Dharma cannot be restricted to any particular society or nation, for it
is closely bound up with the fortunes of the entire living world. It is a flame
of light that can never be extinguished. It is untrammeled in its beneficent
action. Krishna taught the Gita to Arjuna. But He intended it for the whole of
humanity. Arjuna was just an excuse. That very Gita is today correcting all
mankind. It is not for any particular caste, religion or nation. It is the very
breath for humans everywhere.
Dharma expresses itself in a variety of forms, known sometimes by the persons
who codified it, like Manudharma, sometimes by the group which followed it like
Varnadharma, sometimes by the stage of life to which it is applied, like
Grihastha-dharma etc. But these are subsidiary practical details, not the
Fundamental Norm. The Atmadharma, the Divine Dharma, is what I am speaking of.
Practical Dharma or Acharadharma relates to temporary matters and problems and
physical needs, to man's passing relationships with the objective world. The
very instrument of those rules, the human body, is itself not permanent; how
can these Dharmas be eternal? How can their nature be described as true? The
Eternal cannot be expressed by the evanescent; Truth cannot reveal itself in
untruth; Light cannot be procured from darkness. The Eternal can emerge only
from the Eternal; Truth can emanate only from Truth. Therefore, the objective
codes of Dharma relating to worldly activities and daily life, though important
in their own sphere, have to be followed with the full knowledge and
consciousness of the Inner Basic Atmadharma; then only can the internal and
external urges co-operate and yield the Bliss of harmonious progress.
If, in your daily avocations, you translate the Real Values of Eternal Dharma
into love-filled acts, then your duty to the inner Reality, the Atma-Dharma is
also fulfilled. Always build your living on the Atmic Plinth; then, your
progress is assured.
Making God into stone - that is the effort being made today! How can
such effort lead to Truth, when the real task is to see the stone as God?
First, the Form of the Godhead has to be meditated upon and imprinted on the
consciousness; then, that Form has to be conceived within the stone and the
stone forgotten in the process, until the stone is transformed into God. In the
same way, you have to imprint on your consciousness the basic Dharma, the
Fundamental Fact of Atma as the only Entity; and, then, filled with that Faith
and Vision, you have to deal with the manifold world of objects, its
attractions and impingements. The Ideal can be realised only thus. If this is
done, there is no danger of the Authentic Meaning getting diluted, or
Atmadharma losing its luster.
What happens when a stone is worshipped as God? The Unlimited, the
Ever-present, the All-pervading-immanent Entity, the Absolute, is visualised in
the Particular, in the Concrete. Similarly, Dharma, which is Universal, Equal
and Free, can be spotted and tested in a single concrete act. Do not be misled
by the idea that this is not possible. Are not many things difficult
accomplished by you, things that only increase your anxiety and fear? If man is
wise, can he not take up instead things that are more worthwhile, which give
him peace of mind?
To be free is your birthright, not to be bound. It is only when you
guide your steps along the Path illumined by the Universal Unbound Dharma that
you are really free; if you stray away from the light, you get bound and you
are caught. Some might raise a doubt; how Dharma which sets limits on thoughts
and words, which regulates and controls, can make a person free.
"Freedom" is the name that you give to a certain type of bondage;
genuine freedom is got only when delusion is absent, when there is no
identification with the body and the senses, no servitude to the objective
world. Persons who have escaped from this servitude and achieved freedom in the
genuine sense are very few in number. Bondage lies in every act done with the
consciousness of the body as the Self, for, man is then the plaything of the
senses. Only those who have escaped this fate are free; that
"freedom" is the ideal stage to which Dharma leads. With that stage
constantly in mind, if one engages in the activity of living, he can become
liberated, a Mukthapurusha.
It is only because you bind yourself that you become bound and stray
away from the Dharmic path. It is always so; no other person can bind you; you
do it yourself. If faith in God's Omnipresence is deep-rooted, then, you would
be aware that He is your self and that you can never be bound! For that faith
to grow, you must grasp Atmananda firmly. The reality of the Atma is the
bedrock, the Jnana that is incontrovertible, the Nischithajnana. Devoid of that
foundation, one becomes the target of doubt, despair and delusion. The maid of
Dharma will not wed such.
Therefore, endeavour firs to become Free. That is to say, as a
preliminary to successful living, cultivate Faith in the Atma as the core of
your personality and then learn and practice the discipline necessary to reach
down to that core. With that qualification acquired, you can engage fully in
worldly activities, following the Dharma prescribed for their regulation. Then
you become a moral individual, a Dharma purusha. Those who hold the physical
objective world as the all of life and the body as the Self, lead but wasted
lives, as meaningless as making God into stone. Making the stone into God is
the holier, more wholesome task. So, too, seeing the Atmadharma in every single
act of yours transforms it into an act of worship, elevates it and removes its
binding characteristic. If the duties of worldly life are done with no regard
to genuine Sathyadharma, it is as unholy as treating God as stone. The
Acharadharma pursued apart from Sathyadharma and Sathyadharma divorced from
Acharadharma are both barren of results. They are both inextricably
intertwined, and should be treated as such. The senior officer needs the work
of the junior official as much as the junior official needs the help of the
senior officer. Who then is the bound, who, the free? Both are bound to their
desire to be happy and comfortable. Until the fundamental secret of the Atma is
recognised, the outer state of bondage will persist. When that is done, the
burden of slavery to the senses and to the objective world will be diminished.
Then, the code of behaviour towards the objective world will be merged with the
code towards the inner Divinity and so, the urges will all be co-operating
harmoniously.
Dharma Vahini, chapter II
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
