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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00040 Oct 2003

 
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Dear Bhagavatas:
This is a very intereting topic presented by Sri Sudarshan Madabushi Swamin. 

But, this does not exactly fall within the mission statement of of "Sri Ranga 
Sri". 
It is, therefore, requested that those who wish to respond may do so by private 
mail to mksudarshan2002@xxxx 

You may wish to copy your response to my personal id Ramanbil@xxxx for my 
information. Thanks.
Dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy
=============================================================================




Dear friends,

A young friend of mine here in Kuwait has posed to me
a very intelligent question which I am unable to
answer readily. Hence I am posting it to the various
groups in the hope that someone knowledgeable can
throw light on the matter.

**********

In Islam it is prohibited to engage in gambling. So is
taking life-insurance since it is also, according to
Islamic religious thought, akin to gambling. Both
gambling and insurance are considered to be wagering
with God's Will and hence irreligious. In Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait, Life Insurance is 'harAm'. It is
prohibited by religion and no devout Muslim will ever
place bets or take out a policy on his life or of his
kith and kin. By the same token, in Islam, all
future-based business practices would technically be
"harAm" -- modern financial or trade transactions such
as "commodity futures", "currency futures", "metals
futures" or "futures derivatives" would all be taboo
according to Islamic tenets.

In Christianity too, gambling is regarded as sinful.
The Church prohibits betting and wagering for more or
less the same reasons as Islam viz.: It is sinful to
play dice with the Future for gain; the future is
ordained by God and to place bets on future outcomes
of events is the equivalent of meddling with God's
Will. But Christianity's main argument against
Gambling is that it leads to moral impoverishment. It
enslaves men to money or Mammon. 

In spite of what the Church thinks about gambling, the
Christian world is awash with the vice. In the USA
gambling is called the "gaming industry" -- it
includes lottery, card-games, casinos, betting on
horses, dogs, cock-fighting, betting on outcomes of
major sporting events such as major-league football,
the Superbowl... etc. Many of these gambling
activities are legally permitted in all but 2 of the
50-odd States in the USA. About 65% of the population
in the USA engage in gambling in one form of the
other. According to latest estimates by the
authorities, the legalized 'gaming industry' in the
USA does about US$ 65 bn in revenues a year. Las Vegas
is the Mecca of gamblers in the world. And some
gambling casino-companies are listed on Wall
Street!The illegal segment of the gambling industry
does about US$ 600 bn! (In other words, the entire
gambling industry in the USA, if it wants to, could
single-handedly fund about 6 Pentagon-backed
Iraq-sized wars in other parts of the world!). 

In the Christian religion there is however nothing
expressly stated against the business practice of
Insurance. Insurance is founded on the principle that
the small sacrifice of the many (premium payers) can
help to provide succour for the misfortune of the few
(policy claimants). Thus, although this involves
betting on a future event or events like death,
accident or mishap, it is not on the same footing as
gambling. Insurance is all about risk. Gambling is all
about getting rich quick. From a moral standpoint, the
two are as different from each other as chalk is from
cheese.

In the Vedic religion (Hinduism) too gambling is
frowned upon but nowhere with the same severity of
condemnation as in Islam or Christianity. In the
Mahabharatha, the Pandavas under the righteous
Yudhishtara (known as 'dharma-raja"!) had no moral or
religious qualms in engaging in a game of dice to try
and wager back their share of the kingdom and power
from their enemies, the Kauravas. (Imagine, if the
Pandavas had won the game that day, there would have
been no Mahabharata, no Bhagavath-gita and no
Kurukshetra!) The Pandavas played poker right under
the nose of Lord Krishna, so to say! The Vedic
religion thus seems to have well recognized that even
the godly can hardly resist the thrill of gambling and
the enormous prospect it offers for instant
enrichment! 

Indeed, the vice of gambling can hold even the most
virtuous ones in a vice-like grip! (We only have to
look at our own virtuous housewives going to the
supermarket! They never come away from all their
shopping without making sure to drop the promotional
lottery-tickets in the box at the exit! And then the
days they spend waiting, day-dreaming and secretly
wishing for the magic telephone call on the draw date!
The call that will change their lives! The phone-call
from the supermarket that will tell them to come and
collect their lottery prize-car -- a brand new Lexus!)

Now the questions are:

(1) Gambling is ethically bad because it involves the
undue enrichment of a few (the winners of bets) at the
expense of the many (the losers of bets). Gambling is
also bad on purely religious grounds because it
amounts to wagering on God-ordained Future. Islam
takes an extremely religious view of gambling whereas
Christianity seems to take a more ethical view of it.
Now, where does the Vedic religion stand on the
matter? Does it impose sanctions against Gambling on
ethical or purely religious grounds? 

(2) Are there any specific Vedic/Upanishadic passages
to quote while supporting Hinduism's sanctions against
gambling?

(3) From a strictly Vedic standpoint, would Insurance
also stand on par with Gambling, or otherwise? If so,
why? And on what express authority?

Kindly enlighten,

Thanks and regards,

dAsan,
Sudarshan Madabushi


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