| Sr.
No |
Rule |
Explanation |
Remarks |
1 |
To
observe segregation of the mother and newborn
for 30 days after delivery |
To
prevent infection to the mother and the
baby during a stage when both are highly
susceptible to outside infections
Also to provide forced rest to the woman
when she is very weak |
For
woman |
2 |
To
keep woman away from all activities for
5 days during her menstrual periods |
To
provide compulsory rest to the woman
(also, considering the poor hygiene levels
in those days or even today in rural India) |
For
woman |
3 |
To
take early morning bath daily |
|
Personal
hygiene |
4 |
To
maintain both external and internal cleanliness
and remaining content |
Internal
cleanliness meansà good intentions,
humble behaviour, character without envious
feelings, etc. |
|
5 |
To
meditate twice a day i.e. morning and evening
(times when night is being separated from
the day) |
Morning
meditation to ponder over the proposed activities
of day, whether my actions are right, moral
or am I going to do something against my
life values. Also, to pray the lord for
directions and power to move ahead in the
life path.
Evening meditation to take a stock of day’s
activities, whether I made any mistake?
Did I hurt somebody? Whether I spent the
day in constructive activities or just wasted
this valuable time? |
Some
authors say thrice a day |
6 |
To
sing the Lord’s glory and reciting
His virtues every evening |
|
|
7 |
To
offer daily oblation to the holy fire with
a heart filled with feelings of welfare,
love and devotion |
Daily
(preferably morning) oblations with:
1. Feelings of welfare of all
living being
2. Love for nature and whole
world
3. Devotion to the Lord |
|
8 |
Use
filtered water, milk and carefully cleaned
fuel/ firewood |
To
make the water and milk bacteria free! In
case of firewood to see that some insects
etc. don’t get burned with the fuel
and pollute the environment |
|
9 |
Filter
your speech! |
Think
before you speak. |
|
10 |
To
be forgiving in nature |
Forgiveness
is a parameter of greatness. This one virtue
could uplift a normal person to the standards
of great souls of the world. Guru said further,
" if somebody come to you shouting,
become cool like water!" |
|
11 |
To
be compassionate |
Compassion helps
in purifying the heart. It is opposite** to
the forgiveness (Refer rule 10 and end
note) in a sense that in forgiving, we
keep our heart and mind cool against some
external stimuli, whereas in compassion, we
imbibe the feelings of the helpless. We put
ourselves in the shoes of victim (of some
other external circumstance, assault, stimuli)
and acting accordingly.
|
|
12 |
Not
to steal |
Trying
to own someone else’s things through
cheating, or stealing is theft. Theft is
the dirt of the character. It pinches the
soul. |
|
13 |
Not
to revile/ condemn someone |
Reviling
means insulting stealthily or disparaging
behind the back. This is different from
open criticism. Criticism is done openly
with an objective of the improvement, whereas
the objective of reviling/condemning someone
is only to malign the victim’s image/position
in the eyes of listener or the community.
Condemning is an act of cowards and done
out of envy and/or hatred. |
|
14 |
Not
to tell lies |
A
liar can never attain respect of others.
It is insult to the gift of speech. There
was a time, when even the court used to
accept the testimony of Bishnoi men as hard
evidence |
|
15 |
Not
to indulge in opprobrium |
One
should not indulge in any unnecessary/ wasteful
debates. All such discussions/ deliberations,
which are anti-social, anti-human fall under
this category. It is to be noted that the
Guru has not proscribed / banned a healthy
debate on issues concerning the welfare
of all. |
|
16 |
To
observe fast and meditate on no-moon night
(and the same day i.e. Amavsya) |
To
provide rest to the body and its internal
systems. This day of the month has a special
significance from astronomical and planetary
science’s point of view. In addition,
the regular fading of the moon’s appearance
is also symbolic of the perishable nature
of life. So in this context, one should
not waste his/her energy in the daily routine
work but should ‘charge’ his
/her energy level and introspect & ponder
over the collective welfare |
|
17 |
To
recite the holy name of Vishnu |
|
|
18 |
To
be compassionate towards all living beings |
|
|
19 |
Not
to fell green
trees |
|
|
20 |
To
kill the non-perishables! |
To
overcome the non-perishable enemies of human
beings viz. lust, anger, envy, greed and
attachment. |
|
21 |
To
partake food cooked by self/ other religious
person or one who is pure by heart and work |
|
|
22 |
To
provide a common shelter (Thhat)
for goat/sheep to avoid them being slaughtered
in abattoirs |
No
Bishnoi should sell a male goat/sheep because
these could be used for slaughtering purposes.
Hence, he should send them to Thhat’s
where the whole community provides feed
and shelter for them.
In later years, most Bishnoi’s got
out of the business of rearing goats/ sheep,
etc. |
|
23 |
Not
to have bull’s castrated |
In
rural India, bulls are castrated before
they are used as bullocks for agricultural
purposes. Guru prohibited this activity
for his disciples. The underlining feeling
behind this commandment is that Bishnoi’s
rear the bovines like their son/daughters
and getting them castrated through a painful
procedure portray nothing but cruelty. |
|
24 |
Not
to partake of opium |
Or
any product made out of opium |
|
25 |
Not
to use tobacco and its products |
|
|
26 |
Not
to partake of cannabis |
|
|
27 |
Not
to drink liquor |
|
|
28 |
Not
to eat meat or non-vegetarian dishes |
The
underlying rationale of this commandment
are two pronged
| 1. |
To
protect the animals/birds from being
slaughtered by creating a market barrier!
|
| 2. |
To protect the
man, the best creation of the nature,
from stooping to such low standards
as eating meat of dead animals/birds.
Scientifically also the structure
of man’s teeth, jaws etc. is
of not a carnivorous animal but is
that of a herbivorous creature. Interestingly,
if the meat eating would have been
that superior, why even the non-vegetarian
people eat meat/ eggs of the herbivorous
animals/birds and not that of carnivorous
animals/birds? |
|
|
29 |
Not
to use blue colored clothes |
In
ancient India, the blue color used to be
obtained from indigo. Thus it’s possible
that the Guru wanted to stop destruction
of this wild shrub or promote its cultivation
in lieu of other life supporting crops.
Blue is the color of death, poison (Indian
Mythology- Lord Shiva). It is also thought
that the blue color does not reflect the
harmful ultraviolet rays but absorbs them,
which is a major health hazard. |
|
