Shikshapatri English

            Devtatirithavipranaam Sadhvinaam Cha Sataamapi                   |

            Vedanaam Cha Na Kartavya Ninda Shravya Na Cha Kachit            ||

(1)      Devta – slander of any God.  Therefore devotees of Lord Rama should not slander Lord Krishna or even devotees of Lord Shiva.  Similarly devotees of Lord Swaminarayan should never slander any other deity, be it Rama, Krishna, Shiva etc.

(2)      Tirtha – no place of pilgrimage should ever be slandered.  Any famed ‘holy place’ of Shree Krishna, Rama, Swaminarayan or any other deity.

(3)      Vipranaam – Brahmins.  No Brahmin who is faithful to his duty should ever be slandered.  Indeed even those Brahmins who are not faithful to their Dharma should not be slandered.  Brahmins are always praised and famed in Shastras, as the very form of God.

(4)      Sadhvinaam – devout or chaste women, these Pativrata women should never be slandered.

(5)      Sataamapi – any renounced devotee of God.  Sadhus should always be praised and never slandered.

(6)      Vedanaam Cha – The Vedas, Holy Scriptures.  Here the ‘cha’ is used to specify ‘the like’, and so all Holy Scriptures with their root in the Vedas, is included.  Therefore the Puranas, Upanishads, Bhagwat, Ramayan, Gita, Shikshapatri, Satsangi Jivan, Vachnamrit etc. are all worthy of praise and are never to be slandered.

Shree Hari’s Shloka reveals ‘Na Kartavya Ninda’ – never should such things be slandered and ‘Shravya Na Cha Kachit’ – slander of such things should never be listened to.  Such a directive is very important and is prominent in many Shastras.

Markandeya Purana explains, ‘Deva, Veda, Dwijati (Brahmins), Sadhu, Tirtha, Mahatma (great men), Guru, Pativrata, Yajvi (those who perform Yagnas) and Tapasvi (those who perform penance) such things should never be slandered even jokingly – Parivaadam Na Kurvit Parihaasepi.  Similarly such slander should never be listened to.

Nor should such persons be physically beaten.  Shatanand explains here that it is acceptable or appropriate to hit (i.e. punish) one’s own child or disciple in the lower part of their body.  But never to punish in such a way involving the upper part of the body – the head or the chest.

Sumantu Smruti explains how slandering even once, such great men or women has great consequences.  ‘Those who slander a Devarshi (great saint – God like), Brahmin, Acharya, parents, King, Sadhu and Sati (devout women), should have their tongues burned and should be severely punished.’

Skanda Purana says, ‘Those who slander (those mentioned) become childless and destroy their family.’  Yogeshwar Yagnavalkya explains the slander of the Vedas and others is comparable to committing the murder of a Brahmin – Vedadinindayastu Brahmanhatyasamatvamapyuktam.

The Mahabharat says, Guruninda Dahatyayurmanushyaram Na Sansheyaha – ‘To slander one’s Guru leads to a shorter duration of life’ – so saying Shatanand concludes his Bhasya of this Shloka.

Much has been covered in this Shloka.  It is a very important Shloka.  Ninda or slander is something I feel many do not mean to do but something that happens.  Often they may not know what they are saying is slanderous and so it is important to broaden our understanding of this Shloka.

What does ‘Deva Ninda’ mean?  In broader terms to slander any one of the 330 million Gods that Shastras speak of is Deva Ninda.  To utter even a word which in anyway defames the greatness of any God is Deva Ninda.

Much of this slander is often through a superiority complex that their God is greater than any other.  There seems to be too much talk of one God being greater or better than another.  Instead, we need to change this ideology to the fact that a specific God is better for me and say – ‘Rama is best for me,’ or ‘Swaminarayan is best for me.’

There is only one God.  The various incarnations are mere instruments of that one supreme Lord.  To slander any one of these God’s is to slander the supreme Lord, their own ‘Ishwara’.  Those who cannot accept the greatness of the various God’s – Rama, Krishna, Swaminarayan, Shiva, Ganapati, Surya, Parvati etc. have not yet understood the Sanatan Dharma.

A person should believe his own personal God – Ishwara, to be the greatest and in this way strengthen his devotion to his personal God.  However he has absolutely no right to slander any other deity and their devotees.

Sometimes slander of deities takes place as a result of some irreligious practice.  For example Maa Parvati and her forms have often in the past and present been associated with animal sacrifices and the like.  In such situations Goddess Parvati should never be slandered, for she is not to blame.  These practices take place because people neglect the true meaning of Shastras and follow the wrong principles.

Places of pilgrimage should also never be slandered.  They praise only those places associated with their own God.  Other places are disregarded.  Chappaiya, Dwarika, Ayodhya and other such places are all holy places.  Those who cannot see this and who on their Tirtha start slandering various places do not reap the desired fruits of their pilgrimage.  Many often complain about the places they went to saying something like ‘the living facilities were not good’ - as if they are on holiday to that place!  They thus fail to grasp the essence of performing a Tirtha.

Brahmins should never be slandered.  The superiority complex again arises here where people are obsessed with the greatness of their own caste or ‘Jata’.  Brahmins are famed in all Shastras as the very essence of truth and purity.  They are the very form of God and so worthy of praise and respect.

The God’s have placed the Sanatan Dharma in their hands and these true, pure Brahmins will continue their duties as Brahmins to uplift the Dharma.  It is inevitable that some Brahmins may go astray, just as any caste member may go astray from their duty, but again to slander any Brahmin is unacceptable.

Many great Brahmins in our society exist who are continuing in Vedic tradition and are also trying to rebuild the Brahmin caste to its former glory.  It is our duty to help in this cause and never to slander them as their blessing in a wedding, Yagna and other Vedic rituals are necessary.

It is said that Brahmins are the face of God, Kshatriyas the arms, Vaishyas the thighs and Shudras the feet.  Therefore to slander any caste is absolutely unacceptable; as to do so would be to slander the Lord himself.

Chaste women, who live in the shadow of their husband, who follow the rules of conduct prescribed for a wife to the fullest, should never be slandered.  She may be often slandered by their Western counterparts, who do not fully understand what it means to be a true Hindu wife.  They have totally different views about being a wife, not at all based in accordance with our scriptures.  Only such Pativrata women are worthy of praise and are famed in this world.  They are to be respected, but never to be slandered.

A Sadhu, Acharya, or Guru should never be slandered.  Those who renounce all worldly pleasures and desires, who live a life of absolute celibacy, whose only reason for living is to serve the Lord are worthy of praise and never to be slandered.  Sure, some Sadhus are better than others, but to glorify this fact and to slander those who are less developed is unacceptable.  All Sadhus cannot be the same and we cannot expect all Sadhus to be the epitome of sainthood – they do what they can, just as we do what we can as householders.

There is a saying that saints do not keep their Punya (benediction) or Papas (sins).  Instead it is distributed to those who he comes into contact with.  Those who slander a saint take away with them the saint’s sins.  Those who praise a saint inherit the saint’s Punya.

Lastly to slander any of the Holy Scriptures is also unadmirable.  The Vedas are the most prominent Hindu scriptures of Sanatan Dharma.  The great knowledge of Vedas has been expanded upon in various Shastras.  The works of Vyaas – Upanishads, Mahabharat, Puranas, of which Bhagwat Purana is prominent, are all great Shastras which have given mankind the Vedic knowledge in simple form and so should never be slandered.

The works of prominent Rishis including various Smrutis, Srutis, Darshans, Itihases and so on are also very great.  Lord Swaminarayan’s specific aim was to have scriptures written by prominent saints, which covered all aspects of Hindu Vedic philosophy and so all such Shastras are with merit.

All these scriptures are equally important and so should be studied to get a better understanding of our Dharma if capable.  To disregard any such scriptures and to even slander a specific scripture is sinful and against all Vedic teachings.

In Mahabharat it is said that those who do not slander receive Punya equivalent to a tenth part of performing a Yagna.  Those who do slander receive the sins of those persons he slanders.  Thus, slandering is wholly undesirable.  It is one of the eleven prohibitions in our Sampradai and therefore we must make it a point to fully obey this directive and to never slander anybody.