Cornerstone of an Ideal Society, Part 2

(The continuation on the topic "Social Balance and Personal Integration" will introduce sanskrit words as printed in the book ,A Guide to Human Conduct, by the spiritual Master, P.R.Sarkar.These sanskrit words will appear in parenthesis, following immediately the topic described.)

SOCIAL BALANCE (YAMA)
The following five principles of Yama deal mainly with helping us to achieve a positive sens of balance in our dealings with society.

1. Non-injury (AHIMSA) - Action performed without the intention of harming anyone or anything by thought, word or deed. As long as one is chained to the desire to harm or exploit, one's progress towards peace and understanding is hindered. But the dynamics of life sometimes do involve force. To take a very basic example, everytime we breath we are killing thousands of micro-organisms. Here the intention is not to harm the bacteria, but simply to breathe. In other instance it might be necessary to use force to save human lives and liberties and this would be in accordance with AHIMSA as long as the action was not motivated by hatred or anger.
In the past many people have misinterpreted AHIMSA to be synonymous with non-violence, which involves even refraining from dpending oneself or others. If one is being attacked, or if others are being attacked, persecuted or deprived of their rights, it is our duty to do our utmost to ensure that those who would intimidate or exploit, are prevented from doing so. At times, it may be necessary to use force in this regard.

2. Benevolent Truthfulness (SATYA) - To guide all thoughts, speech and action with the feeling of welfare. SATYA could be interpreted as relative truth. Many of our tabloid daily newspapers tell the truth, but it is not truth tempered with the spirit of welfare. Humans are rational beings, and so our thoughts and actions should be guided by benevolent consideration for the well-being of all people. There maybe times when slight distortion of the actual facts is needed in order to prevent greater harm from happening. To illustrate this, suppose you are having dinner with your mother who has a weak heart- suddenly the phone rings and you are informed about the death of a very close member of the family. Would you tell your mother outright, risking shock and possible heart attack on her part - or would you break the news slowly and gently ? This is one instance where the use of SATYA is necessary.

3. Non-Stealing (ASTEYA) - Not to take, either physically, or mentally, that which rightfully belongs to someone else. In striving for true balance in our dealings with others, the thought of stealing is nearly as bad as the physical act itself. Stealing may be of four types :
a. Physical theft of any material object.
b. Planning a theft without actually stealing.
c. Without actually stealing you deprive others of their due.
d. You plan to deprive someone of their due.
When a person steals he or she develops an instinct which is detrimental to his or her spiritual progress , and even to think of doing so makes him or her greedy. Hidden desires too can be a type of stealing as this comes from comparing. You must be satisfied with what you have.

Be absolutly trustworthy. We cannot build a healthy human society if the walls of mistrust block the flow of love. It will never be material things which bring real happiness, but the joy of oneness with the Supreme Consciousness - this grows with unselfish love, and is made inaccessible by greed and mundane desires. Help others to be moral in this respect by assuring that no one lacks the minimum necessities to maintain their lives.

(to be continued...)