Dharma and Karma!
Hello all,
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to focus exactly on the actions that would bring your true Dharma into your physical reality. Last week we discussed the Sathya (truth) that comes associated with our own Dharma. That is the deep truth lying within our heart.
Here, I want to clarify the heart we are discussing. This is not the physical heart that is pumping blood all through our body. That is a great muscular organ. But the heart we discuss in this blog post is the metaphorical heart, the sacred heart space. In the energy vocabulary, the Anahata Chakra, the heart center. This is the core where our deep truth, our own personal Sathya, resides.
Dharma: As we have discussed before each of us come to this physical realm with our own personal Dharma. This is the true purpose we came to this Earth to fulfill. Many times this purpose is being reminded to us by a gentle poke by our own intuition. But we totally ignore or neglect this and go after what our mind tells us to do.
Even this Dharma is not fully clear at a young age. But each step of the path is only opened when we take the previous step. Many times we humans think we get our purpose revealed to us in a second. No. This is the part where inner trust and faith comes into the picture. For example at the Durban, Pietermaritzburg station, when Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of the train, he had an epiphany. that is all. He was shown a vision of 'What could be'. But it was very much Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's free will and choice to take the first step and all the remaining steps to get to the ultimate goal of freedom for India.
The whole Dharma is never revealed as what it would be. Only an inkling or intuition is given. It is up to us to walk the path with inner faith or not. Even Ralph Waldo Emerson has spoken about this in his essay 'Self-Reliance'. I have also put it as a footnote under my blog. Here is it again. "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
Namaste! Hope all of you had a great week where you were able to focus exactly on the actions that would bring your true Dharma into your physical reality. Last week we discussed the Sathya (truth) that comes associated with our own Dharma. That is the deep truth lying within our heart.
Here, I want to clarify the heart we are discussing. This is not the physical heart that is pumping blood all through our body. That is a great muscular organ. But the heart we discuss in this blog post is the metaphorical heart, the sacred heart space. In the energy vocabulary, the Anahata Chakra, the heart center. This is the core where our deep truth, our own personal Sathya, resides.
Dharma: As we have discussed before each of us come to this physical realm with our own personal Dharma. This is the true purpose we came to this Earth to fulfill. Many times this purpose is being reminded to us by a gentle poke by our own intuition. But we totally ignore or neglect this and go after what our mind tells us to do.
Even this Dharma is not fully clear at a young age. But each step of the path is only opened when we take the previous step. Many times we humans think we get our purpose revealed to us in a second. No. This is the part where inner trust and faith comes into the picture. For example at the Durban, Pietermaritzburg station, when Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of the train, he had an epiphany. that is all. He was shown a vision of 'What could be'. But it was very much Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's free will and choice to take the first step and all the remaining steps to get to the ultimate goal of freedom for India.
 |
| The path of Dharma or our true purpose! Image credits-Pixabay.com |
The whole Dharma is never revealed as what it would be. Only an inkling or intuition is given. It is up to us to walk the path with inner faith or not. Even Ralph Waldo Emerson has spoken about this in his essay 'Self-Reliance'. I have also put it as a footnote under my blog. Here is it again. "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
These are the words-'The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.' The intuition or idea is very new. Only the person who gets the intuition has the clue of what he or she could do. But until they tried it, they themselves have no idea how it would come about or what the final product or goal would look like. So, Mahatma Gandhi had no idea that he would end up helping to get the freedom for India.
But without even taking the first step, how could he have envisioned what the final outcome could have been? This same concept Martin Luther King Jr. has also propounded. He has quoted it about faith. The quote-"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
But many times we humans even ignore the intuition or ideas we get. So, this way the doors of our own Dharma that could have opened remain closed. That is the difference between great leaders and us, the normal humans. They listen to themselves. We listen to great leaders. Yes, it is always good to listen to talks, quotes, and speeches that inspire us. But then we have to go within and find our own thoughts and ideas.
Otherwise, why are we provided with our own mind, brain, and intellect? It wouldn't have much use, isn't it? That is why original thinkers and doers are applauded by the world. They are standing way apart from the madding crowd.
Self-knowledge: Now, what is the one pre-requisite needed to know our Dharma? Self-knowledge. Who am I? That is why another giant of Philosophy, Ramana Maharshi asked to enquire within- Who am I? That brings the answer to who we are, what are our talents, what are our deep interests, how can we pursue it, and how can we make our life very purposeful.
Without this most of the time, we would be staggering around in the darkness of our life. By sheer luck, we may find our path. But there is never a guarantee that we are walking our path. Nowadays I even intuit that it is our sacred purpose that we have come to do in this physical realm. But even without having the tiniest hint how can we ever walk our path?
So, it becomes our Dharma to first find who we are so that we can start taking actions towards our purpose and path. Another thing to keep in mind is, the second we decide to walk our path of Dharma, the whole Universe starts to work towards our victory. We have come with that Dharma. Until we don't decide to do it, that spot in the Universe remains empty and those duties remain unfulfilled. So those are energies that Universe has spent wasted energy on.
Hence the next quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Once you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen". But this is not about any path we take. Brahman may help us. But we can be sure of Brahman's (Universe) help if we walk the path of Dharma. The obstacles that were strewn in our path slowly starts to get removed (I am very much talking from my experience as well).
This self-knowledge is spoken a lot in Vedic philosophy called 'Atmajnana'. Another word for this is called Self-realization. Doesn't it make sense? It is just the knowledge of who that person is from the very core. This is the knowledge the Soul has carried through eons of its lifetime. The Soul print that is deeply embedded in the person. This knowledge is already there. In this space, we don't have to become, chase, or pursue anything. I just am! You just are! We just are!
Karma: What is Karma? We have discussed this before. Karma is the cause and effect. If we are part of the cause, we can be sure to be part of the effect as well. In Vedic philosophy, it is considered that each Soul keeps on becoming part of the cause so that we keep on making effects. Thus this cycle repeats. Each human Soul goes through such karmic cycles and it seems the Soul does not get a break.
Now, what I am going to write is my intuition. How do Dharma and Karma are connected? We come to this physical realm with a sacred purpose or Dharma. Now, because we are doing our own Dharma and as always it involves above our good, the good of others, the karma we accrue is minimal. This is the one way we are totally able to get out of the cycle of Karma. Why am I saying that?
Some three years back a stanza from Bhagavad Gita caught my eye. Bhagavad Gita is the discourse of knowledge given to Arjuna, the dejected warrior from Krishna, the avatar of the Divine. In that, it was written,
evam bahu-vidha yajna
vitata brahmano mukhe |
karma-jan viddhi tan sarvan
evam jnatva vimoksyase ||
Meaning: There have been many rituals and sacrifices spread in the pages of Vedas. Know all of them to be born of works or Karma. Someone who realizes this, would be taken above it.
But without even taking the first step, how could he have envisioned what the final outcome could have been? This same concept Martin Luther King Jr. has also propounded. He has quoted it about faith. The quote-"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."
But many times we humans even ignore the intuition or ideas we get. So, this way the doors of our own Dharma that could have opened remain closed. That is the difference between great leaders and us, the normal humans. They listen to themselves. We listen to great leaders. Yes, it is always good to listen to talks, quotes, and speeches that inspire us. But then we have to go within and find our own thoughts and ideas.
Otherwise, why are we provided with our own mind, brain, and intellect? It wouldn't have much use, isn't it? That is why original thinkers and doers are applauded by the world. They are standing way apart from the madding crowd.
Self-knowledge: Now, what is the one pre-requisite needed to know our Dharma? Self-knowledge. Who am I? That is why another giant of Philosophy, Ramana Maharshi asked to enquire within- Who am I? That brings the answer to who we are, what are our talents, what are our deep interests, how can we pursue it, and how can we make our life very purposeful.
 |
| Self-knowledge-Who am I? Image credits-Pixabay.com |
Without this most of the time, we would be staggering around in the darkness of our life. By sheer luck, we may find our path. But there is never a guarantee that we are walking our path. Nowadays I even intuit that it is our sacred purpose that we have come to do in this physical realm. But even without having the tiniest hint how can we ever walk our path?
So, it becomes our Dharma to first find who we are so that we can start taking actions towards our purpose and path. Another thing to keep in mind is, the second we decide to walk our path of Dharma, the whole Universe starts to work towards our victory. We have come with that Dharma. Until we don't decide to do it, that spot in the Universe remains empty and those duties remain unfulfilled. So those are energies that Universe has spent wasted energy on.
Hence the next quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Once you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen". But this is not about any path we take. Brahman may help us. But we can be sure of Brahman's (Universe) help if we walk the path of Dharma. The obstacles that were strewn in our path slowly starts to get removed (I am very much talking from my experience as well).
This self-knowledge is spoken a lot in Vedic philosophy called 'Atmajnana'. Another word for this is called Self-realization. Doesn't it make sense? It is just the knowledge of who that person is from the very core. This is the knowledge the Soul has carried through eons of its lifetime. The Soul print that is deeply embedded in the person. This knowledge is already there. In this space, we don't have to become, chase, or pursue anything. I just am! You just are! We just are!
Karma: What is Karma? We have discussed this before. Karma is the cause and effect. If we are part of the cause, we can be sure to be part of the effect as well. In Vedic philosophy, it is considered that each Soul keeps on becoming part of the cause so that we keep on making effects. Thus this cycle repeats. Each human Soul goes through such karmic cycles and it seems the Soul does not get a break.
Now, what I am going to write is my intuition. How do Dharma and Karma are connected? We come to this physical realm with a sacred purpose or Dharma. Now, because we are doing our own Dharma and as always it involves above our good, the good of others, the karma we accrue is minimal. This is the one way we are totally able to get out of the cycle of Karma. Why am I saying that?
Some three years back a stanza from Bhagavad Gita caught my eye. Bhagavad Gita is the discourse of knowledge given to Arjuna, the dejected warrior from Krishna, the avatar of the Divine. In that, it was written,
evam bahu-vidha yajna
vitata brahmano mukhe |
karma-jan viddhi tan sarvan
evam jnatva vimoksyase ||
-Bhagavad Gita (Jnana Yoga, 32)
Meaning: There have been many rituals and sacrifices spread in the pages of Vedas. Know all of them to be born of works or Karma. Someone who realizes this, would be taken above it.
 |
| The chariot scene of Krishna and Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita! Image credits-His Holiness Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada [CC BY 2.0] |
So, this basically says in the Vedas, the sacred books of Hinduism , there are many rituals and sacrifices elaborated upon. Anyone who practices this and be of this material world always would find themselves in the endless cycles of Karma, For them to come out of the cycles becomes difficult.
Why? Because their focus is on living a good life in this material world. But such a person is not lifting the finger to pursue their sacred purpose or Dharma. To know Dharma a person needs Atma-jnana or Self-realization. A person deeply immersed in rituals and sacrifices has no time to realize who she or he is. So, the Dharma path is closed for them and the Karma path is open. When we are in the path of cause, ofcourse we can be sure about the effect as well. The soul finds always in the Karma cycle.
But a person who has knowledge of Self-Atmajanana, according to this passage is taken out of the Karma cycle and placed in the Dharma cycle. Such a person as they are accomplishing their Soul contract, that which has been already ordained to them even before taking birth is not accruing Karma. They are fulfilling God or Brahman's work ( The real true work or purpose/Dharma. Not God's work as many humans assume nowadays are doing).
In this work, the Soul is taken out of the unending Karma cycle. They totally know who they are, finish their purpose or Dharma and get assimilated in the Brahman itself. Such a simple and elegant way to come out of the Karma Soul Cycles. But many times as humans, we are not ready to do the inner work and contemplation to know who we are. So, the Dharma path remains closed. We, again and again, choose Karma.
This precept is not for Hinduism alone. I just used Bhagavad Gita and Vedas to explain this concept that is all. This is for every single Soul. A cat has a Dharma of being a cat. A dog has the Dharma of being a dog. A human has the Dharma of exactly who he or she is from their core. As the human comes with more awareness they have been given more responsibility and accountability than a cat or a dog.
A being who pursues their Dharma, becomes beloved to the divine or Brahman. Thus they are helped in any which way. For them the whole Universe conspires to make their desire to be totally who they are a reality. Whether it is Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela or any of the giants of world leaders, with an inner trust they chose the path of their true Dharma.
Nobody said this path is going to be easy. No, it is not. The way Lincoln, Gandhi as well as King was assassinated is a proof to that. It is many times terrifying and laden with enormous self-doubt and inner faith issues. But when there may be millions of cycles of Karma waiting for a Soul, isn't it better to take that one cycle of Dharma and be done with the Karma Soul cycles?
Just my thought process. When the whole Universe is there conspiring for us in our Dharma path, what to fear, worry, and be apprehensive about? But who has the right to choose? It is always the free will and choice of the being!
I wish you a good weekend and I'll see you next Friday!😉
Next week: Maya-The illusion!
Credits: Images and links from Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay.com
Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, "There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance ; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried".
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![His Holiness Bhaktiratna Sadhu Swami Gaurangapada [CC BY 2.0]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bhagvad_Gita.jpg){kind=link}
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