By: Devakinanda Pasupuleti
Even though there are many meanings to dākṣhiṇyam in Sanskrit, when we say someone has ḋaya and dākṣhiṇyam; we are referring to that person's kindness, honesty, politeness, and the willingness to take take care of other's needs. Our land is the birth place of many great people with these noble qualities and they have used them for the welfare of others and humanity without selfish motives. The story of the famous Kāśhi king Śibi from the Mahābhārata comes to mind. He cut his own flesh from his thigh and offered it to a hawk, in order to protect a pigeon that the hawk was preying on. His sacrifice and dākṣhiṇyam lives eternally in our legends.
In today's world, where everyone thinks of themselves and their families with an attitude of -what do I get from it, if I help you? or what is in it for me if I do something for you?-we still have a few people with dākshiṇyam. This is not because the doctrines command them to do so, but because of their compassion towards humanity. This is our Sanātana- dharma, and it used to be our way of life for thousands of years, up until recently. If you look at our history, we see many Hindus with ḋaya and dākṣhiṇyam irrespective of their varṇam (caste), socioeconomic status or their vṛṫṫi (occupation). We used to see these sāttvic qualities in almost each and every one of them. What happened to those qualities in our people now?
However, that during foreign invasions and ruling our land by British and Muslims occupants for thousand years, bad inhuman qualities like bribery, cheating and cruelty toward fellow humans were encouraged and taught to us by those foreigners; and now these habits became rampant as a cancer on our Bharata Bhumi.
Still, our land shows kindness, and helpful nature as a way of life and is called 'Dākṣhiṇya Bhūmi'.
