Gary said:
One is considered the best yogi who regards every being like oneself, and who can feel the pain and pleasures of others as one’s own, O Arjun. (6.32)
:silly:
I was wondering..... did this Self-realized, sinless yogi consider himself like Hitler or Stalin? Jack-the-Ripper?
"The basis of Upanisadic ethics is to be found in the conception of evil, not as offending against the will of the gods or swerving from sacrifical rectitude as in the earlier period, but as the result of a metaphysical error which sees variety alone where there is also the unity of Brahman.(1) Empirical thought, failing to grasp the ultimate reality, distorts it or cuts it up into parts and presents them as distinct from one another. Evil is due on the practical side to this mistaken view of Reality as finiteness is on the theoretical side. It is thus contingent and has no place in the Absolute rightly understood. This misleading presentation of Reality is seen in the case not only of the objective world, but also of the self. It is because each of us regards himself as distinct from others that he strives to guard or aggrandize himself. 'When unity is realized and every being becomes our very self - how can there be any delusion or sorrow then?' In other words, all evil is traceable to aham-kara, the affirmation of the finite self, and the consequent tendency to live not in harmony with the rest of the world, but in opposition or at best in indifference to it. The impulse behind this aham-kara is not in itself bad and does not need to be wholly suppressed. The instinct to live or strive to be, which is what aham-kara signifies, is a common feature of all animate existence and is only a manifestation of the desire for self-realization. But, being really a desire to transcend finite being, it will remain unsatisfied until it is rationalized through a knowledge of the ultimate truth and the wider self is averred in place of the narrower one. That is the meaning of Aham Brahma asmi, which represents the realization of Brahman in one's own self as the highest ideal of life."
(1) "Evil originates... in the consciousness that diversity
alone is true and it is overcome by the knowledge that unity underlies it, whatever explanation may eventually be given of that unity-in-diversity itself."
M. Hiriyanna,
Outlines of Indian Philosophy
Matthew 25:35-40, NIV
(35) For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
(36) I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me,
I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
(37) "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?
(38)When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?
(39)When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
(40)"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Hitler spent some time in prison. If someone went and visited him in prison, were they visiting Christ?