{"id":4059,"date":"2013-07-13T01:53:08","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=4059"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:53:08","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:53:08","slug":"51-punishment-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/03-questions-and-answers-volume-03\/51-punishment-vol-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-51_Punishment.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nPunishment
\n<\/b> <\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n <\/font><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

All
\ntremble when faced with punishment; all fear death. Seeing others as ourselves,
\ndo not strike, do not cause another to strike. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

All
\ntremble when faced with punishment; life is dear to all. Seeing others as
\nourselves, do not strike, do not cause another to strike. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Whosoever
\nhurts creatures eager for happiness for the sake of his own happiness,
\nnevertheless will not obtain it after his death. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Whosoever
\ndoes not hurt creatures eager for happiness for the sake of his own happiness,
\nwill obtain it after death. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Never
\nspeak harsh words to anyone, for they will be returned to you. Angry words
\ncause suffering and one who utters them will bear them in return. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If
\nyou remain as silent as a broken gong, you have already entered Nirvana, for
\nviolence no longer abides in you. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

As
\nthe cowherd, with his stick, drives the herd to pasture, so old age and death
\ndrive the life out of all living beings. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The
\nfool does evil without knowing it; he is consumed and tormented by his actions
\nas by a fire. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One
\nwho does harm to one who does none, one who <\/span><\/i>
\n
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 233<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

offends
\none who offends not, will soon suffer one of the ten states that follow:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

He
\nwill endure intense pain, he will suffer disastrous losses and terrible injury,
\nserious illness, madness. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Or he
\nwill come in conflict with authority, he will be the object of gross calumny,
\nhe will lose his near ones or his possessions. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Or
\nelse fire will destroy his dwelling-place; and at the time of the dissolution
\nof his body he will be reborn in Hell. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Neither
\ngoing naked or with matted hair, nor remaining dirty, nor fasting, nor sleeping
\non the bare ground, nor smearing the body with ashes, nor the practice of
\nascetic postures, can purify the mortal who has not cast away all doubt. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

However
\nrichly he is dressed, if a man cultivates tranquillity of mind, if he is calm,
\nresigned, master of himself, pure, if he does no harm to any creature, he is a
\nBrahmin, he is an ascetic, he is a Bhikkhu. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Is
\nthere in this world a man beyond reproach that merits no blame, as a
\nthoroughbred needs no blow from the whip? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Like
\na spirited horse, be quick and eager for the goal. By trust, virtue, energy,
\nmeditation, the quest for truth, perfection of knowledge and conduct, by faith
\ndestroy in you all suffering. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Those
\nwho build waterways lead the water where they<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 234<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>want; those who make arrows straighten them;
\ncarpenters shape their wood; the sage controls himself. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One has the impression that these things were written for rather
\nprimitive people. The series of calamities that will befall you if you do harm
\nis quite amusing. <\/span><\/p>\n

It would seem \u2013 provided of course that
\nthis is an exact record of the words that the Buddha spoke \u2013 that he must have
\nchanged the terms of his talks according to his audience and if he had to do
\nwith rustic people without education, he would speak a very material language
\nwith very practical and concrete comparisons so that they might understand him.
\nThere is a considerable difference of level in these verses. Some have become
\nvery famous, as, for example, the last verse here, where it is said that the
\nartisan shapes his material to achieve what he has to do, and this striking
\nconclusion: the sage controls himself. <\/span><\/p>\n

Truly one has the impression that human
\nmentality has progressed since that age. Thought has become more complex,
\npsychology more profound, to the extent that these arguments appear almost
\npuerile. But when we mean to practise them, then we realise that we have
\nremained almost on the same level, and that if thought has progressed,
\npractice, far from being better, seems to have become worse. And here there is
\na childlike simplicity, something rather healthy, an absence of perversion that
\nunfortunately the human race no longer possesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was a moral healthiness in those
\ndays which has now completely disappeared. These arguments make you smile, but
\nthe practice of what is taught here is much more difficult now than it was at
\nthat time. A kind of hypocrisy, pretension, underhand duplicity seems to have
\ntaken possession of the human mind and especially its way of being, and men
\nhave learnt to deceive themselves in a most pernicious way. <\/span><\/p>\n

In those times, one could say, \u201cDon’t do
\nharm, you will be punished\u201d; hearts were simple and the mind as well, and one
\nsaid, \u201cYes, it is better not to do harm, because I will be <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 235<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n

punished.\u201d But now, with an ironical smile, you say, \u201cOh! I shall
\nsurely find a way to avoid punishment.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Mental capacity seems to have grown,
\nmental power seems to have developed, men seem to be much more capable of
\nplaying with ideas, of having mental command over all principles, but at the
\nsame time they have lost the simple and healthy candour of people who lived
\ncloser to Nature and knew less how to play with ideas. Thus humanity as a whole
\nseems to have reached a very dangerous turning-point. Those who are trying to
\nfind a solution to the general corruption preach a return to the simplicity of
\nyore, but of course that is quite impossible: you cannot go back. <\/span><\/p>\n

We must go farther on, we must advance,
\nclimb greater heights and go beyond the arid search for pleasure and personal
\nwelfare, not through fear of punishment, even punishment after death, but
\nthrough the development of a new sense of beauty, a thirst for truth and light,
\nthrough understanding that it is only by widening yourself, illumining
\nyourself, setting yourself ablaze with the ardour for progress, that you can
\nfind both integral peace and enduring happiness. <\/span><\/p>\n

One must rise up and widen \u2013 rise up…
\nand widen. <\/span>
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

18 April 1958<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 236<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t<\/font><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punishment     All tremble when faced with punishment; all fear death. Seeing others as ourselves, do not strike, do not cause another to strike….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-questions-and-answers-volume-03","wpcat-115-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}