Hindu Dharma

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The Capacity to Work and the Capacity to Protect from Hindu Dharma

The Lord has endowed us with the capacity to work and the celestials

with the capacity to protect. There is a similiar division of

functions in this world also.

The field and the factory are associated with labour. The police

station, the lawcourt and other offices have the function of

protection. The administrative offices are meant to ensure that what

is produced in the field and in the factory is made available to the

households in an equitable manner. The offices do not "produce"

anything, nor do they have any crops to harvest. They are free from

the noise of the machines and from cowdung and dust. Those who work

in an office need not make their hands aand nails dirty and can spend

their time sitting comfortably on chairs with the fans whirling over

them. There is hardly any bodily exertion-it is allpen-pushing. The

celestial world is like this: it is the office that affords

protection to all the worlds. We do not find fault with people who

man offices for not ploughing the fields or operating the machines.

If they start doing such work, they will not be able to do their duty

of protecting us. The celestials resemble these officials.

The earth is the field as well as the factory. It is all slush and

mud, all din and noise, and it is oily, sticky, dusty. We have to

toil here all day long. Performing the rites according to the canons

means suffering all this, like the smoke of the sacrificial fire,

exhaustion due to fasting-indeed you have to sweat through the

elaborate rites.

The Lord does not regard the celestials as belonging to a higher plane

nor does he think that we mortals belong to a lower one. The peasant

and the factory worker produce food and other articles. The official

sitting stylishly in his cubicle will starve and will be denied

essential goods but for the work done by the peasant and the factory

hand. All the same, it is because of the protection afforded by the

official that the corn harvested by the farmer and other essential

articles produced by the factory worker are made available to all

members of soceity.

The engineer gives the order to dig irrigation canals. The

agricultural officer supplies pesticides. , Another official issues

the license to start a factory. The government, which means also the

police, assists in the just distribution of the goods manufactured by

it. (It is for this purpose that the government is constituted, no

matter how it functions in practice. ) Thus it is a system in which

one is dependent on another. A contributes to B's happiness and B to

A's.

It is against such a background that we have to consider the words of

the Gita, "Parasparam bhavayantah". Though the devas look to us for

our help, it must not be forgotten that they belong to a higher plane

and that we must be respectful towards them.

In other religions the one God is worshipped directly by all. They do

not have a system of sacrifices meant to please a number of deities.

Among us, only sanyasins worship the Paramatman directly. Others have

to please and propitiate the various deities and obtain well-being

through their blessings. It is to please the deities that we perform

a variety of sacrifices.

A big king is not directly approached by all. The subjects have their

favours granted by the officials appointed by him. These officials do

not function on their own; they look after the welfare of the people

under royal orders. Some customs of our religion are reminiscent of

such a system. Paramesvara is the supreme king-emperor. We,

human-beings, are his subjects. Varuna, Agni, Vayu and such

celestials are his officials. We have to obtain a number of benefits

through them and we perform sacrifices with a view to enhancing their

power to do us good. The oblations we make in the sacrificial fire

constitute their food:"Agnimukhah devah".

We say "na mama" (not mine) when we offer any material in the sacred

fire. Such an oblation is consumed by Agni aand conveyed to the

celestials invoked. It is thus that they obtain their sustenance. In

this way we also propitiate our fathers(pitrs), those belonging to

our vamsa or clan. The Vedas contain directions about how rites meant

for pitrs are to be performed.