VIRTUES AND VICES
ACCEPTANCE AND REBUTTAL
A P ANAND
INTRODUCTION:
Benjamin Franklin has rightly said, “Vice knows she is ugly, so puts on her mask.” A person without co-operation and help of others is incomplete and cannot live in melancholy only. His life will be bleak and empty. It is well known that man can live individually, but can survive collectively. He can thus imbibe virtuous traits through his deeds but not vices, if he so desires. If we don’t believe in Formless God, we are bound to be trapped in vices. It is both, fear of God due to wisdom and firm faith in Him because of which our boat of life ferries across many tempests and vortexes. It is also our propriety that we fear of vices and opt virtues to face many hurdles. Our conscious rebuts/bites when we do a wrong thing and approves when we are right. Conscious is our inner voice. Unless one rebuts the vices and falsehood and faces the truth, one cannot win the race of life in jubilance. A virtuous person will move ahead with times and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his counterpart but a man of vices will be hesitant and will fall apart. A virtuous will burgeon and become Mr. Right, popular and friendly rapidly but the vicious one will soon lose his credibility. He may be called as Mr. Wrong or Dumbo. Knowledge is a virtue to be gained, retained and enhanced and ignorance is a vice which becomes a habit bringing devastating results. Virtues make us relaxed, ripe, sweet, humane and compassionate whereas a man of vices becomes cruel, rude and criminal. A virtuous person is lithe (flexible) like a willow tree but if he is having vices he shapes up as an egoistic, obstinate, fallible, grumble and tumble and a hard nut to crack.
Messages and thoughts travel through waves. Virtuous messages are accepted by God and the vices are rebutted/ censured/ disapproved. This is true even with the correct and false/ wrong addressed messages we send by electronic mail through network of satellites. The false/ wrong messages are returned as ‘False notice’. When we dislike someone, the uncharitable thoughts cross our mind, his face rebuts and is rejected by us whereas we receive happily and warmly the virtuous man. When someone sneezes, he thinks that somebody else is remembering him for good or bad. The listener wishes him, “God bless you.” The message received is a cosmic one which travels very fast through space. When we pray God, our act is of virtuous nature and if we are pure, we are directly in communion (like tuning to His channels) with God. Our prayers are answered if there is merit in them otherwise these are rebutted in the form of denial or to wait for proper opportunity. It is
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necessary to pray God for our refinement. Life embellished with pious thoughts brings fruitful results. Sometimes, even at the time of death, we carry forward the virtuous or vicious views about others, as we nurse in life.
Dear readers! Please be known that your gestures, body language and expressions should be well thoughtful, churned, pruned, sieved/strained, weighed and nicely calibrated/ measured. These should be judicious as these have bearings and speak volumes about your character and outcome in life. Though Ravana was a learned person, these were only his vices which bogged him down. He is considered as a horror figure and people dislike him even now.
VICES:
Vices are based on false views/ thoughts/ deeds and result in many miseries. Vices create vacuum in our life and help in sapping our vital energy. These are like snubbing elements, weeds and tares which do not allow life to grow and thrive. Attachment with finites is an act of vices. These never unite us but create wide voids. When these multiply, they create a hell. A man of vices doubts another one of the same nature. Vices act as thorns strewn on the path of spirituality. Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “Men wish to be saved from the mischief of their vices, but not from their vices.” A man of vices will have false identity and will nose-dive being a self-destructive, of diabolic designs and may become like a shuttle-cock. We, always, have a lingering fear when Lord punishes us heavily due to our actions against His wishes. A vicious person is intricate (entrenched) and very difficult to understand his nature. He anchors grudges against others and is like sizzling embers, very difficult to handle.
VIRTUES:
Virtues act as a gudgeon-pin/ lynch-pin for spirituality. If one has totally surrendered to God as “Sarangati”, a flame of spirituality has already ignited in him and he is discerning intellect. He renounces/ casts off all unwanted things/ desires and temptations. He is a thinker and conscious of God. Digambara Jains do not wear clothes which is a symbol of shunning worldly possessions and indifference to earthly emotions such as shame. They like
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to shed even their shadow. Virtues act like a fully blown-up flower permeating sweet fragrance everywhere. Divine energy pulsates in the veins of virtuous persons. He is wonderful and par-excellent (paragon) personality. He is very adorable and like a mascot. Everyone looks with amorous glances towards him.
REBUTTAL OF VICES:
God rebuts our vices, faulty and horrendous events taken place earlier by haunting us through dreams (through brain waves) which are vibes of cosmic communications advising us to improve upon. Even the sculpture does not want undesired material of rock he is using for chiseling/ carving out a statue of a deity etc. When Supreme Lord is angry and infuriated due to our outnumbered vices and continued ruthless trajectories, He vents out His anger through the fury by causing floods, droughts, earthquakes and eruption of volcanoes etc. There is disturbance in our mind in the form of disapproval if we do not care about the instructions of God and do not appreciate His gratitude. Even our body will be paralyzed due to Lord’s anger. If you meddle into the affairs of others, may be unrequested help, and the receiver does not accept/ like it, it will be considered as a rebuttal. In the same way if some amount/ thing/ offering is given to an undeserving or privileged/ un-deprived person and earned through undesirable/ unjustified methods, the same does not bear fruit. It is like watering down in the drain. Charity in proper form checks/ discourages hoarding and should not be self-serving. The Muslims part with 1/10 of their earnings in charity called tithe. Please do not glance with malign expressions towards someone as it is considered like a curse and the bad results may return to you. Everyone is having evil portent sometime in life based on our ‘karmas’ (deeds). Please avoid cursing someone which may bounce back on you like a boomerang/ ricochet and haunt you throughout life. Sometimes, we take advantage of someone’s weakness and harm which rebuts on us. Mind it that even a small creature like an ant can cause death of a powerful animal like an elephant by entering into his/ her ears. Think about a small seed which makes a forest. Please also mind it that any false/ forged, ludicrous force and deliberate implicating case against someone is rebutted with full force as it cannot stand, due to fair scrutiny, in the court of law. If you abuse someone without adequate reasons, the same is disapproved and bounces back on you. It is proved beyond doubt, by science, that the vices/ falsehood are rebutted by a lie-detector. In the yore/ primitive times, Adam and Eve suffered for not obeying Lord and ate the fruit of Eden Garden by believing in Satan’s lies and ploy. Albert Einstein said, “Lord casts the die, not the dice.”
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If during Muslim marriage, the couple accept the spouse by uttering the word, “Kabool” (I agree) under any undue influence or coercion, it should be considered as unsacred, vicious and an act of cowardice.
Unfortunately, we suffer because of our own mindset. Someone has rightly said, “The day of our death is fixed and this fact is well known to us, still why don’t we get sound sleep?” We have got many misconceptions about certain things which rattle our life, like crossing of our path by a cat is considered as a bad omen. Also many people hang/ dangle a horse-shoe or a bunch of lemon and chilies in front of doors to cast off ill omen or anathema or tie an armlet to remove / vanquish hoodoo. We worry, for some reason, if a part/ complete portion of our chosen deity, idol/ statue/ icon falls apart. These are nothing but acts due to superstition. The same is true with certain rites and rituals including black magic. Faith should be based on logic and reasoning.
ACCEPTANCE OF VIRTUES:
Apart from what is said in the preceding paragraphs, we will now touch upon a topic about acceptance of virtues. The spiritual person thinks and says, “To whichever direction I see, I find You only pervading there in every speck.” You are present, both, in the darkness and in light.” It was due to virtues, platonic love and remembrance that the Mughal Emperor, Shah Jahan got constructed “Taj Mahal” at Agra, a wonderful monument in memory of his beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal. Fighting with enemy for the sake of country is a virtuous act of a patriot and will be considered as martyrdom and an inspiring one. It was a virtuous, vigorous and hopeful dream of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said in his speech on August 28, 1963, then 34 years old, in Washington DC known as “I have a dream” for civil rights and equal protection for all citizens, regardless of colour and background. His focused and magnanimous visionary speech is a reality now as it was delivered in true sense. Fortunately, it was not just a day dream (reverie). In the same way it was the virtuous dream of curiosity and spirited of Mahatma Gandhi to attain independence of India through non-violent ways which became reality in the year 1947 and lives on.
When we visit a divine place of pilgrimage, we soon apply the dust of that place to our forehead in reverence. In the same way we apply the paw-dust, to our forehead, where the
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devotees and saints have treaded the path. Some divine personalities have got embedded in the ground, the tiles/ slabs with their names carved/ etched/ in-scripted on them. This way
they wish to get their ego vanquished when it comes under the feet of devotees and saints every now and then. Likewise a sweet smelled flower will spread its fragrance even after having been crushed under feet. Some people apply the ashes (residue) of eternal divine simmering fire lit at sacred places to their forehead as a mark of respect and their wishes are fulfilled in faith. When nothing works due to our apparent physical maladies, the medical doctor cures us with a placebo in pure faith.
CONCLUSION:
Lord is destroyer of our evils if we take refuge on His feet. He is savior. Our intellect coupled with faith in God act as armour of defence against all the evils. He is also playing His hidden role and we should be ever thankful to Him. Be alert! If you opt only vices, this world will act as an incinerator (fiery waste burning chamber) for you to turn to ashes. This small article of immense importance but of lofty ideals veers around the subject of ‘Karma’ (deeds) well explained, to its bursting seams/ in threadbare by Lord Sri Krishna to Sri Arjuna through a sermon in the battlefield of Kurukshetra and infused all his virtues in him. After explaining to Sri Arjuna; Lord, still left the decision of waging war to his intellect.
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