Set your own Values
We delude ourselves into believing that we are free-agents, living a life according to standards set by us. Unfortunately, this is not true and the sorry state of affairs is not due to Fate. From birth, we are dictated to by a societal system that gives us a narrow slate of values to choose from and we tend to believe that therefore we are free. As Swami Dayananda has observed in his book “The Value of Values”, Values to be truly valuable must be discovered by us through knowledge and not simply be impressed from without. The following extract from his book is relevant in this context: (http://paathshala.net/Value_of_Values.html )
For values to be personally valuable they must be discovered through knowledge(seen as valuable by the value holder) and not simply impressed from without. Therefore, the term 'jnanam' is quite appropriate. The list of values constituting jnanam is long but the qualities are interrelated, defining a harmonious frame of mind in which knowledge can occur. Each of the terms used by Lord Krishna highlights a certain attitude, the value for which must be discovered personally in order that the attitude becomes a natural aspect of the seeker's frame of mind.
Although the primary purpose of jnanam values (as told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna) is to prepare the mind for self-knowledge, when the total value of these values is understood one sees that these attitudes have the highest personal values for everyone. The jnanam values, impartially, bless and make more effective both the mind of the everyday struggler who seeks fullness in the pursuit of artha (securities) and kama (pleasures) and the mind of the mumuksu-jijnyasu (the seeker of the knowledge for the sake of liberation) who, having discerned the futility of limited ends and means, seeks fullnessthrough the gain of Self-knowledge - through the study of Vedanta.
The article “The Greatest Danger Before You” at http://tow.charityfocus.org/index.php?tid=538 emphasizes the need for resisting the impulse to adopt standards set by powerful members of the society and for educating ourselves to determine what is important to us. We live in an age when the system pre-packages and standardizes our lives in attractive packages ultimately steal our life from us. A powerful message and warning has been communicated in these words:
From the pink granite of your own values, build a fortress against the world's ethical compromises,
or you will soon be among those dead of eye who stand next to you in elevators but who are not alive.
Don't let them steal your life.
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