THOUGHTS

TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR MYSELF

Commandments are moral injunctions, issued by a higher authority, often by the founder of a religion. On these, the Ten Commandments of Judeo-Christianity are the most famous.  Recently some debates arose in the U.S. as to whether they should be displayed in public places like schools.

Many years ago I formulated for my own guidance the following  set of commandments:

FIVE THOU SHALT NOTS

1 Thou Shalt Not consciously hurt or harm another human being.

2 Thou shalt not disrespect or ridicule another person’s non-hurting religious beliefs.

3 Thou shalt nor mistreat in words, action, or thought a fellow human being on the basis of the person’s race, religion, language, nationality,  or skin-color, nor make or accept any derogatory generalization on such basis..

4 Thou shalt not ignore a hungry person’s appeal for food and drink.

5 Thou shalt not imagine your own language or religion, culture or nation to be superior to any other.

FIVE THOU SHALTS 

1 Thou shalt say a word of kindness and do an act of kindness every day to at least one person.

2 Thou shalt learn everyday something positive about another people, culture or religion.

3 Thou shalt contribute each week an amount, small or big, to some charitable cause.

4 Thou shalt wish, hope, or pray every day for the elimination of hunger and suffering in the world.

5 Thou shalt read every day a poem or a passage from any great author from an alien culture, at least in translation.

V. V. Raman