First off the bat I should explain the meaning of punya. It’s a Sanskrit word for a good deed, and can be employed as a word to describe an action that is the opposite of sin. There doesn’t appear to be an English equivalent better than ‘virtue’ which is why I’ve decided to use this word, it’s far more apt.
I’ve been thinking about whether the action or the intent behind an action is the most important thing for doing punya recently. I’ll try to have a look at both personal and philosophical perspectives on it. So my first example: a guy joins a charitable organisation because he has a crush on a girl who volunteers for them. As part of his courtship dance he does his utmost for the charity and in doing so helps a lot of people. Whether he feels satisfaction or not from the actions is not necessarily important; is he a good person for doing the action or a bad one for giving in to his lust/desire/insert intellectual word for fancying here and changing the way he acts and does things? Personally I have to go for the former. At the very least him helping other people enriches their lives and leads them to want to help others or enrich others potentially. How can that possibly be bad? This is something that the Hindu laws of Karma also describe but I’ll get back to that later.
A more personal example would be me taking up vegetarianism. I initially did it because I was angry with the sheer ignorance of a group of meat eaters telling me how abstaining from meat is not only unnatural but morally wrong. That’s right; not wanting to kill an animal makes you a bad person. And on that whim I started. But when I read more about it, the health and environmental benefits of it (they’re real, you’re in denial if you think there aren’t), I realised it was a good choice with far more (positive) repercussions than the initial reasons that led me to this decision. And so to this day I have stuck with it.
Now for a Hindu example. Don’t cringe, I’m talking about mythological stories if the word ‘religion’ presses your cider (have a look at burden of the pious if you are offended). A thief dressed up as a priest because a king was looking for a noble pious man to marry his daughter (and he wanted the riches that came with that). Once he had dressed up and began to mingle, he was truly touched by the warmth and kindness he witness amongst these holy men, and he himself was transformed into a moral person by the experience. I’m not sure whether he got the girl but the important point is he managed to turn his life around from that moment on. Another example of action trumping intent.
With these examples I’m inclined to think that the actions one does seem to be more important that the reason behind them. Which is why I do believe in doing your duty, even if I don’t always manage to do so.
A slight deviation now: from personal experiences it does appear that pious people are more capable of sin than their less pious counterparts. On the surface this may seem ridiculous but when you think about it, who would know better about what wrong actions are’ than a pious person? Indeed they have an understanding of punya, but I’ve described with examples how that is meaningless. After all if you have all this pious knowledge and keep it to yourself and sit at home thinking about how lovely and pious you are, who does that help? No one, bar perhaps your ego getting a mild boost. It pains me to write that, for perhaps I am in that bracket. I am trying to spread the good vibes around though, honest. It remains to see what happens though from it.
I can think of a fourth anecdote that illustrates this principle above. Some time ago I was talking to a friend of mine, who is of the Hindu fold as I am but not as well versed. He enjoys alcohol and cigarettes and the all round debauchery that is often accused for corrupting Hindu youth and leading them astray. Despite this, he is always good humoured and loyal, always willing to help someone in need out if he can. He has brought joy into many lives. Yet, he says ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell.’ Well first I corrected him, saying that ‘hell’ does not really exist in our philosophies (atheists just grit your teeth and get through this, it really isn’t that bad) and secondly that the universe operates on karma, with each action having an equal and opposite reaction. So, if you’ve done good things, there will be repercussions that are good from it. The opposite can be said for bad actions. At the end of the day these are weighed up and that is what really dictates how you progress in life (note that: I said IN this life, the afterlife is of no consequence to this).
This reminds me of some words of advice an ancient Egyptian gave to humanity: ‘do not worry too much about the afterlife, make THIS life your afterlife, THIS life your heaven.’ To get there, how ever you do it, you’ll need to give out good vibrations. It’s not just me that says that, top researchers do too. A Dr Gruber wrote in a recent article in the association for psychological sciences that ‘the strongest predictor of happiness is not money, or external recognition through success or fame,” Gruber says. “It’s having meaningful social relationships.” That means the best way to increase your happiness is to stop worrying about being happy and instead divert your energy to nurturing the social bonds you have with other people. “If there’s one thing you’re going to focus on, focus on that. Let all the rest come as it will.’
And with that thought combined with my two pennies on the matter (if you cared) I leave you
Regards
The Vedic Underdog
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