‘Ethics in Vedanta’ is a series of blogs we will be publishing from the book, ‘The Choice is Yours‘ by Swami Chinmayananda. Our choices should be based on some ethics and values. Here we understand what are the ethics mentioned in Vedanta. After reading and understanding each value we will be better equipped to make the ‘Right Choice.’
In nature, nothing is disharmonious. The sun and moon, the seasons, the plants and animals exist and function in perfect rhythm. It is only in human relationships that one finds bitterness and sorrow. Man alone is suffering, not the world of nature. Respect and consideration between individuals must be developed in order to bring about harmony in human relationships.
Without a sense of harmony in others (ekabhava), man suffers from pangs of separateness that condemn him to a life of loneliness. He becomes afraid, afraid of himself, afraid of others. This sense of separateness creates a thousand anxieties and sorrows. In their turn, these drive an individual to be selfish, cruel, angry, and even criminal. Love alone is the answer to this general problem of human suffering.
All of humanity asks the same questions: How do we end the sense of separateness and rediscover oneness in love? How can we learn to rise above our sense of limitation and fear? How can we discover our oneness with the world around us? This demand for harmony is in all and has existed in all periods of history, in all cultures, races, and countries.
Having carefully analysed our human weaknesses, the saints and sages advise us to grow in love and gain mastery over our challenges by rising above our limited, egocentric view of life and by exercising constant awareness of the totality of the world, the entirety of mankind, and the vastness of universal problems. When this total perception is developed, our individual problems pale into insignificance.
When we view our problems from a purely egocentric angle without vision of totality, the problems assume exaggerated proportions, cutting us down. To live a life of harmony is to recognize ourselves as members of an interdependent humanity, living in a composite universe. It is to merge our life with the resonant cadence of the whole and to bring about a beautiful melody of harmonious existence.
This principle of living in harmony with the external world is not to be construed as a life of idle acceptance or unintelligent surrender to the challenges confronting us. The harmony envisaged by the great religious masters is based on an awareness of the oneness of the dynamic life principle that is the Essence of the universe. This art of practicing harmony is to be applied in the din of the marketplace while we are sweating with exertion upon the narrow path of adversities. Living in harmony with the conditions around us brings to our heart an inward peace and poise. When we maintain poise, problems and challenges vanish like mist before the rising sun.
Man has to be delivered from his own misconception of himself. When he develops respect for the divinity in him, he develops a sense of holiness, and his reverence toward other human beings increases. Then alone can all economic, political, and social disturbances end. Religion or philosophy, whether reached through the church, mosque, or temple, cultivates in man this self-reverence. The seeker is taught to perceive a greater Reality, a greater and more divine Presence in one and all.