we offer two dimensions the idea of morality ethics and morality we say one way suppose you
are in a theistic mode being called like a super personality and majority of hindus are like that
we say in that case you can do the same as the abrahamic traditions do to say that the reason
why i have to be good to others look after others and not hurt others is because there's somebody
looking over my shoulder is in charge of creating me in charge of creating him so it is automatic
responsibility that we mustn't hurt but must help others comes out naturally because somebody look
at this commonality god that's why imposition theistic approach then i come with this known
you see how the non-plastic approach steals your heart they hit you the northeast they process this
do you know why i should not hurt her or why why shouldn't i hurt somebody i just told you the same
spirit this bubbling up here is bubbling up there if i hurt her i'm hurting myself
i'm stuck with her it's not because there's an imposition there's a goat sitting in judgment
i see myself multiplied and reflected everywhere i'm in trouble i cannot hurt and why should i
help somebody who is down is it because my books said big jury tables you know
pay so much money to charity don't you see it's undignifying the reason why i lift her up is not
because i'm being oh my book said be charitable because i can't help myself i'm helping myself
i'm just taking money from this pocket and putting in this pocket
now this is the pristine idea so you are stuck with the rest of the living kingdom and you are
stuck with them again this comes in context look the hindus are open to this idea marvelous ideas
when you try and translate into practice they come in context so suppose i meet somebody wants
to kill me what should i do fight back you two are divine so in context the the terms of engagement
will still be very careful that you will come across hitler's you need to lock them up
so he doesn't say oh there's good everybody let him do what he likes lock him up because you two
are divine and he's out for kind of greater you know ill so you need to call him stop him
so this idea of seeing this pristine idea divinity everywhere and yet it can only
put into practice in context looking at the context let me give a very practical example
you see gandhi became world famous because he id this idea of standing up for what he believes in
believes to be true in a non-violent fashion was a new tool that he pulled out
idea of ahimsa standing up to injustice in a non-violent manner straight using the idea
that i'm just talking about because doing it in others you don't hurt somebody else just because
you want to make your point try and deal with in a humane manner so gandhi in a way produce a
fashionable political weapon of if you like resolving human problem in a humane manner
before it was conflict kill or be killed he said no in a humane way we can resolve the problem and
he managed to succeed in getting independence for india and that's why we can world famous
and that's why you know martin luther king adopted the same idea and the apartheid system and the
segregation in the united states disappeared in 60 years do you know what accident disappeared
in fact obama has got a portrait of gandhi in his office he said i need to keep him in front of me
because look because of this new tool that gandhi discovered then put on the world stage the slaves
who built the white house are now ruling from the white house see a transformation taking place
but this can only take place if you take into account the context in which you are operating
suppose hitler wanted to rule india and he came to india and said okay you jabs i'm going to rule you
hitler was around at the time and gandhi said ahimsa known violence it has to come here you'll
be the first in the guest chamber nobody will hear your name see the context was different
the only way you could fight him was to roll up your sleeves even if a christian nation roll up
isn't thump so the context is crucial even though ethics and morality are issues that you need to
explore again who decides finally is there a book in the hinduism says okay it's all
written in black and white here no the hindu says grayscale it's all grayscale
you are responsible you are the spark of the divine and you got this faculty called rationality
use it to the full to come to town you may get it wrong so if you take an ethical moral issues
euthanasia abortion genetic engineering cloning live embryo research this is all grayscale also
the hindus and the responsibility is not in some book that hindus produce prescription
there's a response on humanity you are the spark of the divine you sort yourself out now use this
to the full say to where can you draw a line and say no this i can't allow this research is wrong
you're killing human beings you're sending them to the early death by euthanasia you must put it
you decide and this is a grand nature of this thing allows humanity to take it doesn't give
a free prescription so it is relativism in this sense it says relative in the sense that look
at the whole context and come to suppose you get the conclusion is wrong suppose you're
misguided so be it go nothing better it throws the responsibility and the blame if you're like on us
saying you would decide we just give you the gray scale i'll just touch on one idea
see euthanasia very hot thing to discuss political thing
in some european countries you can get assisted suicide legalized in the uk they're negotiating
they're talking about it and i think it will come what is the hindu take he says grayscale the life
person the life of that person belongs to him so society cannot impose himself no you continue to
suffer and you because life is valuable you must carry on it's not ours to dictate we recognize at
the same time we say because this is a slippery slope and we are going to live in a world
where there is going to be a growing aged population you know in the living the 90s
and the national health service is creaking and they don't have the money to pay for it there
are not enough youngsters to to to fund them there will be a natural tendency in society to
show people into euthanasia because you allowed it you legalized it so if your grant is saying
i could make it my son i would neck come here granny be so dear can you sign this paper please
see a risky very slippery slope so where do the hindus say this is tricky deal with it
no hard and fast rule this openness at the same time giving responsibility to us is a good thing
they throw the response there's no fixed book nothing all the scriptures of this kind of moral
ethics are considered to be contextual they come with a sell by date so what was para suitable for
two thousand is not suitable today they tell you that right they give you a health warning this
is sell by date may be gone like milk you need to produce a new one they allow you to evolve evolve
in on moral issues free e-learning course in hinduism to register please visit
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