Freedom and Discipline from Hindu Dharma

[Guest guest]

Freedom and Discipline from Hindu Dharma

 

There are a hundred thousand aspects to be considered in a man's

life. Rules cannot be laid down to determine each and every one of

them. That would be tantamount to making a legal enactment. Laws are

indeed necessary to keep a man bound to a system. Our sastras do

contain many do's and don'ts, many rules of conduct.

 

There is much talk today of freedom and democracy. In practice what

do we see? Freedom has come to mean the licence to do what one likes,

to indulge one's every whim. The strong and the rough are free to

harass the weak and the virtuous. Thus we recognise the need to keep

people bound to certain laws and rules. However the restrictions must

not be too many. There must be a restriction on restrictions, a limit

set on how far individuals and the society can be kept under control.

To choke a man with too many rules and regulations is to kill his

spirit. He will break loose and run away from it all.

 

That is the reason why our Sastras have not committed everything to

writing and enacted laws to embrace all activities. In many matters

they let people follow in the footsteps of their elders or great men.

Treating me as a great man and respecting me for that reason, don't

you, on your own, do what I do-wear ashes, perform Pujas and observe

fasts? In some matters people are given the freedom to follow the

tradition or go by the personal example of others or by local or

family custom. Only thus will they have faith and willingness to

respect the rules prescribed with regard to other matters.

 

Setting an example through one's life is the best way of making

others do their duty or practice their dharma. The next best is to

make them do the same on their own persuasion. The third course is

compulsion in the form of written rules. Nowadays there are written

laws for anything and everything. Anyone who has pen and paper writes

whatever comes to his mind and has it printed.

 

Hindu Dharmasastra has come under attack for ordering a man's life

with countless rules and regulating and not allowing him freedom to

act on his own. But, actually, the sastras respect his freedom and

allow him to act on his own in many spheres. Were he given unbridled

freedom he would ruin himself and bring ruin upon the world also. The

purpose of the code of conduct formulated by our sastras is to keep

him within certain bounds. But this code does not cover all

activities since the makers of our sastras thought that people should

not be too tightly shackled by the dharmic regulations.

 

You may feel that with regard to some aspects of life there is an

element of compulsion in the sastras, but you may not feel the same

when you follow the tradition, the local or family custom or the

example of great men. Indeed you will take pride in doing so. This

fact is accepted, in the large-heartedness of its author, by the

Vaidyanatha-Diksitiyam. Previous works on Dharmasastra shared the

same view. The Apastamba-sutra is an authority widely followed. In

its concluding part the great sage Apastamba observes: "I have not

dealt with all duties. There are so many dharmas still to be learned.

Know them from the fourth varna. "From this it is clear that the

usual criticism that men kept women suppressed or that Brahmins kept

non-Brahmins suppressed is not true. In a renowned and widely

accepted dharmasastra such as that of Apastamba women and Sudras are

authoritatively recognised to be knowledgeable in some aspects of

dharma.

 

Asvalayana and some other "original" authors of sutras say that the

word of women is to be respected in the matter of the arati in

weddings and application of paccai. The posts supporting the marriage

pandal are installed to the chanting if mantras. Even so, if the

servant or worker erecting the pandal has a story to tell about it or

some tradition connected with it, you must not ignore it. In this way

everyone is respected in the sastras and given what is

called "democratic" freedom.

 

The dharmasastras include the samskaras and other rituals to be

performed by the fourth varna. That caste has not been ignored and

its duties and rituals are dealt with in the chapters on varnasrama,

anhika and sraddha in the Diksitiyam.

 

The dharmasastras have usually chapters on "acara" and "vyavahara".

The first denotes matters of custom and tradition that serve as a

general discipline. The second means translating them in terms of

outward rites or works.

http://www.kamakoti.org/hindudharma/part15/chap4.htm