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Everyone is aware of the Ten Commandments of the Holy Bible. Indeed there was a fabulous color movie on them in our youth produced and directed by the renowned Cecil deMille.
I guess every religion has its own commandments. But Hinduism being an amorphous non-prophet thing, its commandments are also comfortably vague. But if you are a strictly religious person striving for enlightenment, there are the following Yamas and Niyamas (dos and don'ts or rather the other way round):
1. Ahimsa (non-violence)
2. Satya (truthfulness)
3. Asteya (non-stealing)
4. Brahmacharya (celibacy)
5. Aparigraha (greedlessness)
1. Shaucha (purity)
2. Santosha (contentment)
3. Tapas (austerity)
4. Swaadhyaya (vedic studies)
5. Iswara Prannidhana (unconditional surrender to the Lord)
People take vows willy-nilly. And break them if inconvenient and do prayashchitta (apologia).
The greatest of all vows was taken by Bhishma. To please his errant father, he vowed that he will never marry...something I wouldn't have done to please a dying grannie.
Raam observed monogamy in an age when kings had many wives...his own father had 3...it is a different matter that he regretted it...bolting the stable door after the horses have bolted. His opponent, Ravana, had 3. Wiki says they are Mandodari, Dhanyamalini and a third whose name it doesn't know...neither do I.
At the last count, our own last Nizam had 7 wives, 42 concubines and at least (as wiki says) 149 kids....quite a stable.
Krishna had (at least) 16000 lovers and apparently he returned their love. But there is this story about him:
Uttara was carrying when her husband Abhimanyu was killed treacherously in the battle-field....my Telugu Pundit at Muthukur used to say that Krishna was partially to blame for the tragedy...he led his B-i-L, Arjun, away and astray from the scene of action.
When time came for her delivery, Uttara had a stillborn baby. And she grieved. And watching her grief, the Akashvani (VoA) spoke:
"This child will come back to life if touched by one who is eternally celibate."
And Uttara carried her kid around asking the various munis and yogis assembled there to please touch her son...this was a mean trick of Akashvani. And everyone stepped back refusing to take the test of their celibacy. Finally, Krishna smiled and asked Uttara to bring her baby along. And touched him. And lo and behold...the kid started crying in his mom's arms. And was hence christened Parikshit (the tested one).
The moral of the story seems to be that celibacy or otherwise is a state of the mind...much like our Baba declared that poverty is a state of the mind.
However, this mind-thing of celibacy didn't seem to have helped our golfers and godmen who tried this as a valid excuse.
The most terrible vow was that of Karna....charity. He vowed that he wouldn't refuse a Brahmin who approached him for his goods. And, knowing full well that it would certainly lead to his death, he donated his impenetrable armor to a fake brahmin (like me). I too never refused chandas (donations) for the various Pujas in Bengal. But I turned out a student asking me to donate for his Art of Living (AoL)...sorry!
Talking of vows there are these marital vows taken by the bridegroom in our South Indian Brahmin families. These are known collectively as the 'Naaticharaami' vows. Every man (not woman, mind you) in our religion is exhorted to seek the following four Purusharthas:
1. Dharma (duty)
2. Artha (wealth)
3. Kaama (you know what it is....read Vatsyayana)
4. Moksha (freedom)
The bridegroom says to the bride:
"Dharmecha Arthecha Kaamecha Mokshecha Naaticharami...Naaticharami...Naaticharami..."
("In the fulfillment of my four Purusharthas listed above, I will abide by thee!")
However, in our sub-sect, the last one (Mokshecha) is omitted. For a good reason...wives would never agree to let you go free.
I recall only one vow that I took and kept. That was a promise given to my wife. I vowed that I will smoke my last cigarette...to please her...on our First Wedding Anniversary. I recall that evening. We were walking at around 9 PM from my friend DB's place to ours. And I stopped by the paan shop outside the Tech Market at KGP. And bought a meetha paan for her (she loved them). And just one single fag for myself. And we walked along chatting of this and that and, after I was through, I threw the butt on the fence nearby and never took up smoking again...although there is now, strictly speaking, no need to keep my terrible vow anymore ;)
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$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Everyone is aware of the Ten Commandments of the Holy Bible. Indeed there was a fabulous color movie on them in our youth produced and directed by the renowned Cecil deMille.
I guess every religion has its own commandments. But Hinduism being an amorphous non-prophet thing, its commandments are also comfortably vague. But if you are a strictly religious person striving for enlightenment, there are the following Yamas and Niyamas (dos and don'ts or rather the other way round):
Yamas:
1. Ahimsa (non-violence)
2. Satya (truthfulness)
3. Asteya (non-stealing)
4. Brahmacharya (celibacy)
5. Aparigraha (greedlessness)
Niyamas:
1. Shaucha (purity)
2. Santosha (contentment)
3. Tapas (austerity)
4. Swaadhyaya (vedic studies)
5. Iswara Prannidhana (unconditional surrender to the Lord)
People take vows willy-nilly. And break them if inconvenient and do prayashchitta (apologia).
The greatest of all vows was taken by Bhishma. To please his errant father, he vowed that he will never marry...something I wouldn't have done to please a dying grannie.
Raam observed monogamy in an age when kings had many wives...his own father had 3...it is a different matter that he regretted it...bolting the stable door after the horses have bolted. His opponent, Ravana, had 3. Wiki says they are Mandodari, Dhanyamalini and a third whose name it doesn't know...neither do I.
At the last count, our own last Nizam had 7 wives, 42 concubines and at least (as wiki says) 149 kids....quite a stable.
Krishna had (at least) 16000 lovers and apparently he returned their love. But there is this story about him:
Uttara was carrying when her husband Abhimanyu was killed treacherously in the battle-field....my Telugu Pundit at Muthukur used to say that Krishna was partially to blame for the tragedy...he led his B-i-L, Arjun, away and astray from the scene of action.
When time came for her delivery, Uttara had a stillborn baby. And she grieved. And watching her grief, the Akashvani (VoA) spoke:
"This child will come back to life if touched by one who is eternally celibate."
And Uttara carried her kid around asking the various munis and yogis assembled there to please touch her son...this was a mean trick of Akashvani. And everyone stepped back refusing to take the test of their celibacy. Finally, Krishna smiled and asked Uttara to bring her baby along. And touched him. And lo and behold...the kid started crying in his mom's arms. And was hence christened Parikshit (the tested one).
The moral of the story seems to be that celibacy or otherwise is a state of the mind...much like our Baba declared that poverty is a state of the mind.
However, this mind-thing of celibacy didn't seem to have helped our golfers and godmen who tried this as a valid excuse.
The most terrible vow was that of Karna....charity. He vowed that he wouldn't refuse a Brahmin who approached him for his goods. And, knowing full well that it would certainly lead to his death, he donated his impenetrable armor to a fake brahmin (like me). I too never refused chandas (donations) for the various Pujas in Bengal. But I turned out a student asking me to donate for his Art of Living (AoL)...sorry!
Talking of vows there are these marital vows taken by the bridegroom in our South Indian Brahmin families. These are known collectively as the 'Naaticharaami' vows. Every man (not woman, mind you) in our religion is exhorted to seek the following four Purusharthas:
1. Dharma (duty)
2. Artha (wealth)
3. Kaama (you know what it is....read Vatsyayana)
4. Moksha (freedom)
The bridegroom says to the bride:
"Dharmecha Arthecha Kaamecha Mokshecha Naaticharami...Naaticharami...Naaticharami..."
("In the fulfillment of my four Purusharthas listed above, I will abide by thee!")
However, in our sub-sect, the last one (Mokshecha) is omitted. For a good reason...wives would never agree to let you go free.
I recall only one vow that I took and kept. That was a promise given to my wife. I vowed that I will smoke my last cigarette...to please her...on our First Wedding Anniversary. I recall that evening. We were walking at around 9 PM from my friend DB's place to ours. And I stopped by the paan shop outside the Tech Market at KGP. And bought a meetha paan for her (she loved them). And just one single fag for myself. And we walked along chatting of this and that and, after I was through, I threw the butt on the fence nearby and never took up smoking again...although there is now, strictly speaking, no need to keep my terrible vow anymore ;)
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Thanks for bringing up the mythological context of Krishna. Actually I had heard similar reference but wasn't sure . Now I am. It is a beautiful story. :)
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