"Let one acquire plenty of food by any means whatsoever"

Ref-to last blog: Culture of Hinduism-dated 03.05.2013....

 

1. This "Let one acquire plenty of food by any means whatsoever" is not a message prescribing an unethical way of living  or immoral way of procuring wealth.

 

 

2. It only insists that a boy, after education, when he goes back to his home, in the arrogance of his undigested knowledge, should not prove himself impotent in life.

 

 

3. He is told to act diligently and sincerely in whatever field-of-life he finds an opening, and through sincere and hard work to earn as much as he can, and with that earning, keep the home warm with charity and hospitality.

 

 

4. As soon as a guest comes into the house at a time which is appropriate, then a noble Hindu householder may say: 'Food is ready.'

 

 

5. The meaning of this passage and the ardour of love and warmth it indicates  cannot be better expressed than by contrast with how we are behaving now under the influence of our un-Hinduistik education.

 

 

6. In many of the homes, we rarely hear the ready cry of 'Food is ready' but on the other hand we hear suggestive soft hissing, such as 'I hope you must have come after your meals,'  or, 'perhaps you will have to return for your lunch at home.' 

 

 

7. In fact, to keep a hospitable home now-a-days is not very easy even for  the common man in the country because the dire poverty and stupendous idleness that have come to curse the land of Rishies.

 

 

8. The main cause for this is certainly not the foreign rule but the foreign 'way' we live in our society, divorced  from  our culture, perpetrating dangerous experiments with the life and wealth of the society

 

 

9. The 'Hindu dharma' alone can flourish in Bharatham, any other weed gathered in the jungles of other nations must necessarily die away upon this sacred soil.

 

 

10. Thus, the modern madness for a "Secularism" divorced from sacredness, the lunatic hurry with which we are striving to encourage the worship of  'Gold' in this land of 'Gods,'  all these  are bringing about more and more confusion and instability into our midst.

 

 

11. Under these circumstances of poverty and the consequent privations, it is absurd to say that a Hindu should try to be as openly charitable as his forefathers were in the golden era of our civilisation.

 

 

12. In the context of our present times, we have to add many 'buts' and  'ifs' to the statement.

 

 

13. It would sufficient for us if we make our home charitable enough for the  near and dear ones, and also for the respected and revered members of the society who are upholders of our sacred culture and are the champions of our national and religious progress along the right lines.

 

 

14 . To be charitable does not mean to be 'Foolish.'  To borrow, so that we may give plenty in charity, is suicide. In a vulgar and mis-conceived sense of vanity, to overdo  charity is again ugly mischief which none but fools would appreciate.

 

 

15. The Sruthi here points that give charity a share of whatever food you prepared for you, and  any additional special serving is unnecessary.

 

16. Taittiriya Upanishad : Chapter-3, Section-10, Mantram-1.

 

Blog upon this mantram ends.