Three Cardinal Vices

17 September 1992, Students Hostel, Prasanthi Nilayam

Published English.

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In order to foster one's individual personality, everyone has to acquire knowledge of ethics and morality. Personality is not an ordinary term. It expresses the essential quality of a human being. For the Sanskrit word the equivalent term in English is personality. Personality is acquired only on the basis of adherence to moral principles. The term in Sanskrit is associated with manners and good conduct. When a man exercises discrimination in daily activity, then he is said to observe morality. A life without morality is utterly useless. The prestige of any community depends upon its morals. If morality is absent, the community comes to grief. Whether it is a nation, a society, or an individual, when they conduct themselves contrary to morality, the civilisation which they might have fostered for a long time will come to ruin. One may have plenty of wealth, position, authority and much else, but all these are meretricious; morality alone enhances the worth of a human being. Kings and emperors in from quite ancient times based their lives on morality and acquired honour and glory. It is on account of them that was called a Divine land, a land of (right Action), a land of , and a land of (sacrifice). The name and fame of Emperor have survived for millennia because he practised in his day-to-day life the great virtues. , among Mogul emperors, has been esteemed as a great ruler because of his conduct as an emperor.

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Destroy selfishness totally Only a moral life can be called sacred. Man is a sacred being. But when he indulges in selfishness, his sacred, divine life is undermined. The sacred is fundamental for every human being. This is also called . God as the Indweller guides and directs human life as , the inner-conscience of every human being. In human life today selfishness and self-interest have assumed prodigious proportions. Whatever he does, whatever he sees, whatever he studies, man makes it subserve selfish interests. Human life has become a plaything in the hands of selfishness. Only when selfishness is totally destroyed in the human heart, will man develop a broadmindedness that will promote unity and sacredness among mankind. When this selfishness grows continually, it takes the form of (lust), (hatred) and (greed). These three vices are demonic in nature. When these three demonic vices grow in them, human beings lose faith in God. Besides losing faith in God, they also develop enmity towards God. Worldly desires increase. The Divine quality declines.

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Hatred and enmity towards God ruins oneself You can find proofs of this in the , the and the . The story of shows how one who began his career with lust, developed hatred and enmity towards God and mined himself. was a great scholar. He had mastered sixty-four types of (knowledge). He was the first one who invented an aeroplane called . He had mastered the language of animals, birds and insects. There was nothing wanting by way of knowledge in . In terms of wealth and prosperity his kingdom excelled heaven itself. He did a lot of penance to acquire mastery over the physical world. In spite of all these, he had faith only in the phenomenal world and not in the Divine. He did not choose to enquire who was behind all creation.

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The universe is the property of the Creator. was verily the Over-Soul itself. was 's . She was the daughter of Mother Earth. She was the embodiment of Nature. developed enmity towards and wanted to abduct . What was the result of all this? Hating God and going after Nature, how did he end? At the end of it all, not only himself, but his kingdom and his entire brood were destroyed. In spite of all his knowledge and powers, he ruined himself because of his moral lapses. He did not recognise the divinity within him. What is the lesson to be learnt from 's fate? It is this: However much of worldly knowledge you may have, you should seek (knowledge of the ). Your parents or relations may be distant from you. But God is not distant from you. God is always with you, behind you and around you and He will protect you. Giving up the Divine, which is so close to you, and going after worldly happiness, is fraught with danger. made all efforts to satisfy his own desire, became an enemy of God and was ultimately destroyed.

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Lesson from the Next, you have the . The teaches the lesson that anger destroys people. In the , looked upon God as his enemy. He deemed himself the supreme Lord. He felt that there was no power greater than himself. was a great scientist. He plumbed the depths of the ocean. He had control over the five elements. Despite all these accomplishments he developed enmity towards God. He subjected his son, , to innumerable ordeals because he was a devotee of . He tried to drown in the ocean and hurl him from the top of a mountain. He got bitten by snakes. But survived all the ordeals. was always chanting the name of Lord , whom hated. Anger causes destruction of wisdom. And when wisdom is lost, everything is lost - honour, wealth, position and life itself. Scientific knowledge without wisdom is of no use. Along with science there should be discrimination. The teaches how a person suffers on account of evil desires. The teaches lessons as to how a person suffers on account of anger and hatred. All their knowledge and powers could not save or . It is only God who can give protection. Developing enmity towards God, and courted disaster.

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Greed goeth before a fall signifies one who has wicked thoughts. His minister was . means one who promulgates bad laws. A combination of these two led to the growth of greed. On account of their (greed) the were totally destroyed. On one occasion said, " means a person whose heart is pure, immaculately." told (on the battlefield), "! Get up, get up . Destiny is all powerful. Justice always wins. Selfishness will end in ruin. This is the nature of . Know the truth (of what is to come). may be the father of a hundred children. But, there will not be even one to perform the last rites for him. That is how fate works." thus revealed to the fate of the in the beginning itself. had a hundred sons. Of what use were they? At the end not even one son remained to perform his obsequies. The reason was greed. The were not prepared to give to the their rightful share. wanted to keep everything to himself, including what belonged to others. This kind of selfishness is called (greed). In the , because of (desire) was destroyed. In the , , despite his prodigious knowledge and power, was destroyed on account of his anger against God.

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The fate of those who hated God , and hated God and were utterly destroyed. The basic difference between the and the was in their attitude towards God. The had full faith in God. They thought God was their all. The were indifferent to God. All they wanted was only the kingdom. Before the war, went to to seek His help and also went to . saw both of them coming. He closed his eyes and acted as if He was sleeping. He wanted to teach the world the difference between the two. When he was awakened he found sitting at his feet. was full of ego. He thought: "I am a king. How can I sit at the feet of ?" He took his seat behind the head of . On opening His eyes, saw , who was sitting at his feet. asked, "Brother-in-law, why have you come?" was filled with jealousy. He reflected, "As soon as He got up, is talking to and not to me." He did not realise that it was only natural for to see first because he was sitting at 's feet. got up and offered . knew that was sitting behind. He asked , "What do you want?" came closer and said, " I have also come." said, "So both of you have come. I have two things to offer. On one side I am alone. On the other side there is my entire army. Do you want my army and kingdom or Myself?" Being apprehensive that might ask for the Army, came forward and said, ", I want your army." He said, ", I give you my army, you can go." told , ", I do not want anything except you. I will be happy if I have you alone." Right from the beginning the believed in "God first, the world next and finally the I." The belief of the was: "I first, the world next and God last." So, for them God was last.

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Those who are close to God gets His grace In order to prevent a war between the and , played the role of an envoy. felt that the were successful because of the support of and hatched a number of plans to get hold of and do away with him when he came to . was aware of these plans. entered the Assembly of the along with . The blind king addressed and said: "The and the are cousins. When they are children of two brothers, you should have the same attitude towards them. Why are you prejudiced against the ? Why do you love the ?" replied: "! You are not merely suffering from physical blindness, mentally also you are blind. I shower my grace on those who take refuge in Me. The one who is close to a fire gets both warmth and light. The have been close to the fire. They are getting the wisdom and the grace in the form of light and fire. The are staying far from the fire." Here fire refers to , the fire of wisdom. The were near and dear to . To whom can you compare them? In our body the head is very important. Next the shoulder, the stomach, and the legs. The body consists of these four parts, but it is useless without the heart. told : "Oh blind king, I am giving the analogy of a body with reference to the . In this body, may be compared to the head, to the shoulders, to the stomach and and to the legs.. In it, is the heart. Without , there are no . Without the them is no . That is the kind of mutual relationship between them. They are mutually interdependent."

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Justice will prevail where there is God made this declaration in the open court, so dear were the to the Lord. As them was protection for the from , though they had lost the kingdom and everything else, was able to get back the kingdom and everything else and confer joy on them. Success comes to those who have the protection of God. When asked who would win the war, answered: "Where there is , the , and with bow and arrow, there justice will prevail and there will be victory. This is my firm conviction." The firmly believed in and God. The went and prostrated at the feet of their mother, , before the start of the war. She had blindfolded her eyes and was not able to see them. She caressed and blessed him. She observed: "." (Where there is , there is victory). But they had no righteousness on their side. Even their mother blessed them in that manner. Their wickedness was responsible for this. They went to their preceptor , and offered . declared: "Where them is , them is : where there is , there is victory." Thus both mother and their preceptor blessed in these terms. Neither the mother nor the preceptor blessed them with success. The relied on their wealth and the power of their arms. But, them is need for God's grace. Along with God's grace, them could be wealth, position, power and knowledge.

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Earn blessings of parents and God's grace Dear students! Pursue your studies. But, together with education, earn the blessings of your parents. In addition, earn the grace of God. Despite all his knowledge, authority, power and prowess, what happened to a warrior like ? He lacked God's grace. Earn God's grace. That is true spiritual education. Along with spiritual education, you may pursue worldly education. A basic requirement for all this is good character. Morality alone helps one in a number of ways. If your conduct is not good, society will not respect you. As long as one is in power, society may respect one. Once power goes, the man will be an object of derision. You may not have any power, but morality will confer honour and respect.

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Epics to show the power of the Divine To recognise the power of the Divine, here is an illustration from the : and went to protect the performed by the sage . There were demons who wanted to undo the performed by . was one of them. He was the son of the ogress . As soon as espied , with one arrow he despatched him far away. recognised then the power of . He firmly believed that had the power of Divinity. From that moment he gave up his demonic quality. When he was in this state came to him to seek his help for kidnapping . said, "I want to kidnap . and are there. Become a gold deer and divert their attention." Folding his palms, told : "Oh King of Demons! You are having so much confidence in your physical power. is not an ordinary man. I have experienced his prowess. You have lost your senses. Do not embark on this enterprise. You can never achieve victory over ." In a number of ways sought to advise . There is a saying: "When destruction is impending, one's intelligence will be perverted." was in a rage. He said: " will you obey my command or shall I sever your head?" thought within himself: "When I become a golden deer may kill me. If I go against , he will kill me. Death is certain either way. Instead of meeting with death at the hands of , it is better I die at the hands of ." did not like to be killed by the wicked King . That is why took the form of the golden deer. Dear Students! the , the and the teach the lesson that desire, anger and greed cause destruction. Fix your faith on God and not on the things of the world. When you have faith in God, your discrimination will be perfect. You will be guided by your conscience, which will always lead you properly. In Vedantic parlance, this conscience is called . God is .. means Being, means Awareness. Where the two are combined them is bliss. That is the meaning of - Being + Awareness + Bliss - .

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Dear students! You are all aspirants of Bliss. You should enjoy bliss. You have to combine and to realise . Without (purity), there can be no divinity. Without divinity them is no bliss. Always think of God.