World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 728

The third one is compassion. It is a gracious desire to find solutions to the miseries of others. Forberance and compassion are the two faces of the same coin. It is the mother of Ahimsa (non-violance). It impells to have soft corner to a good desire to free a man from his sufferings. Mere desire can also do a great deal of help. Sri Shankaracarya earnestly prays to God to bestow upon him this virtue and to increase the same. The Bhagavata Purana extols this virtue to sky and says that God likes this very much.' Jainism, Buddhism, Christianity and a good few other religions give much importance to this. A sincere saint of Subhasitas made no bones to advise not to hesitate to give up that religion which does not give room to compassion.10
The fourth one is non-steeling. Taking anything without the permission of the owner is steeling. For this one has to control over one's desires. It is very simple that non-steeling is a very good virtue that maintains the healthy balance of the society. Steeling is an evil that poisons the health of the society. Hence it is a sin. Every religion warns against this evil of the society.
The fifth one is cleanliness. From the point of health cleanliness is the vital point of a sound body. It stands back to the maintainance of the health of both body and mind. It is also counted among the cardinal virtues of Yoga. Every man in the world aspires after the good health of his body. Hence it is one of the lifely virtues that shapes the health of society too. This "Sucitva” is also counted with regard to money, nature, character etc.
The next one is Dana, giving in charity. This includes friendly help (Paropakara) too. The quality of Dana has twofold benefit. It helps a great deal the person who receives it, and him who gives it, by associating with Punya that removes the sin. This quality of charity attracts people, it does away with enimity, an unknown person becomes a friend by this and thus it is capable of yielding anything which seems to be difficult to achieve. 12 One should help others to the best of one's capacity. The receiver must be a deserving or a needy person. Then only the face value of Dana (Charity) is increased. No religion in the world denies the significance of charity in our life.
The seventh one is control over sense organs or self-control (Indriya Jaya). One need not be necessarily adopt this virtue to its fullest extent. But minimum control over senses is necessary for every body to maintain his health. It will be beneficial even to the society. An aspirant marching on the pathway to realization must have this control over senses. But a common man should also try to develop this quality to maintain the balance of his surroundings.
679