get entangled into such a dangerous chain of events.

This is where we need to be extremely careful thus. The underlying message from this whole discussion is that, whatever problems we might have with our spouse, we should make it a point that we keep it strictly within the four walls of our house. At any instance, we should make sure, not to open up with our personal problems to a “stranger” or a “third person”, at our workplace or neighborhood or wherever! If someone tries to move with us “very closely”, it is better to maintain a safe distance from that person and shouldn’t get carried away with the “closeness” and “warmth” that the person might try to provide. Thus, to answer the question, we should make sure that we interact equally with all our colleagues at work, but should make sure that we do so, only within professional limits. Never should the interaction transcend into a personal level, wherein we would end up sharing our personal space with a “third person” apart from our spouse at home.

So for today, let us ponder upon this important aspect of life and let us wait till the next episode to move on with the next point of discussion. Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed yet another category of people who reach the “Naraka Lokha”. In fact, this discussion is proceeding in a very interesting direction and this is a learning point for all of us as to mend our ways in life. We’ve so far witnessed various categories such as those who “steal” other’s property, those who torture & kill animals for their personal gain and benefit, those who vandalize public property, those who consume excess of what is required, etc. Finally, in the previous episode, we had witnessed that those who play with food the wrong way and those who insult the food that they consume, would surely find a place for themselves in the “Naraka Lokha”.

Moving on thus, Sage Sukhaachaarya continues further: This is an extremely important point for all of us to note down and mend ourselves.

“Yasthviha vaa ugraha pashun pakshinoh praanatha uparandhayati!

Tam apakarunam purushaadhairrapi vihyarhitam amutri yamaanucharaaha!

Kumbi paake tapta taile uparadhyanti….!!!

Sage Sukhaachaarya says here that if a person goes behind another person’s wife for all the wrong reasons, there is a separate “space” in the “Naraka Lokha” that is booked for him! Here, Sage Sukhaachaarya points out specifically that the doors of the “Naraka Lokha” would open up for a person who even thinks of a wrongdoing with another person’s wife. This is where we’ve to be extremely careful with our behavior towards women. If we’re going behind women other than our wife, we’ve to really mend our way here. Of course, all of us know that this is morally wrong, but still, owing to various reasons, such things keep happening in the society. By doing so, not only does our personal life gets messed up in the long run, but also, this is going to pave our way to reach the “Naraka Lokha”, which is going to be extremely severe.

Even in the scriptural texts of our “Sanaathana Dharma” we’ve witnessed in many instances as to how people who have gone beyond their wives have suffered. One good example is Ravana – How he went after Bhagawan Rama’s wife, despite being married to Mandodhari – One of the world’s most beautiful women. Ravana met his end in a disastrous way because he failed to control his desire of going behind women and we’ve witnessed how! This is exactly what Sage Sukhaachaarya is mentioning here as well – If we do not control our desire for a woman within our marriage and if we go behind other people’s wives, we should be prepared to face the worst possible “Naraka Lokha” at the end of this birth.

Sage Sukhaachaarya continues further in the above sloka as to what punishment are we going to get in the “Naraka Lokha” for committing this crime. In fact, he has given detailed descriptions of the various punishments that would come our way, for specific crimes that we do! If we start going into too much of these specifics, we would not be able to digest them! Thus, we shall restrict ourselves to only a few of them. For this crime of going behind married women for satisfying one’s physical desires, Sage Sukhaachaarya mentions the punishment called “Tapta taile”. This implies that, in the “Naraka Lokha”, there would be a beautiful idol of a woman that is made of bronze, which is burning hot in oil. Yama Dharma Raja would take us inside this place and would say thus, “Oh! When you were living in the world, you had the desire to experience physical pleasures with women in various ways, isn’t it? Now here you go! Try to experience the same physical pleasure with this beautiful idol of a woman, which is boiling hot in oil! Now hug this burning hot idol and experience whatever pleasure you want to enjoy!” Saying thus, he would push us into the burning oil and after that, all of us know what will happen! Will we be able to bare it even for a moment if we’re pushed into a pot of boiling oil? This is the punishment if we’re going towards married women for so-called “extra-marital relationships”!

Thus, the point here is that, we should have the control of our senses and should be able to instruct our mind not to go behind other people’s wives for whatsoever reasons. Of course, we might not out rightly go in for a relationship with another woman, but the real danger is that, if we become too close to a person, the relationship would evolve automatically with time. Therefore, it is always better to avoid all sorts of contact with women who are married. Only if we get in contact, will the probability of falling into an illicit relationship would arise, isn’t it?

Of course, one might ask immediately as to how is this applicable in today’s world! If we work in an organizational setup, we might have to interact with fellow colleagues and employees who might be married, and this sort of a “rule” would kill our communication ability and employability in the long run! How do we tackle this issue? An important continuation of this discussion awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the point on why we should show restraint when it comes to destroying or vandalizing public utilities, which are open for use for all people of the society. For people who are doing so, Sage Sukhaachaarya gives them a “shocker” that these people would be given a “confirmed ticket” to “Naraka Lokha”! 😊 Hence, it is up to them to take this in the right sense or not!

Now moving on further with the narrative of Sage Sukhaachaarya on who reaches “Naraka Lokha”, he continues with the next point here. He says that if we have our close family relatives who are suffering from hunger and poverty, whereas if we’re leading a luxurious life, we’re going to surely knock the doors of the “Naraka Lokha”! In other words, if we have a decent job to make considerable money out of it, whereas if we have our close family members like our brothers, sisters, etc. who do not have that luxury in life, it is our duty to protect them and ensure that they live happily too. Whereas on the contrary, if we’re going to discard them saying, “Oh! Being in poverty is your fate! Struggling to meet the basic requirement of three meals a day is your headache!”, we should start packing our bags now itself to start our journey towards “Naraka Lokha”!

Especially when it comes to food and water, we should always ensure that our immediate people around us are happy and contended, before we consume our share of food. This should be the basic norm of our life. This is why we always say that we should first offer our food to Bhagawan and our “Athithi” (Guest, in the normal sense), before we consume it. This is of course, not restricted only to human beings, but also for all animals too. For instance, if we have “pet animals” at our home, like dogs, cats, etc. we should make it a point that we feed them first before we eat. When we have cows at our place, the same rule applies. In fact, the rule should be followed in a more strict way, as the cow is a holy animal, often referred to as “Go-Maata”. Feeding a cow to its satisfaction accounts to enormous amounts of “Punya” into our Atman and hence, we should always make it a point that we never miss an opportunity to serve our holy cows, wherever they are!

This is the reason why, the Upanishads also emphasizes that we should make sure that we cultivate surplus amounts of food grains, so that we shall serve more and more people and animals. We should make sure that all living beings are contended with food and water. Moreover, we should never waste food or criticize the food that we consume. For instance, some people have this habit – Whenever they get angry, they show their frustration on the food that they eat – Either by throwing the food into the dustbin, pushing away the whole plate with food in it in such a way that the food gets wasted, or criticizing the food by saying, “Oh! I hate this kind of food!”, etc. In fact, all of these habits have become a modern-day fashion amongst many youngsters, and this is totally deplorable. I say this because, food is an essentiality for thousands and thousands of lives that are sustaining in this world and we don’t have the rights to waste or criticize the food that we eat. No matter what the food item might be, even if we do not like consuming it, we can politely refuse it, rather than venting all our frustration on it. Food is considered to be the divine form of Mother Annapoorni and we do not have any right to criticize our holy Divine Mother!

It is for this reason we chant a Mantra when we consume food. This might be familiar to many of us:

“Brahmaarpanam brahma havir bramhaagnou brahmanaahutam!

Brahmaivatena gandarvyam brahma karma samaadhinaa!!”

This forms a part of Bhagawan Krishna’s Bhagawad Gita. The meaning of this is that, “This food that I have in my hand, is directly from the purest form of consciousness! I’m dedicating this food to the supreme creator of this whole consciousness! May the whole world, inclusive of all forms of living beings enjoy a stomach-full of healthy food!” By chanting this Mantra, we are offering the food that we consume to Bhagawan first. Thus, from this discussion, it is evident that if we play in the wrong way with the food that we consume, we better prepare ourselves to face repercussions as we enter into the “Naraka Lokha”.

As Sage Sukhaachaarya talks about the importance of food, he continues with an important corollary to this – The process of digestion of this food in our body! If we criticize the food that we consume, this is directly going to result in some flaws in our body’s digestion process. How is it going to impact? Let’s wait till the next episode to witness! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed yet another important point with respect to the ways through which we reach the “Naraka Lokha”. With the past 2-3 episodes put together, we’ve witnessed four to five categories of bad activities that we might end up doing, which might pave the way for us to reach “Naraka Lokha” – Primarily, if we try and abduct property of others through any way or means, if we try and harm animals for whatever purpose, if we try and possess more of anything that we require for our life’s smooth functioning, etc. We’ve witnessed how each of these activities would pave the way for us to reach where we shouldn’t reach! As we move on with today’s episode, we shall extend the discussion on the point that we had left with. We had in fact, finished yesterday’s episode by asking a question – What is “public property” and why shouldn’t we misuse it?” Here’s a brief accord on this question.

When we talk about “public property”, we should first understand what is “public property” and what all would come under this umbrella. “Public property” is something that signifies all those items that are meant to be commonly used by all living beings in this world. For instance, air, water, natural resources, trees, fruits, vegetables, etc. The list of course keeps going endlessly. Mother Nature has gifted us bountifully with many important items which are key for sustaining a happy and a contended life in this world. However, with the passage of time, what has happened to all of this public property? Because of our increasing “necessities” with time, we’ve started to do two things – One is to “grab” away the public property for our own usage and the second is to “pollute” the public property to such an extent that it might not be useful in any way for the future! Recently a third thing has also started to conspire – “Vandalizing” public property in the name of “political issues”!

If we’ve to look into these three points in a bit of more detail, let me ask a simple question here – Can we “own up” the air that we breathe? Can we “own up” the water that we drink? Can we “own up” any sort of natural resources that are present in the earth? Can we use all of these just for ourselves and without sharing with others? The saddest part in today’s world is that, we, human beings have started doing this! This is where the jealousy and greed creep in, which results in a chain of other unfortunate events that unfold. For instance, in the name of starting factories and industries, how do we maintain our water resources and air carefully? We compromise on all of the norms, rules and regulations laid by the Pollution Control Board (PCB) of the government. Rather, we end up bribing the PCB officials and start exploiting all the natural resources in the vicinity of the factory, thus making the entire area around it to become unlivable for anybody, including animals! I’m not goofing up anything here, and these sorts of things are unfortunately highly rampant in today’s scenario! We talk a lot on ethics, but do we follow them meticulously? In the name of factories and industries, how many rivers have we polluted with industrial wastes and effluents? How much of air have we polluted to such an extent that people living around have perennial breathing problems? What is going to happen if animals and people around these areas consume the polluted water from the rivers and streams running close by? Who is going to redress all of these issues? Isn’t this an alarming situation for all of us to think about?

This is exactly where Sage Sukhaachaarya points out – If we’re trying to destroy public property in any way or means, we should always be prepared to face the dire consequences that we would experience in the “Naraka Lokha”. Of course, this is not to scare anybody or criticize anyone personally, but through such important accords from our “Sanaathana Dharma”, we should create the awareness to mend our ways of doing things. We should live happily, and simultaneously let others live in happiness too. There is no point in deriving one’s happiness from another living being’s suffering! We must always remember that the same suffering that the other person might be undergoing today, might become our suffering tomorrow! Sadguru Shri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi explains this important point with a simple and a beautiful analogy – If we’re on the tenth floor of a big high-rise building and if the ground floor is on fire, and people on the ground floor are calling out for help, can we discard their fervent calls by saying “Oh! It’s your floor that is on fire and it’s your problem! It’s not my problem!”? What is the guarantee that the fire wouldn’t spread very quickly to the tenth floor within minutes? Rather, it would! So, won’t it be foolish on our part to derive happiness out of others’ suffering? Let’s think about it!

Having said thus, there is this third recent trend that is catching up big time in India – “Vandalizing public property”! Do we have any right to vandalize public utilities like buses, roads, trains, etc.? Just because we have some political and ideological differences, is it right on our part to destroy things that are created out of the taxpayers’ money? It is indeed appreciable that some state governments in India have took the initiative to recover the losses from those who vandalized and looted public property! This is a progressive step towards curbing such barbaric acts, and this should create a fear amongst those who try and involve in these kinds of anti-social activities.

Thus, for today, let us collectively as a society realize that “destruction” of public property or utility is going to take us directly into the “Naraka Lokha”. More than this, let us try and refrain ourselves from such activities atleast for the benefit of our people – For our own brothers and sisters of this great nation – For our own kids and grandchildren of tomorrow’s generation, who would otherwise suffer for no fault of theirs! Let’s start doing the needful today and thus, create a positive change in our society! We shall wait till the next episode to move on with further discussions on the “Naraka Lokha” and who goes into it! Stay tuned! 😊

In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important aspect that pertains to Sage Sukhaachaarya’s description of the “Naraka Lokha” and who reaches there. We’ve witnessed the bad consequences of consuming non-vegetarian food items, and how this would hamper our spiritual progress. Moreover, by consuming such unwarranted food stuff, we’re getting a direct invitation to enter into the “Naraka Lokha”, which we could easily avoid. Hence, readers should take this seriously into account and do the needful. I do not want to comment or write more on this, as it might hurt people’s “sentiments”, however, having said thus, readers should spare a thought on why I’m insisting on the point that we should refrain from consuming non-vegetarian food. In fact, even if we go to an astrologer and do some “Parihaara” (Corrective action) for any form of “Dosha” (Problems with our horoscope), the first advice that any good astrologer would give us is that, before commencing the “Parihaara” prayer, we should shun the habit of consuming non-vegetarian food. This is because, if we perform the “Parihaara” prayer without compromising on this seemingly “bad habit”, there would be no effect at all and it is just going to be a mere waste of time, money and energy! Hence, let us take this point very seriously as we move on with the further discussion on the “Naraka Lokha”.

Previously, we had commenced witnessing different categories of the “Naraka Lokha” and the corresponding “bad actions” which would lead us eventually into the respective categories. Now Sage Sukhaachaarya continues with the next important point here – If we consume things more than what we actually require, we are sure to reach the “Naraka Lokha”. Now what does this mean? This starts right from our food habits to whatever we buy every day! For instance, we should consume food only up to the extent that we would not feel hungry. Consuming anything beyond this limit is going to invite trouble. Similarly, when we buy groceries, some fancy items, etc. at our home, we should be very careful that we buy only what we require and what we use. We should refrain from buying items that we’re not going to use.

Now this is a marked difference between the Indian and the Western culture. As per our Indian “Sanaathana Dharma” culture, we buy only what we would be using and thus, we save both money as well as the environment. On the contrary, in the western world, people have the concept of “buying in bulk”! For instance, if I’ve to buy a pair of slippers – The Indian way of doing things is that, we go to the shop to buy a pair of slippers only when our previous pair of slippers get worn out! We buy slippers because our purpose of preventing our feet from getting hurt gets solved. Whereas, in the western culture, it is different. There might be some “Offers”, wherein if we buy three pairs of slippers, we would get one pair for free! 😊 So what do people do? They buy four pairs of slippers and keep them in their house! However, at one point in time, how many pairs of slippers can we wear? We can wear only one, isn’t it? We can’t wear all the four pairs of slippers at the same time and walk around! Now since we can use only one pair at a time, the other three pairs would lie idle at home and ultimately if we’re not using them for a longer time, we’re inviting rats and other creatures to come and “eat” away the unused slippers!

This is where, we should be able to think wisely – Just because somebody is trying to “market” and “sell” a product for his / her own monetary benefit, should we go and fall into that trap? There are two things here that we should note – Firstly, we are spending more money by buying more items that might eventually be unused! If we buy just that one pair of slippers, we would be spending far lesser money than buying three, isn’t it? Secondly, by excessively buying items, we’re creating an irreparable damage to the earth! For instance, slippers are made out of rubber and other such elements that are derived from nature. For extracting rubber, we’ve to cut down so many trees! This is going to damage Mother Earth’s ecosystem. We’re nowadays talking a lot about “climate change”, and by cutting down trees to satisfy our “greed”, we’re only contributing to the ill-effects of climate change, isn’t it? This in a way, is also “abducting” the property of Mother Earth for our greed! This is also in a way, abducting the property of our future generations of people! Because of our greed, we’re denying the beauty of Mother Earth for our kids and grandchildren! Now by doing so, we’re again falling into the category wherein we are trying to abduct someone else’s property! This is exactly what Sage Sukhaachaarya is saying – By consuming things more than what we need, we’re inviting ourselves into the “Naraka Lokha”! This is another important point that all of us have to lend a thought to!

Thus, the message here is that, we should buy only what we would be using. For instance, if we’re buying groceries, we should buy them only for a limited number of days. We can finish it up and then buy the fresh stock later, rather than buying in a bulk and letting it get spoilt! Similarly, when we go for “shopping”, we should make sure that we buy only what we require. Just because someone is selling something on an “offer”, we shouldn’t unnecessarily accumulate things in our wardrobes – Be it apparels, cosmetics, or whatever. Of course, I’m not saying that we should be stingy. We should of course buy what we like and what we would use. However, the restriction should be on the quantity and we should maintain a strict count on the number of rupees that we spend.

So for today, let us ponder over this point and do the needful. We shall continue this discussion further in the next episode too, wherein we’re going to witness what is “public property” and why shouldn’t we “misuse” it! Stay tuned! 😊

 

 

In the previous episode, we had commenced witnessing the crux of Sage Sukhaachaarya’s detailed explanation of what is “Naraka Lokha” and who goes into it! In fact, we have already witnessed that this “Naraka Lokha” is not just one in number, unlike the “Svarga Lokha” and the ultimate “Vaikunta” where Bhagawan resides. There are apparently twenty-five different Naraka Lokhas, into which, people performing various “categories” of bad actions would enter into! In this regard, yesterday we had witnessed few of those categories, wherein Sage Sukhaachaarya says that if a person thinks of and tries to abduct the property of others in an offensive and violent way, he / she is sure to reach “Naraka Lokha”. Here we should note that it is not only about doing a bad action. The result is the same even if we “think” of doing something bad to someone! This is where we need to be extremely careful and watchful in each and every action that we do. Similarly, if we’re promising some help to someone and fail in our words, this also invites us into the “Naraka Lokha”! If someone asks us for a help and at that moment, we give them an assurance to fulfill their needs, only to dismiss their request at a later stage for whatsoever reason – This is a direct invitation for us to enter into the “Naraka Lokha”! Similarly, if we mask the truth in such a way that another person is going to be affected by this in the court of law, this is one of the biggest sins which is going to put the “red carpet” for us to enter the “Naraka Lokha”! In the same lines, if we’re going to inflict any sort of hurt to an animal, including cows, dogs, sheep, goat, insects, etc. this is also going to “escort” us to the “Naraka Lokha”!

In this context, we concluded yesterday’s episode with an intriguing question thus – How can we manage our food habits if we’re having such a rule of not killing animals? Various people eat various things out there in the world. So, is this statement of Sage Sukhaachaarya applicable to all of us in some form or the other? The answer is an unfortunate and a stunning “Yes”! This is why we often keep saying that it is not good on our part to harm any animal – Be it a dog or a cat or a cow or whatever! In today’s world we witness animals being tortured and killed, right in front of our eyes. According to Sage Sukhaachaarya, all those who are involved in such heinous crimes, are sure to reach the “Naraka Lokha”. Thus we infer here that, we should only consume vegetarian food and if we’ve to avoid all of these “Naraka Lokha” possibilities, we should mend ourselves by ignoring those food items that are derived out of killing and torturing animals.

We should think for a moment here – Does any living being in this world want to die voluntarily?  Forget an animal – Will we do that in the first place? What would be the mindset of a poor and a helpless animal when it is about to get killed? Or rather, what would be the mindset of the mother of that poor animal which is witnessing its own child getting killed in the hands of a butcher? Won’t the mother be in agitation if its own child is being tortured and meted out with death, for no fault of its? If this were to happen to us, how would we feel? For instance, if we witness either our child or parents or brother or sister being tortured and killed by someone for no fault of theirs, right in front of our own eyes, what would we feel? Won’t the same feeling come for that poor animal too? Our Sanaathana Dharma explains clearly that if we kill an animal for consumption or whatever, the animal lets out an extremely bad vibration while dying thus: “Oh no! I’m being killed for no fault of mine! Who will take care of my calf after I die? Why is this human being so merciless in treating me like this?” This bad vibration gets transferred to us when we consume the dead body of this poor animal and eventually our physical and mental balance gets disturbed! If we do not possess the physical and mental balance, how are we going to progress spiritually?

This might sound a bit emotional and might not even make sense for some people who are reading through this. But having said that, this is the hard fact and we’ve to accept it and move on! As Sage Sukhaachaarya clearly explains, if we harm an animal in any form or means, we’re sure to reach the “Naraka Lokha”, wherein we would be harmed the same way as we’ve done to the poor animal! Many of us might know what the repercussions are of reaching this dreaded “Naraka Lokha” – This is a place where we are meted out with the punishments for all what we’ve done during our lifetime on this world! The “Naraka Lokha” is not like our Indian judiciary! It is going to be severe and it’s virtually impossible to get away from it, unlike the Indian court of Law, wherein everyone committing all sorts of crime gets away easily!

As we discuss this point on animal killing and torturing, we might have one question in mind – We might agree that we shouldn’t consume non-vegetarian food, however, is it wrong to consume milk too? Because, milk comes from the cow and aren’t we hurting the cow in the pretext of drawing milk from it? The answer to this question is very important – It is not wrong to consume milk, which comes from the cow. This is because, the cow voluntarily gives milk, out of love for its calf. If this milk is not extracted from the cow, this would hurt it. Thus, the normal procedure that we should follow here is that, we should allow the cow to feed its milk to its calf, and only after that, we shall consume the rest of the milk that the cow gives. However, what is wrong in this context is, harassing the cow to give more milk, feeding the cow with some “artificial medicines” to induce more milking ability, torturing the cow so that it gives more milk, not allowing the cows to graze around, etc. If we perform any of these above-mentioned activities, we should remember that the “Naraka Lokha” is waiting for us with open arms!

Thus for today, let us realize the important point that we should in any way not harm any animal in this world. Through this point, we should also drive home the corollary here that it is harmful for our spiritual progress if we consume non-vegetarian food. Thus, as ardent followers of Sanaathana Dharma, we should refrain from doing so, because, by consuming non-vegetarian food, we are going to take unwanted bad vibrations within us, which is going to make us either “Raajasic” or “Taamasic” in nature! So let us think of these points for today and let’s signal a positive change! We shall wait till the next episode to continue more on this! Stay tuned! 😊