Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak
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CHAPTER II
THE DESIRE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ACTION
(KARMA-JIJNASA) that is :-" if his hair have become white, a man does not on that account alone, become old ; although a man may be young, yet if he is learned, the gods look upon him as old " [1] This principle has been accepted not only by Manu and Vyasa but also by the Lord Buddha. Because, the first line of the above verse from the Smrti has been adopted varbatim into the well-known Buddhistic treatise on Ethics, in the Pali language, known as the ' Dhammapada ' * [2] ; and later on it is said in the same book that the man who has become mature only by age, has lived in vain ; and that in order that a person should become truly religious and old, he must have acquired the virtues of veracity, harmlessness etc. ; and in another treatise named ' Cullavagga ', the Lord Buddha has himself permitted that even if the bhiksu, ( mendicant ) who may be preaching may be young, yet he should sit on a high pedestal and preach the religion to other bhiksus who had been previously invested into the creed and may be older than him [3] The story of Prahlada having disobeyed his father Hiranyakasipu, and won the Blessed Lord mentioned in the Puranas is well-known; and from these stories it will be seen that as a result of other important considerations coming into existence, one has unavoidably to temporarily forget not only the relationship between the older and the younger in age, but also the universally accepted relationship between father and son. But if, when such an occasion has not arisen, an arrogant son begins to abuse his father, will he not be looked upon as a brute ? Bhisma has
matih "[5] i. e. " the preceptor is superior even to the mother or the father. "' But it is stated in the Mahabharata itself, that when the preceptor of the king Marutta had abandoned him for his selfish interests, Marutta said :- guror apy avaliptasya karyakaryam ajantah I utpathapratipannasya nyayyam bhavati sasanam || |
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References And Context
- ↑ (Manu. 2. 156 ; and also Ma. Bha. Vana. 133. 11 ; Salya, 51. 47).
- ↑ (Dhammapada, 260)
- ↑ (Cullavagga, 6. 13. 1).
- ↑ The work ' Dhammapada ' has been translated into English in the Sacred Books of the East Series Vol X and the Cullavagga has also been translated into English in the Volumes XVII and XX of the same series. Mr. Yadavarao Varvikar, has also translated the Dhammapada into Marathi, and that was first published in the Kolhapur Granthamala and later on as an independent book. The verse in Pali in the Dhammapada is as follows :- na tena thero hoti yenassa palitam siro |paripakko vayo tassa mogha-jinno ti vuccati ||The word 'thera' is applied to Bnddhist mendicants. It is a corruption from the Sanskrit word " sthavira".
- ↑ (San. 108. 17),
- ↑ (Ma. Bha. A, 142. 52-53).