Tuesday 1 June 2010

(c) Explain why truthfulness is important for Hindus (2004)

D': Aside from truthfulness being a principle of sanatan dharma...is there anything else?

Thank you :)

8 comments:

  1. Truthfulness has also a major contribution to karma yoga. By being truthful, you can gain good karma. When the good karma accumulates you will eventually go up the samasara and achieve moksha.

    Truthfulness can also work the other way. If you are not truthful then you will get bad karma therefore you will move down the samsara. This leads your further away from God. Thats why truthfulness is very important.

    Truthfulness is also very important as it is your dharma as a Grihastha. Hindus believe that on of the responsibility of Grihastha is to earn money honestly (artha). This is associated with the truthfulness. Since artha is part of you responsibility, truthfulness is considered bery important for Hindus.

    And the last one you know already (: - Hope it helps

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  2. Paul: there are a total of four principals of sanatana dharma

    aetsya - truthfulness
    Sattya - non stealing
    Ahimsa - non violence
    sauca - purity


    to answer your question i would refer to
    Varna - (following caste and duties truthfully and selfessly)
    Ashramas (grihastha)
    Talk about the atman (the true self is pure and devine)
    Seeking the truth (overcoming materialistic desires)

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  3. Also possibly talk about the gunas? Truthfulness and seeking truth is part of the highest guna, sattva. To become closer to Brahman you have to adopt the qualities from the higher gunas, so you would have to be truthful to attain moksha.

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  4. Thanks guys, that's very helpful :)

    I was just wondering if for the guna point...would you say:

    Truthfulness is important because those with a big proportion of the guna sattva (truth) will find it easier to attain moksha (as they would be more inclined to truthfulness -which like Tim says gains good karma- and performing 'good' actions. Because you don't 'adopt' the qualities of the gunas but they're part of your inbuilt personality...

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  5. I think that you have a set "amount" of gunas at the start of each new reincarnation. You can change this by doing good (or bad) deeds in this current life, so that in your next reincarnation you have more sattva (or rajas or tamas) as part of your gunic makeup. As the others said, this is based on karma. If you build up a lot of good karma, when you enter your next life I think you will get a higher proportion of sattva in your gunic makeup.

    And to relate back to the question, as the others said, if you have more sattva in your gunic makeup, you will be able to follow and honour the good virtue of "truthfulness" more, because having more sattva in your gunic makeup means that your character has more qualities of goodness, light, knowledge and especially truth. This in turn leads to MORE good karma, so that you can be closer to escaping samsara and achieving moksha.

    Is that a bit confusing? :(

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  6. I think I get it now...thanks Feebs :)

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