Bharatheeyam : ( 08/11/2012. )

The relevance of Gandhian economics : 2.Background of the Study : Gandhi's walks through the villages of rural India endeared him with a profound love of the land and respect for the people who toiled in it. He came to believe that it was impractical for India's cities to accommodate the burgeoning population in a dignified way. He romanticised village life as self-sufficient, simple, free, non violent, and truthful. To Gandhi, the qualities of village and rural life far surpassed that of the city, but he recognised that the playing field had to be levelled with both landscapes providing opportunities for personal growth and lifelong learning. Dhiru Thadani (2011) said that Gandhi idealised diverse self-governing communities in both the rural and urban landscapes. A robust community life is essential in the rural village as it is in any urban neighbourhood, the building block of a successful city.   From the time of his return to India in 1915, Gandhi comb...

The relevance of Gandhian economics : Introduction- The relevance of Gandhian economics in today's world seems to be paradoxical.  Gandhi believed that India lives in villages and that development of the villages will mean development of India as a whole.  If we are to increase the scope on a bigger scale and look at the world as a unified country and countries as villages, the relevance is clear.  Today, we live in a global village and, as they say, it has indeed become a small place to live in.  With recession affecting the world like never before, it is time to go back to the drawing board.  Gandhi saw the problems associated with industrialisation and modernisation.  He believed that unless villages are developed and made self sufficient, it will lead to mass migration, overcrowded cities and the vicious circle of poverty and under-development cannot be extinguished.  Gandhi's economic ideas were closely linked to t...

Can a person play two roles at the same time, in a given situation? : You cannot play two roles at the same time.  You can play only one role at a time.  You can play the other role the next moment.  At each moment, however, you can play only one role.  Therefore, you should use your judgment. Are you saying that dharma is relative and not absolute? : Following dharma always requires us to take into account the particular conditions of time, place and situation.  Therefore, there cannot be an absolute rule.  Satyam or truthfulness is an absolute dharma.  But what truthfulness is, will be determined by the situation.  Non-violence is a universal value.  But what non-violence is, in a given situation, will have to be determined by the situation. Was Robin Hood practicing kauśalam in his actions? Is robbing the rich to help the poor kausalam? : Dharma is kauśalam.  Following what is right and fair...

More on Dharma : Yes, he did that. It seems that he sent all his people around.  Nobody is fond of abandoning his wife!  Do not think that Rama abandoned his wife.  He abandoned himself.  Nobody sees that.  He never lived in the palace again.  From that point on, he lived the life of an ascetic.  If Sita lived the life of an ascetic, so did Rama.  He never enjoyed the pleasures of a king from that point on.  The point here is that there are always conflicting demands upon a person. Next : Can a person play two roles at the same time, in a given situation? Satsang with Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

On Dharma : In any given situation we should do what we need to do.  Let us take the example of Lord Rama.  He is severely criticized for his abandonment of Sita.  How do we explain this?  After all “Ramo vigrahavan dharmaha’, he is the embodiment of dharma or righteousness.  How could he justify doing that?  Rama had many roles to play, such as those of a king and husband.  On the one hand, his subjects were criticizing him for keeping Sita in his home.  Whether the criticism was right or wrong, this is how it was.  On the other hand he had his duty as husband to his wife.  If he played the role of a husband knowing that his wife is chaste, and ignored what his subjects said, then he would not be pleasing them.  “Ranjanath rajaha’, or the one who pleases his people, is called raja or king.  Thus, if he wanted to make his wife happy, he had to make his subjects unhappy, and if he wanted to mak...

                                                            Swami Dayananda Saraswati The Vedas have a vision or a 'view' of life and also a 'way' of life. That you are the whole is the view of the Vedas. The way of life means a life style with right attitudes and values which help you discover the vision that you are the whole. There is a method of teaching, a method of communication, by which the vision of the whole can be imparted to the other. We have a tradition that begins from Lord Siva and comes down to us through the Rishis. The tradition has always been the same. It has not undergone any change; it cannot undergo a change because it deals with the whole. This certainly does not apply to the knowledge of the parts. For example, the knowledge of physics in the Vedas is definitely wanting. But that is so because physics ...

  A human being has a number of desires.  And the desires of a given person need not be the desires of another person.  Further, a person who has a desire now many not have the same desire later even though it was not fulfilled.  He may grow out of it.  Thus, these desires (kamah) are many and varied (binnah).  In order to fulfill these desires, a person makes attempts according to his skill and knowledge, but still, there are many hidden variables.  To control the hidden variables one resorts to prayer This kind of prayer, a specific prayer to get a given result is mentioned in the first part of the Veda There are many such prayers for the many different ends.  Finally, at the end, the Veda has a topic called Vedanta.  This topic deals with the desirer.  It is important to understand the difference between these two topics.  One deals with your desires; it tries to help you to fulfill your desires. ...