Whole Temperance – Whole Dude

Look Before You Leap – What is Prudence?

Prudence has a role in all the concerns of life. The right end, whether that be the goal of personal happiness or the common good of society, or the performance of one’s duties, cannot be achieved unless the means to it are rightly chosen. Prudence can be acquired through learning to take sufficient counsel and to deliberate enough before taking any action. The habit of prudent action can be gained by a remembrance of the past experience, by the understanding of what is present, and providing for the future by resolving thoughts and making decisions and commanding their execution.

Lord Hanuman’s Leap – Prudence is Indispensable to Good Human Life

**Lord Hanuman’s Leap of Faith – A Lesson in the virtue of Prudence**

The Indian epic poem of ‘RAMAYANA‘ describes life journey of Lord Rama, the Prince of the Ayodhya Kingdom who was exiled to live in the forest. The story narrates the abduction of His wife, Princess Sita. While searching the forest to find Sita, Lord Rama befriends the ‘VANARA’ or Monkey Forces of Kishkindha Kingdom. The Vanara King Sugriva in an effort to find Sita dispatched his forces in all directions with very strict orders to report back within a month. The search party that proceeded southwards eventually reach the southern sea-shore at the end of their appointed time for reporting back to the King. While they were feeling anxious about their delayed mission, they receive a vital clue about Sita held captive in the island kingdom of Lanka ruled by the demon King Ravana. The search party now gets fearful about the course of action they have to choose. They seek counsel from the eldest member of their party. They decide against returning home with secondhand information about Princess Sita’s whereabouts. After due deliberation, they choose to physically verify the accuracy of the information about Princess Sita’s presence in the island. The action that they selected requires crossing the sea, entering an enemy kingdom, searching diligently tightly guarded places, and returning safely crossing the sea one more time. In the context of this story, as there is no land bridge to reach the island, the safest way to get there is to jump across the sea in one leap. The party’s elder leader recommends entrusting Hanuman with this difficult and challenging mission. The choice of Hanuman is prudent because of His strength, courage, intelligence, and other special abilities like changing of body size at His discretion.

The story describes that Hanuman stood on a hill by the name of Mahendra to gain advantage for the proposed leap. He looks at the sea and directs His mind towards the island of Lanka. He is sure about His devotion to Lord Rama and He is certain about His desire to fulfil Lord Rama’s purpose. He said to Himself: “I shall search and find Sita. I shall fly in the sky and cross the sea.” However, He undertakes this mission with a sense of absolute modesty and humility. He offers worship and prayers to God and to all creation before He leaps into the sky with a roar of triumph. With that leap, Hanuman’s role in the story of Ramayana reaches heroic proportions and continues to be very exalted till the end of the story.

The Quality of Prudence

The quality of prudence is most concerned with action. Prudence is a product of experience and a possession of reason. The maxims of prudence are counsel, deliberation, and judgment. A prudent man knows how to deliberate or calculate well about things to be done. He evaluates the negative as well as the positive consequences of his actions. Prudence also shapes the character of the person. Use of unjust or dishonest means to achieve the end or goal set for oneself is not prudence. ‘ One cannot have prudence unless one has the moral virtues; since prudence is the right reason about things to be done, to which end man is rightly disposed by moral virtue’. The choice of the best means is as important as the election of the right end. The clever thief who plans and executes a successful robbery exhibits no prudence but its counterfeit called cunning. The rightness of the means requires not merely that they are adapted to an end, but that the end itself be right.

A Prayer to Lord Hanuman

Having known that my human body is deficient of intelligence, I call upon Pavan Kumar (Son of Wind God or Vayu) asking Him to grant me strength, intelligence, and true knowledge to dissolve all of my blemishes which cause pain and misery.

Whole Dude – Whole Service:

John Milton (1608-1674). Milton wrote many of ... — **Whole Dude – Whole Service: A Salute to The Law of Temperance. A tribute to John Milton.**

The Law of Temperance

John Milton (1608 – 1674), in his greatest poetic achievement of ‘PARADISE LOST’ describes Man’s First Disobedience of God, and the loss thereupon of Paradise wherein Man was placed. Adam, the first Man who was created in God’s image and likeness brought Death into the World. God declares that Adam and Eve could no longer abide in ‘Garden of Eden‘, the Paradise. God sends Angel Michael with a Band of Cherubim to dispossess them. Michael reveals to Adam the ‘Law of Temperance’ which could help him to live for many long years.

Angel Michael also comforted Adam by assuring him that if he observes the ‘Law of Temperance’, Death would be like the gentle act of gathering a ripe fruit when fully mature.

Paradise Lost, Book XI ( 520-540):

**Whole Dude – Whole Service: In John Milton’s epic poem of Paradise Lost, angel Michael explained ‘The Law of Temperance’ to Adam, the first created man to face the threat of death.**

In John Milton’s epic poem of Paradise Lost, angel Michael explained ‘The Law of Temperance’ to Adam, the first created man to face the threat of death.

I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.

But is there yet no other way, besides

These painful passages, how we may come

To Death, and mix with our connatural dust?

There is, said, Michael, if thou well observe

The rule of not too much, by temperance taught

In what thou eatst and drinkst, seeking from thence

Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,

Till many years over thy head return:

So maist thou live, till like ripe Fruit thou drop

Into thy Mother lap, or be with ease

Gathered, not harshly pluckt, for Death mature:

The Nature of Temperance

The essence of Temperance is choosing moderation and deliberately avoid excess. In Indian Culture and Tradition, living in moderation and living in virtue are almost identical. Socrates suggests that one should “choose that which is orderly and sufficient and has a due provision for daily needs”. He compares the intemperate man “to a vessel full of holes because it can never be satisfied”. Socrates describes the temperate man as able to satisfy his limited desires, whereas the intemperate man of boundless desire, can never pause in his search of pleasure. According to Freud, when “the ego learns that it must inevitably go without immediate satisfaction, postpone gratification, learn to endure a degree of pain, and altogether renounce certain sources of pleasure”, it “becomes ‘reasonable’, is no longer controlled by the pleasure-principle, but follows the reality-principle”, which seeks ” a delayed and diminished pleasure, one which is assured by its realization of fact, its relation to reality”.

Temperance and Courage

Saint Thomas Aquinas and ‘The Law of Temperance’.

Thomas Aquinas has defined Temperance as “a disposition of the soul, moderating any passions or acts, so as to keep them within bounds. Temperate refers to a man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact. A man not only acts temperately but is temperate in character, when his desires are themselves habitually moderated to be in accord with reason. A temperate man is not pained at the absence of pleasure or by his abstinence from it. Temperance contributes the virtue of Fortitude which strengthens men against “the enticement of pleasure” as well as against the fear of pain. A man who is able to stand firm against the onslaught of pleasures is more able to remain firm against the dangers of death. And so “Temperance can be said to be Brave”. The endurance of pain is central to the nature of Courage. Temperance and Courage are not distinct virtues as both are based upon an ability to stand firm against pain and danger.

The Nine-Years Long Service Medal – A Salute to the Law of Temperance:

Whole Dude – Whole Service: During my service in the Indian Army Medical Corps, I learned the values of Temperance, Fortitude, Courage, and delaying gratification of desires, and avoid seeking physical comforts and pleasures.

During my service in the Indian Army Medical Corps, I learned the values of Temperance, Fortitude, Courage, and delaying gratification of desires, and avoid seeking physical comforts and pleasures.

During the first nine years of my Indian Army Service, apart from taking part in the War of Liberation of Bangladesh, I participated in a variety of Army Operations that keep the men ready and prepared for a battle. Military Training and Service can be best described as habituation for a temperate character. The nature of Army Operations and Tactics always demand to overcome the onslaught of sense pleasures and voluntarily delaying the gratification of personal desires. A lifestyle based upon physical ease and comfort and indulgence in food and alcohol is not compatible with the Army way of life. The nature of Army Operations is influenced by terrain, climatic conditions, distances and the availability of transportation. There is no scope to cater for physical comfort, relaxation, and entertainment. The supply of rations and food provisions is limited because of the problems of their bulk and weight. Army Rules and the Code of Conduct emphasize that men should honor their commitment to serve more than anything else. Such commitment to Serve with Honor would only be possible only when the man in uniform lives in accordance with the Law of Temperance.

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