Article sent from The Hindu

[Guest guest]

=============================================================

This article is emailed to you by Ram Chandran ( rchandran )

=============================================================

Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com)

 

Sinful acts listed in the Mahabharatam

 

CHENNAI, SEPT. 4. Based on scriptural study and personal

experience gained over the years, saints and sages have said

that, in general, no one is a born sinner. Unfortunately, during

one's life's journey, due to unforeseen circumstances, he commits

certain acts held as contradictory to norms and these are

generally known as ``sins''. How to know what constitute these

sinful deeds? The holy texts have left a list of acts which are

to be avoided. In the Mahabharatam, a few such forbidden deeds

are given to guide posterity. When Yudishtira was crowned, he

desired to obtain detailed instructions from Bheeshma about good

governance, virtue and other aspects and the latter profusely

presented the nature of the major constituents of ``Dharma''. His

dissertation just before his departure from the world gives a

list of sinful acts. To explain it, he refers to two episodes.

 

In the first, Sage Agastya once noticed that the flowers he had

gathered and kept for worship were missing. Wondering why this

had happened, he asked other godly souls around him the reason

and who the culprit might be. In their replies, they gave an

analysis of deeds which would tempt a person to indulge in such

sins. They were: to retaliate both in action or through abuses by

one against another without going into the facts which led to

such criticisms; to misappropriate or misuse the property

entrusted for safety and care; to continue with taking lunch,

making a guest wait or not inviting him; to live like a leech

depending on other's money and not giving the fair wage for a

worker who had toiled for him; not giving protection to one who

seeks help in times of danger; one who boasts about charity he

had given and a monk, not controlling his senses. Later, the

chief of the celestials accepted his guilt and said he had done

it only to get definitions of ``sin'' from pious souls. The

second episode referred by Bheeshma to Yudhistira related to the

famished look and a sickly appearance of some of those placed in

enviable positions, said Sri K. P. Arivanandam in his lecture on

Villiputhurar's Bharatam. A scholar was once seized by a devilish

character who asked him to explain why the abovesaid defects are

being seen even among men of valour. The reasons, the wise man

replied, were: disrespect shown to erudite scholars and orators

in the midst of an assembly, spreading rumours heard among people

who are in the habit of gossiping, retaining desires within the

mind but not spelling them out, display of avaricious tendency in

spite of being wealthy, envious about the merits of others, and

having business links with criminals.

 

Copyrights: 1995 - 2001 The Hindu

 

Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly

prohibited without the consent of The Hindu