The Divine Path of Virtue

   The central theme of Hinduism, as of all the religions of the world, is spirituality. By “spirituality,” Hindus mean an eternal union or connectedness with the Divine and, through the Divine, with all creation. Hindus also believe in connectedness through time, spread over eons of birth cycles. All faiths believe that we must account for our actions in this life, in one way or another. Hindu philosophy, however, recognizes spirituality in a very special way. The unique features of Hinduism are its belief in karma (“As you sow, so shall you reap”), punarjanam (reincarnation), samsara (the eternal cycle of birth and death), moksha (salvation), and avtar-karan (God incarnation).

      The world, according to Hindu philosophy, is like a teaching institute, or ashrama, in which one learns in various phases of one’s karma through eons of birth cycles. It is essentially a character building and knowledge-imparting campus. It is a place to be loved, honored, and cherished. Yet it’s not the end in itself. After the spiritual commencement, the soul ultimately returns and merges in the Divine, which indeed is the most sacred abode for it.

      In the Hindu pantheon, undue attachment to the world is considered improper. The world has an important role to play in the evolution of the soul, yet the Vedas state:

Behold the universe in the glory of God, and all that lives
and moves on earth. Leaving the transient, find joy in the
Eternal.

      Hindus believe that our present status and position are determined by our past actions (or karma). According to Hindu philosophy, all our situations and circumstances are created as a reaction to our own past actions. Our future status is determined by our present karma. Karma, which has now become a household word in the West, is basically a form of energy. It moves in the form of thoughts, words, and actions but most potently in thoughts. Whatever good or bad we do, it will come back to us. This is the concept that is accepted by all religions in one form or another. It really is not completely fatalistic in nature. Hindu Rishis maintain that the main purpose of life is to transform our minds toward virtue and divinity. Once we are able to transform our minds, all of our past sins and errors may be mitigated or considerably modified. The karma is thus generated by our own thoughts and deeds. In Hindu philosophy, all our deeds are like seeds, which sprout and bear fruit, sooner or later; the sufferings of karma are not God’s punishment. On the other hand, meditation and prayer soften and mitigate the effect of karma. The purpose of karma is to help the human being to evolve in spirituality. The sages also advise bearing our karma gracefully, as God’s will. Behind this philosophical thought is hidden much peace and strength to go through the vicissitudes of life.

      By accepting the concept of karma, we at once take the responsibility of our deeds. Pride, arrogance, and an unrelenting nature are characteristics of those who don’t believe in the law of karma. Humility and faith are the basic requisites of the karma philosophy.
      There are three types of karma: sanchita karma, which is the sum total of all accumulated karmas, past as well as present, through eons of life cycles; prarabdha karma, which refers to the karma in the present time period as a consequence of the past deeds; kriyamana karma, which is the karma that is formed with the present actions. With the help of free will and sincere effort, an individual may create good karma through his present and future actions and even change significantly the effect of all previous karma. As inevitable as the effect of karma may seem, in reality Hindu philosophy offers many avenues for mitigating the consequences and course of karma through a variety of methods. Surrendering oneself at the feet of the Lord with all sincerity, accepting fault, and seeking divine guidance is acclaimed as the most positive way. Through the Lord’s grace, meditation (sadhana), austerity (tapas), and atonement (prashchitya), the outcome of karma could be considerably modified.

      Suicide is not condoned in Hindu philosophy. It is believed that such an abnormal act of abruptly cutting off the thread of life does not relieve the person from bearing the effect of karma. Rather, one would have to go through the karmic consequences in future births to resolve the same in the proper manner.
      The concept of reincarnation is unique in Hinduism, as well as in religions that originated in India, such as Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Although many others have delved into this philosophy, they have not accepted it as a religious faith. Hindus, on the other hand, have a deep and abiding belief in this concept. Hindu philosophy also accepts that the spiritual knowledge gained in one life stays forever and does not vanish after death. Man may thus continue his journey of spiritual evolution from the stage of learning he had reached in his previous life. Hindus also believe that a departed soul often returns to the same family, as a newborn, and families eagerly watch for a sign that affirms this.
      The concept of sin in Hinduism is associated with ignorance. Man performs evil actions because he does not know the real from the unreal, the good from the bad, or virtue from vice, just as a child would burn his hand for lack of knowledge. Attaining true or spiritual knowledge is the main object of all individuals. The Hindu view of knowledge (jnana) as the pivotal point of human progress and evolution is different from the guilt-ridden psychology of the Western philosophy. Essentially, this viewpoint underscores the basic goodness in all individuals, promoting peaceful and spiritual methods of augmenting the virtuous qualities. In Hindu theology, no sinner, however great his sins may be, is forever lost. With true penance (prayashchitta) and good deeds to resolve the karmic debt, any sinner may become pure again.

      According to the Upanishads, man is made from five evolutionary sheaths:
1. Anna maya kosha—the food matter
2. Prana maya kosha—the living breath
3. Mano maya kosha—the thinking mind
4. Vijnana maya kosha—the spiritual knowledge
5. Anand maya kosha—the divine bliss
 These sheaths represent the grades that a man passes through to attain the final salvation, or nirvana.

     Spiritual knowledge is the recognition of virtue and wisdom. Action without this spiritual knowledge (or super-consciousness, jnana), performed by the animal instinct (manas), lower intellect (buddhi), or the impulsive ego (ahamkar), may lead us to wrongdoing and vice. In Hindu philosophy, this wrong action constitutes sin (papa); similarly, a righteous deed forms virtue (puniya). The papa and puniya follow the individual in a cosmic way as his karma, in this life as well as in the eons of birth cycles. According to Hindu philosophy, the deep meaning of mind is portrayed in four different evolutionary strata:
1. Instinctive mind (manas)
2. Intellectual mind (buddhi)
3. Ego (ahamkara)
4. Divine consciousness (chitta)

      After attaining the intellectual mind, the human mind has two choices: It may go downward on the path of ego, or it may go upwards on the path of divine spirituality, toward the Divine, the spiritual consciousness, or the super-consciousness, and wean itself away from the direction of personal ego. Peace (shanti) comes to the person of higher spiritual consciousness. Hindu sages have promoted peace above all else.  

     In Hindu theology, the saint or sage (sant) is considered one who has completely annihilated his ego. Hindu seers have encouraged mankind to shun egoism and to focus on the development of a virtuous and good mind, called sumati. There are many Vedic prayers that invoke the noble and upright mind. The Vedic hymn of Gayatri is especially dedicated to this noble endeavor. Hindu scriptures also uphold that any mission accomplished by a righteous mind would have the sanction of the Divine and therefore, would always succeed. This is the unalterable spiritual law. Ethical and moral behavior is considered the most prized pursuit of human life. Hindu philosophy recognizes that the Divine is within all beings. The soul of an individual, the jivatma, is but a part of the divine soul, the paramatma, even though it remains in a dormant and deluded condition. The sacred mission of all human beings is to awaken the soul and make it realize its true and divine nature. This self-realization or salvation (moksha) is every person’s final goal. The role of free will is indomitable; it is the will to disengage from the sensual and steer toward the Divine.
      It is a common experience that when we give happiness to others, we feel happy; and when we make others unhappy, we too become unhappy. This is indeed God’s gift to man. God has made the human apparatus highly cognitive in order to perceive and feel in great depth the ultimate truth. The human mind has the potential to recognize good from evil. Even when we are driven to do the wrong thing because of our past tendencies (vasnas), it registers in our inner mental chart. This mental awareness starts to change and transform our innermost being (antahkaran).

      The Hindu concept of spiritual evolution received an unusual endorsement from hard-core scientific bodies. Recognition of a probable gene of God in the human brain, with the picture, which simulates the forehead mark of Hindu (tilaka), underscores the seed of divinity in all beings.51 Indeed, Hindu sages have always prompted us to look for the Divine within ourselves.
 The sole purpose of human life is to pursue learning, which is divided into three main stages:
• Shravana—Hearing (this may also include reading and watching media)
• Manana—Contemplating, meditating, and discarding what is not considered proper and suitable
• Nidhyasana—Putting the teachings into practice and assimilation in daily life
 Gradually, religion and spirituality became the way of life in Hindu society. Said Swami Vivekananda: “Not politics nor military power, not commercial supremacy nor mechanical genius furnishes India with that backbone, but religion; and religion alone is all that we have.”52

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