Swami Chinmayananda expounds Vedic hospitality

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Swami Chinmayananda speaks on:1. Hospitality to guests in Vedic messages2. Current importance of message in todays scenario where India is not that " rich " in terms of olden times.3. And charity does not mean borrow and give, overdo charity...

Read on:

FROM

THE VEDAS

Graduates, Feed the World!

 

 

 

Swami Chinmayananda

expounds Vedic hospitality

 

 

 

Do not turn

away anybody who seeks shelter and lodging. This is the vow. Let one therefore

acquire much food by any means whatsoever. They should say, " Food is

ready. " If the food is prepared in the best manner, the food is given to

him, the guest, also in the best manner. If food is prepared in the medium

manner, food is also given to him in the medium manner. If food is prepared in

the lowest manner, the same food is also given to him. He who knows thus, will

obtain all the rewards as mentioned above. "

KRISHNA YAJUR

VEDA

TAITTIRIYA

UPANISHAD 3.10.1

 

 

 

Commentary

by Swami Chinmayananda

The upasaka

(lay follower), generally a boy returning to society and who is to live as its

pillar in working out the Hindu culture, is exhorted to live in recognition of

the spiritual oneness with all. The culture of Hinduism is based mainly upon

duty, and the Hindu code of Dharma is mainly a textbook explaining one's

duties. The duties of a householder instill into him the idea of charity and

the spirit of hospitality. A duty unavoidable to a householder is that he

should entertain every guest that comes to him 'without date or invitation' (atithi).

Thus, the householder student, during his upasana, was told to consider

this atithi seva as his vow. To fulfill this vow the students will have

to entertain and worship the sick, the poor and the deserving travellers, with

shelter and food; which shows that the householder must have the necessary

means. Therefore, it is said, " Let one acquire much food by any means

whatsoever. " The latter may sound as a declaration of the modern lusty

rich to whom procuring wealth by " any means " seems to be the ambition

and the occupation. Here it only means that the one who wants to live a healthy

spiritual life in the world must be able to work hard in whatever field of

activity he finds himself, with all sincerity and perseverence, so that he may

get enough honest profit.

This is not a message

prescribing an unethical way of living or immoral way of procuring wealth. It

only insists that a boy, after education, when he goes back to his village, in

the arrogance of his undigested knowledge should not prove himself impotent in

life. He is told to act diligently and sincerely in whatever field of life he

finds an opening and through sincere and hard work to earn as much as he can,

and with that earning keep a house warm with charity and hospitality.

As soon as a guest comes

into the house, at a time which is appropriate, then, a noble Hindu householder

must say, " Food is ready. " The meaning of this passage and the, ardor

of love and warmth it indicates, cannot be better expressed than by a contrast

with how we are now behaving under the influence of our un-Hinduistic

education. In many homes, we rarely hear the ready cry of " Food is

ready. " Instead, we hear suggestive soft hissings, such as, " I hope

you must have come after your meals, " or " Perhaps you will have to

return for your lunch at home. "

To keep a hospitable home

today is not very easy, even for the richest man in the country, because of the

dire poverty and stupendous idleness that have come to curse the land of the

rishis. The main cause for this is certainly not the foreign rule but the

foreign " Way " we live in our society, divorced from our culture,

perpetrating dangerous experiments with the life and wealth of society. The

Hindu dharma alone can flourish in Arya Varta. Any other weed gathered in the

jungles of other nations must necessarily die away upon this sacred soil. The

modern madness for a secularism divorced from sacredness, the lunatic hurry

with which we strive to encourage the worship of gold in this land of

Gods, all these are bringing about more

and more confusion and instability into our midst.

Under circumstances of

poverty and the consequent privations, it is absurd to say that a Hindu should

try to be as openly charitable as his forefathers were in the Golden Era of our

civilization. We have to add many buts and ands to the statement.

It would be sufficient for us if we made our homes charitable enough for the

near and dear, and also for the respected and revered members of the society

who are the upholders of our sacred culture and are the champions of our

national and religious progress along the right lines.

To be charitable does not

mean to be foolish. To borrow so that we may give plenty in charity is suicide.

In a vulgar and misconceived sense of vanity, to overdo charity is again an

ugly mischief which none but fools would appreciate. The sruti here says

that if you have prepared the food in a particular standard, feed your guests

with the same food. If the householder had prepared but medium quality or the

simplest of food, he is not asked to prepare anything extra for his guests, but

the mantra commissions him only to share his food, whatever it be, with others.

 

Swami Chinmayananda (1917-1993), Vedantist

writer,lecturer,

translator, dynamic spiritual leader and Hindurenaissance founder of Chinmaya

Mission International

FROM:http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2002/10-12/16-17_vedas.shtml