HONESTY BEGINS AT HOME

HONESTY BEGINS AT HOME

We assemble for a weekly Satsang on every Sunday. One of our members is a retired Tehsildar who enjoys the reputation of being utterly honest with unimpeachable integrity. I couldn’t refrain myself from asking him how he could resist taking bribe in the job in which money flows even if one didn’t demand.

Amused, he told me like this, “My widow mother struggled to teach me up to Middle Standard by cleaning utensils in the house of village Head. Fortunately, I was selected as Patwari and moved to a city. Money would come even without my asking for it. I sent Rs 40 from my first savings to my mother who got suspicious of my source of earning since Rs 40 was a big amount at that time in the back drop of Patwari’s measly salary. She sent back the entire amount to me by money order with a message that if she knew her son would become a corrupt official she’d not have struggled to give him education. I was very much pained and returned back the money to the person who had bribed me and took the pledge that I’d live with honest means.”

Honesty is the cardinal principle of dharma and all religions and seers speak of its paramount importance in making the human life pure and virtuous. If today we find massive corruption making inroads every where, it can be ascribed to our embracing such evils which are antithetical to tenets of dharma. These evils are-avarice and our failure to put restrain on our aspirations in the face of excessive consumerism. We see security of life in money alone and amass more than what we might need. Impatience-money is seen as the quickest way to avoid hassles. Attachment with kin which makes us find sense of belongingness in our family alone- comprising of wife, husband and children alone. Lacks of empathy for fellow human being – we always think of gaining something out of others rather than to think being useful to them. Our distinction between honest and dishonest means has become so much blurred that we don’t mind bartering away the virtue of honesty for petty gains.

Lokpal is OK since the role of ombudsman in any society can’t be undermined but that should not be seen as a panacea. We all need to be virtuous and teach lesson in honesty to our children since honesty begins at home.

Bhartendu Sood