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The Mastery Of Life Through Practising One’s Own Duty

Throughout your life, you involuntarily obey or follow the rules in specific ways. As you grow older, you come out of those pigeonholes or standards. They lead you in different parts of your life, by other people and in various places. You have followed these conventional or unspoken rules, or ‌your parents, teachers, or someone in a specific position or power has compelled you to follow them. From the moment you entered this world, you’ve been navigating the intricate interplay of obedience and disobedience. Social norms, often unspoken and subtle, profoundly influence our behaviour, shaping our actions and decisions. Whether these societal expectations continually shape indirect or more direct obedience, we step into disobedience when we deviate from these norms.

Disobedience is an opinionated part of a person’s life. It raised questions about its character, faith, and conformity to social criteria. If you want to fit those criteria, you obey those social rules. As a child, you obey the implied rules your parents and teachers give and follow them aimlessly. It is because of the unawareness of its result. Parents or teachers always tell you to obey the standard that will benefit your growth per social structure. But those standards your antecedent obey; they got their legacy from their initiators. Then, you find yourself in a world where survival depends on adhering to the standards set by authoritative individuals in their respective positions. Authority sometimes leads to blind obedience, obedience where individuals comply with orders without questioning or considering the consequences, as was the case with the Nazis. Hitler’s authority forced the people to obey the rules mindlessly.

Furthermore, consider the paradigm of India’sIndia’s Independence. When Mahatma Gandhi began defying the British government and disobeying their laws, he initiated a movement of Civil Disobedience. This form of disobedience, or Intelligent Disobedience, is a deliberate and thoughtful act of defiance against unjust or oppressive rules or authority. It empowers individuals to question and resist, not just blindly follow. Intelligent disobedience is not just about breaking the rules but about clearly understanding the consequences and a strong moral or ethical stance. It is disobedience rooted in reason and conscience rather than mere rebellion.

The key to unravelling the puzzle of obedience or disobedience lies in comprehending the rules, social beliefs, and core values. When you confront them with complete awareness, you can truly grasp and decide whether to obey or disobey. It exhibits the most straightforward rule to establish the conformity of regulations you got from the theology you followed. Sometimes, according to your comfort, you diligently refuse to obey or partially obey by calculating its gains. You also complain about the decrees and sometimes obey them out of anger or fear. These emotions, fear, desires, and wrath often significantly influence our obedience or disobedience. In addition, there is a lack of faith in God or your parents and teachers.

The starting point was parents’ expectations if those traditions and practices lacked purpose. Suppose the parents force their children to obey without making them understand the intention. Or if the expectation leads children to follow the regulations their parents desire. Then, it gives birth to disobedience. Like in the epic Mahabharata, The King of Kuru Kingdom, Dhritarashtra expects his son Duryodhana to be the next heir to the Kingdom. He had expected and forced his desire on his son to obey. But Dhritarashtra never tells his son the sole purpose of it, and the time comes when Dhritarashtra realises his mistakes. Still, Duryodhana becomes disobedient and wants the throne at any cost. Duryodhana trusts his uncle Shakuni only. As his uncle Shakuni gave him the goal of achieving the power of ruling the Kingdom, he obeyed everything his uncle said to him.

When you ask your children to obey rituals for their benefit and safety, it’s crucial to remember their unawareness, weaknesses, and immaturity. The expectations you impose or the practices you ask them to obey can lead to ignorance, shaping a pattern of following things that don’t come from their belief system but from others.

An instance from the Bhagvata Gita clearly shows how you understand the complexity of obedience and disobedience with the teaching that Krishna taught Arjuna in the middle of the field of Kurukshetra—the talks of Gita, where Krishna told Arjuna to fight against his kin. Arjuna disobeyed Krishna and said he couldn’t kill his brothers, family, and teachers. For Arjuna, it was more of an ethical problem than obeying or disobeying Krishna. Krishna installs a knowledge of ultimate wisdom, the law of actions and lets Arjuna realise his dharma. Krishna told Arjuna to follow his dharma and perform swadharma. Swadharma, a concept in Hindu philosophy, refers to one’s duty or righteousness, which is unique to each individual and based on context, situation, maturity, and profession. It is the duty inherent to an individual, based on their unique circumstances and nature. Krishna said it is far better to perform one’s naturally specified duty, though tinged with faults than to perform another’s prescribed duty, though it is ideal. It is better to fight and gain a path to die in the acquittance of one’s duty than to obey the way of another person or belief system, which is fraught with danger. Better die in your path than attempt the path of another. It is my path, and I am down here. And you are way up there, and I am enticed to give up my way, thinking I will follow yours and become like you. Then it’s like I am neither following myself nor others. We must not lose track of these principles; you should not go into the path of pardharma, the stipulated duty of another.

It is crucial not to impose a particular path on others solely based on one’s own beliefs. It is essential to instil a proper value system based on understanding the world, its impact on others, and the importance of compassion. This system should guide what you want them to obey, ensuring they do it out of understanding and compassion, not anger and fear. The aim is to improve their lives by obeying rules and sometimes allowing them to choose their practices based on solid values of Love. So, it never instils sick desires and disobedience of ignorance and settles in the following of swadharma.

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