The Easiest Virtue to name but the toughest to follow

Leaving war for later discussions in detail I want to take up one topic which parents and kids may find useful and I like to provide this as first practical suggestion through this blog. This will be the first gem in our virtue tool box in an effort to identify good culture to save the earth.

Hindu mythology calls the current era as "Kali Yug" meaning an era where desires prevail over virtues and demonic instincts of men will overpower the "sat"vic or peaceful instincts. The able saints have prescribed "devotion" to be the only means of salvation in this era. However devotion, they also warn, is not a short cut and it is a long path testing your patience and requiring a lot of penance. In the modern world there are two things which have become precious and scarce., Viz., money and time. Any amount of money is not good enough when I own it. (and it is a lot when my neighbour owns it) Since most of our time is spent in chasing the elusive money, we do not have time for anything ... definitely not for the devotion or bhakthi stuff - not in the list of priority items.

In essence we do not have time to pray or do penance. So how do we improve the virtue content of life if there is no devotion? Is there a good substitute to sweeten the life? At this point let me seek the help of Thiruvalluvar - the greatest saint poet of Tamil literature. I adore Thirukural - the epic work of Saint Valluvar. In my opinion I would recommend the contents of Kural as a template for documenting one's culture. The chapter headings provide a natural flow of sections and sub-sections for documenting good culture. It addresses all the aspects of life in three sections viz. Virtue, Material and pleasures of life. He prescribes virtues not only for the family men but for ascetics also. So giving up the worldly pleasures and renouncing the world does not absolve you of responsibilities to practise a culture.

Since there is no time to follow all the virtues can we follow just one simple virtue which would give the maximum benefits in life? I tried to find this key treasure in Kural again by searching Kural intensely. During my search, I was surprised to find the virtue of "Restrain your anger" sub-sectioned in the virtues for ascetics. Does that mean that in good old days, only so called saints and sages fall a prey to anger and rage? There are countless stories of these saints and sages cursing the mortals. Was the family man always quiet and patient? At this point of time, I was convinced that if you are easy to get provoked by anger, Valluvar is not considering you fit to live in a family. Thus I feel that "restraining or controlling your anger" is the only virtue that can absolve all our problems in life. If you want kids to have a happy and contented life, keep on insisting them that they control anger and become calm and composed when the rage brews in them. We should constantly practise this virtue so that the Kaliyug becomes a yug without anger.

If you study chapter 37 of kural, you will find the reason why anger is not of any use to any one. I find in the first two verses Valluvar repeating the same idea. (this is strange in poetic rendering unless the author feels strongly for the point to be emphasised)

To quote Suddanand Bharathiyar's translation those two verses are
Anger against the weak is wrong
It is futile against the strong.

Vain is wrath against men of force
Against the meek it is still worse.

How true these statements are? Your anger bears no fruit. Valluvar speaks about anger against the weak and the strong? How about anger shown towards your own equal? Will that bear any fruit? Kural again answers:

Off with wrath with any one.
It is the source of sin and pain.

Anger is equivalent of Sin and Pain. Jealousy at least can propel you and make you work hard. but anger has no use at all and will cause harm to everyone... to the giver and those who face it.
Kural is again very emphatic in a later verse. If you want to save yourself, kill your anger otherwise the anger will kill you.
Thyself to save, from wrath away!
If not thyself the wrath will slay

The last gem supporting this advice is the last kural in this chapter. You should restrain your anger to become a Saint.
Dead are they who are anger-fed
Saints are they from whom wrath has fled.

Five things are evil in life. Jealousy, Desire, Violence, harsh words and wrath or anger. In modern world you can not avoid desire completely. With some amount of desire allowed, you can not keep away from Jealousy and Violence. They breed where desires yield. If you can restrain anger, you may not use harsh words at all. Thus it is possible in this world to restrain anger even if you do not follow any other virtue. But when you restrain your anger, all virtues will slowly walk in and glorify our lives.

Controlling anger is the essence of non-violence. Let us examine what Bible preached. When some one slaps you on one cheek, show him the other. What a great documentation of highest form of tolerance and highest level of display of non-violence!!. How could Christ preach this or even think so nobly? The answer is clear he had no anger. He had completely controlled anger - the first signs of sin that devil will tempt you to succumb to. When Christ had no anger or completely controlled it, forgiving was easy and natural for him.

But this virtue is very very tough to practise. What are my experiences? Can world really adopt this easily? How can we make our kids free of wrath and anger? More on this in later posts.