Essence of Hinduism - by late PM Morarji Desai - Illustrated Weekly & Samooha Vaani.

[Guest guest]

Dear Member-Devotees,

 

An article written by late Shri Morarji Desai (PM) and published in the Illustrated Weekly of India 1961 and reprinted by Samooha Vaani May-June 2005, is reproduced below which, I feel,

members may find interesting.

 

Om Namo Naraayanaayah:

 

NR Pillai (Raju)

Dombivli West.

 

 

ESSENCE OF HINDUISM

(Late Shri Morarji Desai)

 

I was born a Hindu and, as I grew up in Hindu surroundings, I was more and more attached to the principles of Hindu religion. After studying the contents of other religions, I found my faith in Hinduism becoming deeper. On has generally more appeal to the religion in which one is born and brought up. Yet, this is not the main reason why I have developed a profound faith in Hindu philosophy.

 

While I consider that all faiths teach the basic religion common to all men, I derive greater satisfaction from the teaching of the Vedic religion, which is now known as Hindu religion, whose foundation is the Vedas and the Upanishads. It is only the Vedic religion which does not believe in conversion. All other religion believe in conversion to their faith because they consider that there is no salvation for man until he follows that particular faith. It is the peculiarity of Hinduism that any person, who wants to follow it, as he understands it, considers himself a Hindu without any formal initiation into it. Many people find it difficult to define what Hindu religion is because, amongst people who profess it, there are

those who believe is one God, in many Gods, or in no God, though those who do not believe in a God are in the fold. What draws me most to Hindu religion is its conception of God and the law of Karma held in common amongst all its followers. I believe in birth and rebirth, which are the result of one’s actions. No other religion postulates rebirth. I cannot conceive of the creation of God without having faith in the law of Karma.

 

In the science of physics there is fundamental law that action and reaction are equal and opposite and that nothing that one sees or does not see in the world disappears of changes in totality. Anything can change its shape and form, but it does not disappear, lessen or increase. For example, water may become steam or may be concerted into ice, but its content does not increase or decrease in substance. It is the Hindu concept that God, who is the Creator of everything that exists in the universe, does not govern it form day to day or moment to moment but His law, which is automatic, eternal and unchangeable, governs it. God is there as a witness to see that the law functions fully and without exception

 

The law of Karma necessarily involves the idea of birth and rebirth. Whatever we do can be classified into three different kinds. That is, every action can fall into one of three categories: (1) good action, that is action which id done for the benefit of other people; (2) action which is considered evil and is done to harm other people; and (3) action which is done without any attachment whatsoever, i.e. done only to serve others without expectation of any benefit from it either in substance or in the form of appreciation or reputation. The last mentioned produces no reaction, that is, it has no result attached to it to be undergone by the doer and, therefore, it does not lead to rebirth.

 

The first two kinds – the good and the evil give good and evil results, that is, they make one happy or unhappy. They are performed by everybody from moment to moment and are so many that the result cannot be undergone in a single life. Those, which remain

responsible for these actions has to reap their results. He cannot escape them unless he takes to life in which he ceases to perform any action with any attachment. He gives up all desire except that of serving others, one’s fellow beings and in the services of God. Unless he achieves this, he cannot be free from the cycle of birth and rebirth. When he takes to this kind of life and succeeds in achieving it and he has been through the fruits of his past actions, good or bad, he ceases to be born again and merges in God whose part he is.

 

Some people think that destiny makes one fatalistic and therefore inactive or without any dynamism. This is, in my view, a misconception of destiny. Belief in destiny reminds a person all the while that he has himself to undergo the results of his actions and that he cannot blame anybody else for what he is experiencing – good or bad. It reminds him that he is free to do any act himself and form his own destiny either of being born again and again or being fee from the cycle of birth and rebirth by accepting a life of detachment.

 

 

 

Courtesy: The Illustrated Weekly 1961 &

Samooha Vaani – May-June 2005.

 

ooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooooo

 

NR Pillai (Raju)

Dombivli West.

 

Make your home page