Desirous of Fame

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 8/67/13 — O men desirous of fame! Never keep malice towards anyone, maintain truthful conduct and carry our good deeds. As a result your fear will vanish and you will be termed as excellent among men.

Message: Our learned sages and philosophers had made an excellent arrangement for the all round progress of life. They had wished that the administration of national, societal and institutional activities should also be in the hands of famous men with quality. They had made it a rule that the head of the nation, the member of the ruling council, officer, the organizer etc should be such who possess excellent qualities, who don not become jealous at others' talent, ,,progress and well being, who gain fame through their personal bravery, good qualities, learning etc and do not harm anyone. Only such men are able to observe divine and societal rules and can also enforce them on common man.

But today, exactly the opposite is happening. Whomsoever you see is engaged in pulling others' legs and trying to prove them inferior. The sentiments of jealousy and malice are at their highest level. The man engaged in the struggle for gaining power does not pay any attention at all to what is proper or improper and tries to establish supremacy by hook or crook. Criminal and undesirable elements by their condemnable acts are spreading anarchy in the society. The authorities in power, in their greed for selfish fulfillment, are not even able to stop them. The cooperation of only such elements has become the best tool of gaining power. Whether it is power at the national or regional level, or societal level or of a religious institution, at most centers, only base and mean-minded people have in filtered and gained power there. They keep so much malice and enmity towards anyone who tries to raise a voice in protest, that they do not hesitate at all to get them murdered even.

Lord Ram had no malice for his step-mother called Kaikeyi, although because of her he had to give up the throne and undergo many hardships in the jungle for 14 years. He did not punish the demon king Ravan only for abducting his wife Sita. The war on Ravan was to free his harassed subjects from his demoniac terror. Abduction of Sita was merely an excuse. Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati also preached loving, religious and proper dealing with all from the societal and national view-point. First of all, there should be love for every one. All human beings are the children of God, the Supreme Father and are like our brother and sisters. Therefore, there should be no malice or enmity towards them but only love and proper religious dealing. If their conduct is irreligious or unjust, then they should be reprimanded or even punished. There should be no partiality, no nepotism, and there should be fair dealings with everyone. That only should be our ideal.

Only by giving up malice can we achieve success in the deeds for people's welfare and only with that, an atmosphere of peace and happiness in society is possible.