Capt Purushottam Sharma (Retd)
Honest persons are the elevated human beings who are pure, prudent, truthful, frank, fearless and selfless. They store their treasure with sacred jewels of merits. They deliver justice, generate joys, champion good causes and the ‘salt of earth’ indeed. Conscientious, considerate and contented, they strive to accomplish everything by honest endeavour. They carry a feeling that man is born empty-handed and leaves this world empty-handed, then why not live a clean life and bring glory to earthly sojourn by treading the path of righteousness. By doing so, they bring laurels to the Mother Earth, mother of their body, society and their clan. They believe in axiom “Earn Thy Bread by the Sweat of Thy Brow”. Like seers, honest persons are “Sarv Bhoota Hite Ratah” (engrossed in the welfare of all beings.
Heroically fighting the foes of temptations and greed with the weapon of honesty, honest persons are the pillars of strength to the mansion of society. They radiate harmony and splendour all round. Dear to masses, honest persons are held in high esteem and admired as trusted friends, the role model for others to emulate. They are endeared by Gods and Godesses also for their beauty of character. No doubt, they fashion the fate of the society and enrich it in all respects. They conquer the six enemies of man, namely, lust, wrath, greed, delusion, infatuation and jealousy. They possess courage in abundance to swim across the currents for the sake of honesty.
Dishonest persons are devillish, sinners and sheer burden on the society. They cause pains and suffering to the people by indulging in corrupt practices and lowly actions. Bereft of the knowledge of the real purpose of human birth, they are in the chains of vices and temptations and commit all sorts of crimes for the sake of their material gains at the cost of others. They offend not only the society but God too.
Our scriptures loudly tell us that we are born naked and naked shall we leave this world and bring along the impressions of our past deeds (‘Karmas’) and our joys or sorrows liberation or bondage depend on our ‘Karmas’. Just stop and spend few seconds to give a look to the bleeding dog with punctured skin full of worms and imagine and feel its pain and suffering. It has been in perennial groaning day in and day out for months together before the God of Death shows His benevolence and takes the animal to His fold. Rewards and punishments are the harvests of good and bad deeds. The present turmoil and suffering of the society can be cured if all resolve to be honest. Particularly those occupying high chairs and weilding powers must treat themselves mere trustees of the public properties and funds at their disposal and ensure their utilization for the welfare of people. They must feel privileged and Never, Never, Never forget that it was the fruit of past good deeds that they were picked up by the Lord for an assignment of public service and any misuse of authority amounts to breach of trust which is sinful. Therefore, Lord’s grace must be honored and treasured as Divine Merit.
In good old days, people enjoyed themselves by living in honest, clean and simple society. Barring a rare case of ‘Guj’ (greasing the palm) to a village Patwari, people had not heard of dishonest and corrupt persons any where else. We had simple parents, noble preceptors, honest and upright teachers with plenty of prudence and magnanimity, honest and sincere friends to bank on, honest business community with sharp business acumen coupled with sense of accountability to the society and public servants with honesty of purpose and sense of responsibility. But Alas’, the things have drastically changed the other way round. Scandals, scams, heinous crimes like anti-national activities, murders and killings of innocent persons, rapes, adulteration, criminality in politics are the results of dishonesties committed by someone, somewhere, sometime. Dishonest business men cause hardships to the poor men by their sinful acts of hoarding, adulteration, evasion of taxes, high profit margins and other mal practices. Dishonest teachers aim at making quick money by all possible unfair means in total disregard of their moral responsibility of building the future of succeeding generations thus blotting their noble profession. Dishonest professionals throw ethics to winds and cause untold hardships to the people.
Dishonest revenue officials falsify, distort and obliterate the records and put poor and innocent farmers to untold mental torture and push them to enormous avoidable legal battles. Dishonest public servants deny the public their rights and dues and in turn receive their curses. The society has become cancerous by the sinful acts of the dishonest persons. Dishonesty is the chief cause of economic inequality.
Let us all embrace Mother Honesty and let the absession of Dishonesty vanish. Let the dishonests transform themselves for the sake of Golden Age.
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