Samanya Dharma-Ethical Duties Common to all

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Sri Sridhar's handling of the fundamental topic of universal values is inspiring and comprehensive. The book is a daunting compendium of what constitutes universal values carefully culled from primary and secondary sources. Sri Sridhar demonstrates his erudition of the subject with extensive citations from the sruti, the Vedas, smrti, secondary works by scholars, itihasa, epics, and purana, historical/mythological texts.

I am delighted to write a foreword for the book on Samanya Dharma authored by Sri Nithin Sridhar. The book addresses a much-needed, but often taking for granted, topic within the Hindu tradition-namely the timeless salience of universal values and attitudes for righteous living.

Sri Sridhar's handling of the fundamental topic of universal values is inspiring and comprehensive. The book is a daunting compendium of what constitutes universal values carefully culled from primary and secondary sources. Sri Sridhar demonstrates his erudition of the subject with extensive citations from the sruti, the Vedas, smrti, secondary works by scholars, itihasa, epics, and purana, historical/mythological texts.

Hindu dharma speaks about four fold Hind goals of human life termed as "chaturvidha purushArtha". "purusha" means human and "artha" means object or goal. This framework of life wherein each human being has an obligation to pursue the four-fold goals in his or her life is a unique and very important contribution of Hindu philosophy. Human life is considered very precious because when compared to plants, animals and other organisms, it is humans alone who have a fully developed faculty of intellect. All organisms except humans are invariably driven by natural instincts. Though these naturally developed instincts help organisms in their survival, they also bound and limit them. It is humans alone who are not limited by natural instincts and hence can exert their discrimination and free-will. It is to regulate and provide a guidance for the exertion of this free-will in a righteous and meritorious way that, the scriptures have advised the framework of four-fold goals that a human should strive to attain.

**Contents and Sample Pages**