“Corruption” – as mentioned in the Vedas

I came across this in an email from Prem Sabhlok. It is illuminating.

It mentions some specific hymns/riks from the RigVeda on the causes of corruption and how to eliminate them. Here are some excerpts:

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Sama Veda 179 and 913 describes “corruption” as hydra headed, having nine heads (nine kinds) and it enters the human body through ninety nine sources i.e. nine kind of corruption enters through five senses, five sense organs and outward looking mind (9X11==99).

Later Ramayana described this evil through nine corrupt heads of Ravana. We burn his nine corrupt heads every year on Dussehra day. Similarly later Mahabharata described 99 sources of entry of corruption through 99 corrupt sons of blind Kaurva king Dhritrashtra. 99 vritras (powers of evil) are mentioned in Rig Veda 1-84-13. It further says in 1-104-3 taking bribe for money belonging to the state is misappropriation of public funds. All bribe takers are thieves of God and they get rebirth in the foulest of the womb (confirmed even in Bhagavad-Gita).

R.V 3-34-6 and Yajur Veda 30-22, the corrupt people should not be allowed by the ruler to mix with people following chatvar varnasharam (four divine professions). Y.V 30-19 and R.V 5-61-8 mention that those persons who praise and justify are also corrupt persons, keep away from them. R.V 1-42-4 even mentions keep away from Gurus (preceptors) who take donations/charity.

Causes of Corruption

1. Corruption creeps in society when the matter is considered as inert and the members of society do not find any sin in treating the benign mother earth as a quarry. In Rig Vedas spirit of God is in the “shunya” (cosmic void) of each sub atomic particle of atom- the building block of matter. Hence the matter has unsuspected vitality and its use on need based living is virtue and its excessive use is a sin. Corruption creeps in a society where economics (artha) is based on inert matter and the possession of wealth/any kind of matter having predominance of tamasik guna of stupor is considered as a matter of pride.
2. Rig Veda further says that purpose of human birth is to assist the ineffable and formless God who is also Supreme Architect (Viswakarma) in the maintenance of His grand and wondrous Design. For the maintenance of this Design, He has created Rta- eternal cosmic laws of necessity and wants all human beings to follow the same. Having created these eternal laws of nature �He Himself� follows them sternly lest a great harm is done to the cosmic creation. Thus He and His Laws (Rta) are the same. When the individuals in any society starts ignoring these laws available to human beings through the Book of Nature (which even blind individuals can read), corruption creeps in society.
3. R.V 10-34-13 also says that any kind of gambling particularly the game of dice is also cause of corruption. The vehement effect of this evil of the game of dice was described in Mahabharata.�Corruption destroys all the noble attributes of human beings due to pursuit of only material knowledge bereft of spiritual and divine knowledge, which in Vedas is ignorance/nescience/ajnan. (R.V 1-129-6). Only harmonized divine, spiritual and material knowledge is true knowledge (Janan) in Vedas.
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Start of Corruption

Rig Veda says when even one human being dies of starvation, it is a signal that corruption has crept in society and avarnas (followers of non divine professions) who want honour, power and wealth for themselves have started multiplying. In Kaliyuga (Dark Age) their number far exceeds the followers of divine professions (varnas). Ethics and community welfare becomes the greatest casualty.

Rig Veda says the thieves of God (bribe givers/takers) who consider matter as inert become insensitive to hydra headed corruption and resort to ostentatious worship and donations/gift culture to gain social recognition. Most of them drift from darkness to utter darkness through meditation (Isa Upanishad and Yajur Veda).

The various virtuous concepts like iddm nan mmam �nothing for self all for society akin to enlightened liberalism of Aristotle, moderation of Vedas/middle path of Buddha and the noble concept of illusion of comfort in the vast turbulent sea of matter (Vedic Phantasmagoria-Cosmic delusion MAYA) are no longer considered as virtue in the materialistic corrupt society dominated by avarna, vritras, kimidin etc.
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In India this evil of corruption is now becoming �Leviathan� and giant demon and is spreading like wild fire. The guide lines given by the wise metaphysicists (rsis of yore) and wandering sages (munies of the Vedic period) can help in arresting this nefarious and extremely dangerous drift. Kautilya in his socio-political treatise �Arthashastra� (partly based on Vedic metaphysics) clearly says the evil of corruption spreads faster when the state gives lip sympathy to curb corruption in the guise of� promoting honesty.

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For more details on corruption and other main subjects of Vedas, have a look at “Glimpses of Vedic Metaphysics“.  Thank you Prem-ji. This is an excellent and valuable reference.

* As many of you already know, the RigVeda has recently been added to the UN Heritage List.

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Democracy in Ancient India

Politics & Corruption: Here’s how to “fix the system”

End big-time corruption? I dont think so