Lessons for juniors(14)

SOURCES OF SINS(6 to 11)

We discussed what is meant by sinful activities and what do they do to us. We also discussed first five activities namely, Violence (Pranatipata), Untruth (Mrushavada), Theft (Adattadan), Unchaste (Maithun), and Possessiveness (Parigraha) in the last chapter. Now we will discuss next six sins in this chapter.

Krodh: It means anger. Whenever we do not get what we want, we get upset and mad, and depending upon the situation either we throw the things, use the harsh words or have negative thoughts. When a person is angry, he cannot distinguish between right and wrong or good and bad. To overcome this anger, we should develop tolerance. This way, we can stay calm even if things do not look right. If we can achieve that, then there will be no place for quarrels around us and we will be able to live peacefully.

Mana: It means the ego. Egoism, pride, arrogance, self-admiration, and conceit are all synonymous. The ego means thinking too much of the self. Due to the ego, we tend to look down upon others. Ego can be overcome by cultivating the sense of the humbleness.

Maya: It means to deceive, cheat, or mislead. Deceit, cunning, and maya are synonymous. When we cheat and succeed in doing so, then that leads to ego because we feel proud of what we have done even though it was wrong. When we get caught cheating, then we get in big trouble. So instead of cheating, we should be honest.

Lobha: It means greed. When we have enough to meet our needs but we want more for the sake of having it, then this act is called greed. We should realize that there is no end to our desires. We should not forget that when we do not get what we want, we get angry. We become jealous of someone who may have what we want. To get what we want, we may use all means from a simple buy out to deception, stealing or even killing. Most of the wars between nations are the result of greed of one to take over the other. Therefore, instead of being greedy let us be content and share with others what we have. If everybody does that, then there will be peace and harmony among ourselves.

Raga: Raga means attachment. Suppose you went shopping at a clothing store and you saw pants that you liked. You checked the price tag and decided to forget it, but then you saw a T-shirt which was cute. You liked it very much and you wanted to buy that. You checked its price tag and it was high too. You thought, "Well, I will wait until it comes on the sale." You kept on checking every two to three days to see if it was on the sale. Your coming back to the store was due to your attachment for that T-shirt. Attachment can be towards any thing including the relationship with spouse, parents, children, relatives, money, toys, clothes, house, etc. Sometimes this attachment can blind us to get what we want and to do so, we may even use harmful methods. Therefore, we should avoid developing attachments for things. After all that is not the only thing in the whole world. In other words, we should learn to live a life where it is all right whether we get what we like or not.

Dvesha: Dvesha means hatred. Every now and then, we may come across a situation where we do not like something. Most of the time we can ignore that, but sometimes it develops into the hatred towards someone. If the hatred is due to the loss of something, then it can turn into anger and may cause harm to others and to us. Hatred brings enmity. Instead, we should develop love and friendship for everybody. Even if someone is cruel to us, we should show compassion.

In the next chapter we will discuss the last 7 sinful activities namely, Quarreling (Kalah), Accusation (Abhyakhyan), Gossip (Paishunya), Criticism (Parparivada), Liking and disliking (Rati-arati), Malice (Maya-mrushavada) and Wrong beliefs (Mithya darshan shalya).