Jagadguru Sri Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji on how The journey to freedom begins with ethical living

Jagadguru Sri Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji on how The journey to freedom begins with ethical living:

Since man is endowed with the intelligence to take up or leave actions, he can analyze sin and merit, shun wrong acts and perform good ones.

The sastras have prescribed karmas like taking baths in the sea, going on pilgrimages, etc., only for human beings. Does a tiger have a sacred dip in the sea? Or does it get punished by the king for harming other beings? No. Only man has do's and dont's. If a man has been punished appropriately for his crime by the king, he does not have to face punishment from God. But a man who has escaped punishment in this world has to undergo punishment in the next. That is necessary also.

Fire burns irrespective of whether one knows that it will burn or not. But a person who knows it burns, will not go near it. Likewise, one who knows that if one commits a sin, God will punish, does Not commit the sin. In the Kathopanishad, the words of Yama, the God of death, convey this: "He who believes that only this world is real and that there is no other world where the effects of sin and merit are experienced comes into my clutches again and again."

Sri Neelakantha Deekshita has beautifully described the way in which people waste their time. He has said,

वङ्गाः कथमङ्गाः कथमित्यनुयुङ्क्ते वृथा देशान्‌ ।

कीदृक्कृतान्तपुरमिति कोऽपि न जिज्ञासते लोकः ॥

('How are the people of the Vanga kingdom? What are the people of the Anga kingdom doing?' People read and think about such things and waste their time. But we do not think or try to find out about how the city of Yama, the God of death, will be, where we necessarily have to go some day.)

A person who knows that a snake bites, is afraid to go near it. One does not get bitten if one steers clear of the snake. Similarly, one who steers clear of adharma does not experience misery, the result of adharma.

- From the #MustRead book 'The Goal of Human Life' published by Vidya Bharathi Press of Sringeri Sharada Peetham

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