Hari om everyone,
In this week's class, we discussed the relevance of 'dharma', 'artha' and 'kaama' in our daily lives. We picked multiple real-life examples starting from 'should we or shouldn't we earn lots of wealth' to a show called 'Dexter'!
One of the interesting points that came up was from this show, Dexter. The protagonist figures that the system is not efficient in catching the culprits, so he decides to punish the culprits himself. Is this right or wrong? To answer this, we had to repatriate to the definition of dharma. Is it a commoner's dharma to enforce the law? No! So it is wrong. If he was good at catching the culprits, then he should take up a job in the law enforcing division and then, it would be his dharma to catch the wrongdoers. (If he had punished the culprits in self-defence as a commoner, there is no problem. But to pre-meditate ways to punish someone when he is not holding office, is an offence.) Killing enemies of the country is the dharma of a soldier, although he has no personal grudge against the other person. But the same action is adharma for a terrorist. Our classic example of mahaabhaarata war - waging the war was wrong for Duryodhana, but right for Arjuna!
Conclusion: Anything that suffices the dharma is acceptable. Always revisit the platform of dharma to make right decisions!! The act itself doesn't become right or wrong, but the stand-point does! Something to remember always.
A little bit of Indian history was also discussed in the process of these discussions. It got so interesting that we got delayed to go to the auditorium, yet again. Some kids asked for an extra class just to learn more about Indian history after we finish the curriculum! We have only two more weeks of Bala Vihar. Not promising, but we will try our best to accommodate :).
See you soon in class.
Regards,
Rashmi and Sitaram.
Rashmi and Sitaram.
