Dharma and virtues

Hindu teaching about is that humans all have choices to make as they follow their , which is a Hindu concept referring to the duties in this life. The choices a person makes in this life affects their future life. Throughout life humans gather , which can be good or bad. Their in the circle of life is governed by the karma they gather.

The four yamas, or virtues

The four are ways of behaving that are important in Hindu communities. They are:

– do no harm to living things
– give generously to those in need
– have compassion for suffering
– live in a self-controlled way

They are not exactly rules. Instead, they guide a person to become more virtuous by living in good ways, and they enable people to gather good karma in this life.

The Hindu scriptures explain how goodness and religious life are connected:

Source of wisdom and authority	What does it mean?
The Bhagavad Gita (8.9) teaches: “One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.”	This verse says that people should meditate on Ultimate Reality, even though God may not be imagined or pictured very easily. Everything is known by and controlled by the Ultimate Reality. The ‘Supreme Person’ is bright like the sun, knows everything, controls everything and is beyond the material world.
The Bhagavad Gita (15.3–4) teaches: “With determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began.”	These verses refer to the senses and human attachment to the material world as being like a tree with roots and branches spreading everywhere. The experiences of what we see, touch, hear and sense can trap us into thinking that the material world is the only thing that matters. But there is a destiny beyond this Earth, ‘the place from which one never returns’. By detaching ourselves from our senses, we can seek and find unity with the Supreme God (Ultimate Reality).

Source of wisdom and authority	The Bhagavad Gita (8.9) teaches: “One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.”
What does it mean?	This verse says that people should meditate on Ultimate Reality, even though God may not be imagined or pictured very easily. Everything is known by and controlled by the Ultimate Reality. The ‘Supreme Person’ is bright like the sun, knows everything, controls everything and is beyond the material world.

Source of wisdom and authority

The Bhagavad Gita (8.9) teaches: “One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun, and He is transcendental, beyond this material nature.”

What does it mean?

This verse says that people should meditate on Ultimate Reality, even though God may not be imagined or pictured very easily. Everything is known by and controlled by the Ultimate Reality. The ‘Supreme Person’ is bright like the sun, knows everything, controls everything and is beyond the material world.

Source of wisdom and authority	The Bhagavad Gita (15.3–4) teaches: “With determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began.”
What does it mean?	These verses refer to the senses and human attachment to the material world as being like a tree with roots and branches spreading everywhere. The experiences of what we see, touch, hear and sense can trap us into thinking that the material world is the only thing that matters. But there is a destiny beyond this Earth, ‘the place from which one never returns’. By detaching ourselves from our senses, we can seek and find unity with the Supreme God (Ultimate Reality).

Source of wisdom and authority

The Bhagavad Gita (15.3–4) teaches: “With determination one must cut down this strongly rooted tree with the weapon of detachment. Thereafter, one must seek that place from which, having gone, one never returns, and there surrender to that Supreme Personality of Godhead from whom everything began.”

What does it mean?

These verses refer to the senses and human attachment to the material world as being like a tree with roots and branches spreading everywhere. The experiences of what we see, touch, hear and sense can trap us into thinking that the material world is the only thing that matters. But there is a destiny beyond this Earth, ‘the place from which one never returns’. By detaching ourselves from our senses, we can seek and find unity with the Supreme God (Ultimate Reality).

Question

What do the words ‘ahimsa’, ‘daya’, ‘dama’ and ‘dana’ mean?

Next up

Watch a video

��ý

Nature of human life - OCRDharma and virtues