- Caste
Varna and Ashrama were like the warp and woof of cloth - one cannot stand without the other.
If Varna divided society, Ashrama united members of different castes who were all the same evolutionary level.
It removed the caste-stigma, while preserving the healthy features.
- Guru-Worship
The idol does not question our motives or even our evil actions.
Even dead Gurus are mere "escape valves" for our ego to play.
We must have a living Guru - and if we are devoted to one who is no more, we must see him in a living Guru.
If this living Guru is far away, it is still better to have his own representative nearer home for immediate guidance.
- Aparigraha
Freedom from Covetousness.
Aparigraha may logically be extended to include everything other than one's immediate personal needs - all else is expropriation.
Storing of grains is surely taking away what belongs to others.
Abandonment of private property is Aparigraha.
You plant sugarcane on farm and, as it grows, you cut it again and again because the farm belongs to you.
Are you justified?
All this is Parigraha or expropriation.
- Illusion
When a picture is taken with the camera, the objects overlap one another, and there are only two dimensions.
When we look with the eyes, however, the picture has three dimensions.
The third: depth - space, is by the mind!
It is illusory - if it was real the camera will capture it, too.
- Self-Justification
Self-justification is one of the worst of evils and perhaps the greatest of our obstacles.
Even Rogue Ratnakar justified his actions!
And, there is nothing that can save us from that evil as Guru-seva or surrender to the Guru can.
When Ratnakar surrendered himself to the Maharishi, he "saw" the truth about the world and, eventually, God.