Jokers

Gems are not always enough where one needs food to survive.

• Accept gem standards wherever you come across them. Unless you have such freedom, plots may accrue in time.
• Prosperity and well-being: Many a bathing crowd has it. Go for it and do not get stuck by it either. Aiming well is not going for material affluence alone. Wealth, artha is one among several worthy life goals in Hinduism and Buddhism. There are many forms of surplus and many kinds of wealth: pleasant surroundings, a peaceful home life; sagaciousness; physical, mental, and spiritual sides to wealth too. Spiritual wealth is most. Other forms or shapes of wealth derive from that somehow.
• Master this in time: let what is spontaneous give good fortune.

"Provision in season makes a rich house (British)." Speaking of balance, well-nigh any drive to give more than you get back, probably must be overcome some time. "Who spends before he thrives, will beg before he thinks (Proverb)."

What if something untoward happens? Religions and societies have ruthless laws to ensure stability and control – not necessarily just peace, but a stability that serves those on top for most part, for example through some established, bulwarked system at hand.

But a good conscience and a sane, even rational mind are not worth forsaking.

Scriptures and laws

Every book must be chewed to get out its juice (Chinese proverb).

There are intricacies in it. Laws of Manu, or Manu Samhita, in the translation of G. Bühler, decrees, "When two sacred texts (Sruti) are conflicting, both are held to be law; for both are pronounced by the wise (to be) valid law. [Laws of Manu, 2:12-14]

May such a way of dealing with laws and scriptures really help? Hardly.

Another example concerns the value of old laws. Is it all right to ignore all of them, some of them, or are they all valid? Several moral norms may give much, as Buddhas five precepts and the ten and twenty yamas and niyamas of yoga.

Things are not always to be taken at face value. It could be unwise to judge a bald man to be feeble and outdated - or the other way round -, and it could be unwise to consider a law totally valid or invalid because it is old, or "our" law.

An example:

The Law in the Bible would have the pregnant Mary killed for getting pregnant out of wedlock with the coming Jesus in her growing belly. But she was not stoned to death on her father's doorstep with the foetus in her belly anyway, no matter what the Law decreed for women in similar situations. Many a Hail Mary has been sung in her honour. But the son she bore, Jesus, did vouch for a Law that would have Mary stoned to death for getting pregnant out of wedlock - with foetus Jesus in her belly. He vouched for the given law down to its tiniest dot, in the gospel of Matthew 5:17-19. That law would have had Mary executed, stoned to death on her father's doorstep. (Deuteronomy 22:20,23,24). Also consider whether it is wise to saw off the branch you are sitting on, like Jesus in Matthew 5:17-19.

Dealing with laws takes consideration, fair judgements and fit laws. Being foggy and swayed does not actually wash away harmful judgements. (See Matthew 5:17-19; Luke 1:26-35; Deuteronomy 22:20,23,24) - [More, with old Bible quotations]

Must scriptures be old to be valid? Old to be of use? Insistence enough and power makes a scripture. Upheld insistence is what finally breeds the scripture status.

A crisis hint: In a pucker, some interpret scriptures as metaphorical, and thereby maintain the scriptures don't mean what they clearly say. Swarms of theologians serve to explain away commands and teachings that seem too hard to back up, for example. Otherwise, so many would have to pluck out their eyes for seeing lovely women naked or lightly dressed or much dressed - pluck out this, get rid of that limb, mutilate oneself for fleeting lust on the word of Jesus in Matthew 5, for example.

Much fooly in the world can be had by "explain away".

Ramakrishna

The literature surrounding Ramakrishna reveals a deep truism – note the steps:

• First they thought he was crank or insane.
• Next he got jovially accepted.
• Finally that rare one was hailed as some descended godhead on earth – an avatar.

Ramakrishna told many entertaining tales. [Cf. Rap. Sah. Tas. Tos.] He also told a lot from his own experiences.

This stands out: To recognise a jewel you have to be an expert on jewels or rare stones. You don't have to be one yourself. Likewise, you don't have to be ill to diagnose diseases and work as a medical doctor. Otherwise, it often takes one to know one.

Glowing jewels

Better a castle of bones than of stones. [Dp 227]

A living goat is of more worth that a temple of stones; have you heard it where tourists swarm around stone buildings that are guessed to matter? But the goat – or seagull – has a higher biological worth than the stone edifices. You could go sightseeing in such a perspective.

And, as Ramakrishna indicates by such as: "The Paramahansa (patent spiritual) is like a five year old child." [Tas 207]. - One more sightseeing tip.

Staunch vivacity is hardly there in the "stone market" for tourists and the like. You think about it.

Tourists all over the world may believe next to anything – but perhaps attuned to going for fool's glamour some way or other while being herded and milked for money - it is an industry already.

Points added

In Siva Purana (Shastri 1969:4:33:1-14) a god-principle of religion is found. Here it is rendered: "Find your opponent's weak points and there attack like a god-king" in more than debates. However, in a couple of other passages in the same work the same principle is said to lead to hell. There may be a problem with skills called godly and much condemned.

Those who are in search of weak points in others . . . and those who violate the boundaries of others' fields . . . who do not rear cows and bullocks properly . . . do not treat their wounds and bruises are . . . sure to fall into hell. (Siva Purana, Vol. 3, Chap. 6, verses 23-33, passim)

If so, which sort of hell? For how long? These are questions that matter where hells are thought to be many and temporary places (lokas). The text just cited is a Unesco-work, translated by scholars. That information does not say anything about the validity of the laws in the book, though. It may pay to be guarded:

Atama kakushite shiri kakusaza. - Protect yourself at all points. (Japanese proverb).

How? is for you to decide. Good moral against rotting within should not be given up. Some food for thought:

✑ Righteousness
✑ God's norms
✑ Egyptian stands