Nowadays, many educated persons immersed in Vedic and Sastric knowledge, and classic scholarship have lost faith in the texts of which they are masters; they have become afraid to stick firmly to Dharma, for it is being laughed at by their cynical friends; they have yielded to the crooked arguments of critics and sold their heritage for trivial returns; they interpret the Ekadasi fast as one of the means for regulating health, the waving of the camphor flame as a remedy for asthmatics, pranayama as helping digestion, pilgrimages as educational tours, charity as a means of self-advertisement... thus demeaning and desecrating the holy injunctions of Dharma.

Such men only deceive the world; they are barbarians who do not know or heed the principles of Dharma. They can learn something from a perusal of Manudharma.

  
Aarsham dharmopadesam cha
Vedasastra a-virodhinaa
Yastharkenaanusandhaththe
Sa dharmam veda, netharah

Thus said Manu: "Any person who wants to know Dharma can know it only by following a system of Logic or Tarka that is not opposed to Veda and Sastra". No conclusion opposed to Veda can be logical. Dry logic is profitless and Manu does not recommend it to those who want to study the Vedas, etc. Still there are many today who stick to this logical reasoning and following Adharma themselves, drag others too with them into the wrong path. That is why Vedavyasa declared long ago:

Na yakshyanthi, na hoshyanthi, hethuvadavimohithaah
Nimmokshyaham karishyanthi, hethuvaadavimohithaah

That is to say, those who follow the path of Causalism and logic, seeking cause-and-effect connection, will not offer sacrifices in the sacred fire, they will involve themselves in low demeaning acts. Vedavyasa has said this in Aranyaparva of Mahabharatha, while describing the conditions that are to be expected in the Kali era.

It is only by following the path of Dharma or rectitude that the sun and moon are revolving unerringly on their orbits; it is only the call of Dharma that makes all the divine powers adhere to their various duties and responsibilities; Dharma only keeps the five elements bound to the principles of their nature.

You should derive the greatest possible benefit from Dharma and avoid, while following it, causing any injury to yourselves or others. You must spread the glory of Dharma by making yourself a shining example of the peace and joy it gives. Do not follow the trail of dry logic; do not confuse your brain by cynicism and prejudice, do not get interested in what others do or believe in and try to reform them or correct their footsteps; have faith in the basic Atma which is your real truth; test all lines of conduct on that basis, whether it will hinder the process of revealing the Atma or not; and carry on, in the light of that faith and that test, your daily duties and rites. Then, you will never fall into error. You will also derive great joy.

There are some worldly maxims like "Udyogam purusha lakshanam" or "Karmam purushalakshanam", which say that being engaged in a profession is the sign of man, or being engaged in a task is the sign of manhood etc. But, the real maxim is "Dharmam purushalakshanam", "Observance of Dharma is the sign of manhood". Every one must engage in Dharmakarma, or tasks infused with Dharma, while putting into action the purusharthas of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha.

As Pathivrathaadharma is for women, Brahmacharya is for men. Just as woman should consider one person and one person only as her master and husband, man too has to be faithful to one woman and one woman only, as his mate, his wife. She has to consider the husband as God and worship him and minister to and follow his desires for the fulfillment of her duty of Pathivrathaa; so man too should honour his wife as the "Mistress of the Home" and act in accordance with her wishes, for she is the Griha Lakshmi. Then only can he deserve the status of "man". Name and fame, honour and dishonour, vice and wickedness, good and bad are all equal and uniform for both men and women. There is no such thing as woman alone being bound and man being free; both are equally bound by the rules of Dharma. Both will fall into Adharma if they behave without consideration of the claims of the four pairs of attributes mentioned above. Men too are bound in certain matters just as women are; men have no right to do certain things. There are some important pledges between the husband and the wife.

The principles of Dharma (right conduct) will not change to suit the convenience of man. Dharma is immutable. Dharma persists as Dharma, then, now and forever. Of course, the practices and rules of applied Dharma might change according to changing causes; but, even then, those practices have to be tested on the basis of the Sastras, not on the basis of advantage. There should be no such calculation. The Sastras may not always support rules which yield tangible visible advantage, nor can the Vedas etc. be expected to indicate only such acts. Dharma cannot be tested on those lines; direct or ocular proof is impossible. The Mimamsakas state that Dharma can be known only through the Vedic Manthras and that the Vedas attempt to elucidate only such truths as are beyond ocular demonstration.

If Dharma is followed with an eye on the consequences, it might even be neglected when the advantage is not patent or immediate. Every one will not have the same motive; every one will not have the same standard. For example, each will have a different idea of the fruits of Snana, Sandhya, Japa and Dhyana, which are prescribed. Some persons cancel the Gayathri Japam in the evenings and instead recite the Vishnu Sahasranama or the Sivasahasranama. "Kaale Sandhyaa Samaachareth": "Perform Sandhyavandanam in proper time"; that is the prescription. But, inspite of such directions, is it not a breach of Dharma when they cancel the evening Sandhya like this? Similarly there are prescriptions for every Varna.

"Chaathurvarnyam mayaa srishtam gunaa karma Vibhaagasah", says the Gita; the meaning is quite clear, "I have created the four varnas dividing them on the basis of quality and activities", that is the teaching. But relying on all kinds of paltry arguments and dry reasoning, many men follow the Dharma which appeals to them and without any fear of God or of sin, they drag the innocent, ignorant people also into the wrong path. That is the reason why the Lord comes down now and then in order to uplift the downtrodden and in order to re-establish Dharma. That causes the incarnation of the Lord; this has been said in ringing tones in the Gita.

"Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge". Here, one point has to be clearly grasped. Many who read the Gita take it that the Lord incarnates when Dharma is destroyed and when the forces of Adharma begin to prevail. But there is no basis to draw the conclusion that Dharma gets destroyed. The Gita too does not say so. The word that is used is "glaani"; that is to say, when the indications are that dharma is in danger, "I will come in order to protect it from harm". He did not say that he will come down to protect it and preserve it after Dharma itself has been destroyed! Of what use is a doctor after life has left? So too, after Dharma, which is the very life-breath of humanity, has been destroyed, what is the need for the Bhavarogavaidya, that is to say, the Incarnation of the Lord? What is the Lord to protect? This is why the word 'glaani' is used to indicate, not the destruction, but the decline, the weakening of Dharma. The protection of Dharma is the task of the Lord, for Dharma is the very breath of the Jivi.

Dharma is not an ordinary affair. He who does not practice Dharma is as bad as dead; if he does practice it, he is of the divine nature. Now there is need to turn men on to the Dharmic path by means of good advice, tempting them with the attractive consequences of following the path, threatening to dissociate from those who do not, and inflicting punishment as a last resort; the traditional methods of Saama, Daana, Bheda and Danda. In ancient times, people never gave up the practice of Dharma even when they were threatened with death at the point of the sword. Now, without even the slightest pressure from others, people slide down and fall into Adharma. Indeed, Dharma is interpreted in various confusing ways and those who strictly follow the real Dharma are obstructed and laughed at and treated as worse than dried up grass. Those who are anxiously adhering to Dharma are branded as cheats, hypocrites and ignoramuses. Such calumniators do not know what Dharma is or what its principles are. Unfortunate individuals! They have no capacity to grasp the meaning of that word. You can judge for yourself how it can be understood by persons who do not know even the literal meaning of the word. What can a person, born blind, know of the sun or its rays? Of course he can feel the heat, when the rays of the sun fall on his body; he cannot have an idea of the nature of the sun, its form, its shape, its brilliance, etc. So too for a person who has no conception of Dharma, who has no faith in Dharma, the joy derived by its observance is something incomprehensible. To dilate on Dharma before such a person is as useless a venture as blowing a conch before a person who is stone deaf. He can only see the conch at the lips of the person in front of him, he cannot hear the least bit of sound. So when Dharma is taught to a person or extolled, care must be taken to see that he has faith and earnestness and the eagerness to practise it. Only such must be handled and sought to be corrected. Later, by the promptings of their own experience and the joy they derive therefrom, even the ignorant will plant in their hearts the seedlings of Dharma.

Past, present or future, for all time, women are the backbone of progress; the heart of the nation, the very breath. They play the chief role in the dharma of life here below, a key role that is charged with holiness. Her mission is to lay down the canons of rightness and morality. She must provide children with moral and spiritual training. When the mother is imbued with Dharma, the children get the benefit and they get similarly saturated. When she is skilled in morals, the children learn to be moral. Therefore, the level of education among women decides whether a country is to prosper or decline. Her acts and conduct are crucial factors.

The responsibility of the elders and the parents is very great in this. Take the students of today; no trace of culture can be seen in them; matters of the spirit and talk of the Atma raise laughter among them! A majesty of words, a servitude to tailoring - these have become the fashion. This is not genuine culture. The educated women of today are helpless when it comes to managing a home. Home to them is but a hotel; they are so helplessly dependent on the cook and the maid. The educated woman is but a painted doll, decorating the modern home; she is a handicap to the husband, a weight around his neck. He is squeezed by her insistent demands for spending money on all kinds of objects. She does not share in the tasks of house-keeping and so by sheer idleness, and eating and sleeping without exercise, she develops illness which leads her quickly to death.

The wanton behaviour of women has enveloped the world of today in an atmosphere of declining Dharma. Women are harming themselves by running after fleeting pleasure, regardless of the need to develop good character and elevating qualities. They are enamoured of the pseudo-freedom, which feeds their conceit. To get fixed up in a job, to earn degrees, to move about with all and sundry without distinction and discrimination, to discard respect for elders and give up fear of sin and evil, to over-look the claims of the good and the holy, to force the husband to dance to one's tune, to deny the tribute of repentance to one's errors, are these the signs of education? No; they are all the monstrous shapes of Avidya, the uneducated egoist attitudes that make a person ugly and repelling.

If the wife feels that the husband's home is sacred, then that home itself will endow her with every skill and qualification. There is no place anywhere which excels such a home for her. One saintly poet has sung that it is her temple, her school, her playground, her political arena, her field of sacrifice, her hermitage.

Educated women can do useful service to the community around them according to their skill, taste, inclination, desire, character, educational status, mode of living, discipline or scholarship. They should avoid tarnishing the reputation of their parents, their family or themselves. A woman without a good character is as bad as 'dead'; so women must be ever vigilant when they move about in the world. They should avoid flippant talk or free mixing. The discriminating woman will engage only in such acts as will add to the luster of her husband's fame and honour, never an act which will tarnish it. That is why it is said, "Sadguna or virtue is the sign of the educated person, the thing which makes education worthwhile."  

I do not declare that women should not be educated or that they should not move in society. Wherever they move, if they are endowed with good qualities, and if the good qualities are accompanied by good actions and good habits, and adherence to Sanathanadharma and Sadhana, then their study is really worth while and society is indeed benefited. Study and society are not harmful in themselves; they react with the nature of the persons who make use of them and yield good or bad results. The cat holds the kitten as well as the rat in the self-same mouth, but with what a difference? The kitten, it fondles; the rat, it kills. The bite is neutral, it is the rat or kitten that decides how it behaves.

So too, knowledge can develop discrimination, inspire the springs of service, prompt inquiry into the Reality, promote the search for the Absolute, and even pave the way for attaining Paramahamsahood. On the other hand, it might feed and strengthen the roots of falsehood, hypocrisy, cruelty and injustice; it might teach man newer means of deceit and ruin the career of man on earth. It might turn Love into poisonous hatred and Truth into a bone of contention.

Therefore, whatever subject a woman might have studied and mastered, whatever the degree she has won, whatever the status of her husband or of herself, she must hold fast to these truths; real charm consists in good character; morality is the very breath of woman; modesty, the very live force; adherence to truth is her daily duty. She must plant the seedlings of fear (fear of sin, fear of the Lord) in her heart and cultivate the charm of humility. In the religious, moral and physical fields, she must adhere to the strict dictates of Dharma, and take that as the essence of all Vidya. She must be prepared to sacrifice even her life for the sake of maintaining honour; she must nourish and preserve her chastity and her adoration of the husband. This is the Chief Dharma of woman. This is the reason for her very birth as Woman.

Education is necessary for both men and women. But, education for women has to be in accordance with their special needs. Educated women are really the promoters of Dharma for the whole world. Parents too must co-operate in getting them equipped with proper education. Women should not be given freedom in certain matters. I will not approve of their being given such freedom. They must be made into ideal women; their education must be so shaped.

Unbridled freedom is destructive of Dharma; besides, women will, by this means, harm themselves. Mixing in society without any discrimination will produce results that are ruinous. Of course there were educated women in the past also, but they never gave up their Dharma, they never forgot the goal of Atmadharma. Vidya or education must be built on the basis of Viveka or Discrimination. Sulabha, Savithri, Anasuya, Gargi, Nalayani and other such models of chastity, devotees of the Lord like Meera, yoginis like Choodala, all were born in this Bharathadesa and by their adherence to Dharma, they strengthened Dharma. Once, when Sulabha was discoursing on the Atma with all her scholarship and experience, even Janaka was astounded! It is through the example of such great and holy women, with their character and conduct inspired by Bhakthi and Jnana, that even today simplicity, humility and devotion shine in the hearts of the women of Bharathadesa.

Women should draw inspiration now from them; efforts must be made by them to live as these did in the past. The Hindu woman must ever have before her as her guide the ideal of Dharma and progress in spiritual discipline. She can master any subject related to the objective world which has gained prominence today; but the welfare of the spirit should not also be forgotten; she must get interested in Vedanthic study which cultivates the Inner Vision. A woman without this training is a rock without support, a danger to herself and others, a very unbalanced individual. Sulabha and others who pursued such studies became Brahmavadins of great fame. India produced several such saints and scholars, among women. Pundits and Vidwans used to approach such women for inspiration and guidance.

On what is progress based? The progress of the nation, the community and the family, depends on the proper education of women. The country can be lifted to its pristine greatness only through women mastering the Atmavidya, the science of Realisation of the Reality. If the nation must have lasting prosperity and peace, women have to be trained through an educational system which emphasises moral conduct, moral qualities. The cause for the present fall in moral standards and absence of social peace is the neglect of this aspect of women's education. The earth and sky are still the same; the change is in the ideal of education from Dharma to Adharma.

The education of today is spoken of as Vidya, but that is merely a way of calling it. It does not deserve that name, if you consider the present actions of the educated and their personal traits. The educated person must be capable of imbibing the inner joy of the Atman, irrespective of external circumstances; he must have grasped the purpose of existence; he must be aware of the discipline of Realisation. The Grace of the Lord was the Diploma which every student sought to secure in the old days. That Diploma was awarded to those who were proficient in the cultivation of morality, the knowledge of the Atman, the sublimation of instincts, good conduct, pure habits, control of the senses, restraint of the mind, and the development of divine qualities. Today, however, things are different. Diplomas can now be gained by mugging up a few books! By going through modern schooling one cannot acquire moral and spiritual training.

Dharma Vahini, chapter V

People refer to various duties, rights and obligations, but these are not the basic Sathyadharma; they are only means and methods of regulating the complications of living. They are not fundamental. All these moral codes and approved behaviour are prompted by the need to cater to two types of creatures and two types of natures - viz., masculine and feminine.

They connote Prakrithi and Paramathma, gross and subtle, inert and conscious, the all-pervading duet. All this creation came about by the inter-relation of the Inert and the Conscious, did it not? So too, all the various mores have emerged on account of this bifurcation. All this ramification and elaboration of Dharma is due to this: the Masculine and Feminine.

Therefore, the chief Dharma for the practical progress of the world is the moral conduct and behaviour of these two; whatever any great teacher might teach it cannot go beyond these two distinct natures.

The Purushadharma for the male and the Stridharma for the female are important applications of the Sathyadharma mentioned above. Other codes and disciplines are but accessories, tributaries like the streams that meet the Godavari when it is coursing forward. They are related to the various circumstances, situations and statuses that are temporary; you have to pay attention to the main river and not the tributaries. Similarly, take the major Masculine and Feminine Dharma as the chief guides of living and do not give the minor accessory dharmas any decisive place in the scheme of living.

Stridharma: The Feminine Principle is spoken of as the illusion imposed upon Himself by the Lord, as the Energy with which He equipped Himself out of His own will. This is the Maya, the Feminine Form. This is the reason why Woman is considered as Parasakthi Swarupa. She is the faithful companion of Man, his Fortune; since she is the concretisation of the Will of the Lord, she is Mystery, Wonder, the representative of the protective Principle; the Queen of his home, his beneficence, the Illumination of the house. Women who are repositories of the Sakthiswarupa are in no way inferior; how full of fortitude, patience and prema is their nature! Their self-control is seldom equaled by men. They are the exemplars and leaders for men to tread the spiritual path. Pure self-less love is inborn in women. Women who are full of knowledge, who are cultured, who are bound by love and who are keen on discriminating whether their words and deeds are in conformity with Dharma - such women are like the Goddess Lakshmi, bringing joy and good fortune to the home. That home, where the husband and the wife are bound together by holy love, where every day both are engaged in the reading of books that feed the soul, where the Name of the Lord is sung and His Glory remembered, that home is really the Home of the Lord, Vaikunta! The woman who is attached to her husband by means of Love is indeed a flower radiating rare perfume; she is a precious gem, shedding luster in the family, a wife endowed with virtue is really a brilliant jewel.

Chastity is the ideal for womankind. By the strength derived from that virtue, they can achieve anything. Savithri was able, through that power, to win back the life of her husband; she actually fought with the Lord of Death. Anasuya, the wife of the Sage Athri and the mother of Dattatreya, was able to transform even the Trinity into infants. Nalayani, who was devoted to her leper husband, could by the mysterious force of her chastity stop the sun in its course! Chastity is the crown jewel of women. That is the virtue for which she has to be most extolled. Its beneficent consequences defy description. It is the very breath of life. By means of her chastity and the power it grants, she can save her husband from calamity. She saves herself by her virtue and wins, without doubt, even heaven, through her chastity. Damayanthi burnt into ashes a hunter who attempted to molest her, by the power of her "word". She bore all the travails of lonely life in the jungle, when her husband, King Nala deserted her, all of a sudden becoming the victim of cruel Fate.

Modesty is essential for women; it is her priceless jewel. It is against Dharma for a woman to overstep the limits of modesty; crossing the limits brings about many calamities. Why, the very glory of womanhood will be destroyed. Without modesty, woman is devoid of beauty and culture. Humility, purity of thought and manners, meekness, surrender to high ideals, sensitivity, sweetness of temper - the peculiar blend of all these qualities is modesty. It is the most invaluable of all jewels for women.

The modest woman will ever keep within limits, through her innate sense of propriety. She becomes automatically aware which behaviour is proper and which is improper. She will stick only to virtuous deeds and behaviour. Modesty is the test of a woman's grandeur. If a woman has no modesty she is injuring the interests of womanhood itself, besides undermining her own personality. She is like a fragranceless flower, which the world does not cherish or honour, or even approve. The absence of modesty makes life, for a woman, however rich in other accomplishments, a waste and a vacuum. Modesty lifts her to the heights of sublime holiness. The modest woman wields authority in the home and outside, in the community as well as in the world.

Some might interrupt and ask: "But, women who have swallowed all the compunctions of modesty are being honoured today! They strut about with heads erect and the world honours them not a whit less." I have no need to acquaint myself with these activities of the present-day world. I do not concern myself with them. They may be receiving honour and respect of a sort, but the respect is not authorised or deserved. When honour is offered to the undeserving, it is tantamount to insult; to accept it when offered is to demean the very gift. It is not honour, but flattery that is cast on the immodest by the selfish and the greedy. It is like spittle dirty and unpleasant.

Of course, the modest woman will not crave for honour or praise. Her attention will always be on the limits which she would not transgress. Honour and praise come to her unasked and unnoticed. The honey in the flower or lotus does not crave for bees; they do not plead with the bees to come. Since they have tasted the sweetness, they themselves search for the flowers and rush in. They come because of the attachment between themselves and sweetness. So, too, is the relationship between the woman who knows the limits and the respect she evokes.

If a frog sits on a lotus and proclaims that fact to the world, does it mean that it knows the value of the beauty or the sweetness of that flower? Has it tasted any of these? It may flatter the lotus but, has it at least recognised what it contains? The honour and respect given to woman today is of this type, rendered by people who do not know what to appreciate and how. They do not know the standards of judgement, they have no faith in the ultimate values, they do not respect the really good and great; how can we call the thing they offer as "honour" or "respect"? It can only be called "a disease" or at best, "etiquette", that is all.

The principles of Atmadharma will not allow the term "woman" to be applied to "a woman without modesty". If respect and honour are heaped upon a person who does not follow Atmadharma, it is like heaping decorations on a body that has no life in it. The soul that has left the body cannot enjoy the respect shown to the corpse. So too, if a person who is unaware of the Reality, who has not experienced the purpose of the Atma's embodiment, is crowned with fame and glory, who derives joy therefrom?

The modest woman will not care for such meaning-less trash and tinsel; she will rather seek self-respect, which is much more satisfying. That is the characteristic which makes her the Lakshmi of the Home. That is why the wife is referred to as Grihalakshmi. If the wife has no such mark the home becomes an abode of ugliness.

The woman is the prop of the home and of religion. She plants and fosters religious faith or dries up and up-roots it. Women have natural aptitude for faith and spiritual endeavour. Women with devotion, faith, and meekness can lead men on the Godward path and the practice of holy virtues. They will get up early, before dawn, clean the home and after finishing bath etc., sit for a while engaged in Japam and Dhyanam. They will have in their homes one small room set apart for the worship of the Lord. They will place their images of the Lord as well as pictures of holy sages and of gurus and guides. They will consider the room specially sacred and fill the atmosphere with their prayers both morning and evening, as well as on holy days and festivals. A woman who is steadfastly doing these will be able to transmute even her atheist husband, persuading him to join the prayers or engage in some good activity or some scheme of social service marked by the attitude of Dedication to the Lord. Indeed, it is the woman who maintains the home; that is her mission. She is truly the representative of Sakthi.

On the other hand, if the wife tries to pull the husband away from the Godward path, from the spiritual to the level of the sensual, or if the husband treats the wife who is disposed to seek joy from her spiritual endeavour as a person following the wrong track and tries to drag her away from it, the home of such a couple is unworthy of that name; it is not a home; it is inferno, where ghosts and evil spirits revel.

Really, woman should strive to achieve the knowledge of the Soul and live every moment in the consciousness of her being only the Atman; she must evince always a desire to become one with the Divine Consciousness. The home where the woman is such and where the husband and wife are leading their lives in the shade of great ideals, where they together sing the glory of the Name of the Lord and spend themselves in good deeds, where there reigns Truth, Peace and Love, where regular reading is done of holy books, where the senses are under control and where there is equal treatment for all creation prompted by the knowledge of the basic unity of all creation, such a Home is certainly Heaven on Earth.

A wife with such a nature is a wife worth the name. She must have real love towards the husband, then only can she be called housewife or Grihini. Then only is she Dharmapathni, the Bhaarya, the Instrument and Companion for Dharma, Artha and Kama. She who knows the mind of the husband and speaks soft and sweet, is the real friend. Why, sometimes, when the wife has to point out the path of Dharma to the husband, she takes on the role even of a Father! When the husband is down with illness she is the Mother.

Woman must accord first place to the service of her husband; that is True Worship, for her. Her prayers and worship and puja can wait. Without serving the husband she cannot attain Bliss in worship or meditation.

As a matter of fact, the Lord must be welcomed as represented by the husband and all service rendered to him must be elevated to the level of worship; that is the path of genuine duty. If every act is done as if it is for the sake of the Atma and its merger with Paramathma, then activity becomes dedicated to the Lord. All such acts save; they do not bind.

It does not matter, how bad or low the husband is, the wife must, through love, bring him round and correct him, and help him gain the blessings of the Lord. It is not correct to feel that her progress alone matters and she has no concern in his improvement or uplift. She must feel, on the other hand, that the welfare of the husband, the joy of the husband, the wishes of the husband, the salvation of the husband, these are the panacea for her also. Such a woman will receive the Grace of the Lord automatically, without special effort; it will be showered upon her; the Lord will always be by her side and be kind to her in all ways. By her virtue, she will ensure the salvation of her husband.

One cannot escape from disquiet so long as the fundamental ignorance persists; mere change of occupation, prompted by the desire for more comfort or the need for satisfying some passing likes will not give lasting satisfaction. It is like hoping to improve matters in a dark room by a mere readjustment of furniture. If however a lamp is lit, even without that readjustment, passage across the room is rendered easier. There is no need to interfere with the furniture at all.

So too, in this benighted world, it is difficult to move about truthfully, correctly and peacefully without knocking against some obstacle or other. How then are you to succeed? Light the lamp! Let it reveal the reality; get the light of Jnana. That will solve all the difficulties. You may claim that you live according to Dharma. But, your basic flaw is that your acts are not done in the spirit of dedication. If so done, it gets stamped with the authentic mark of Dharma. Some clever folk might raise a doubt and ask: "Can we then kill and injure, in the name of the Lord dedicating the act to Him?" Well, how can a person get the attitude of dedicating all his activities to the Lord without at the same time being pure in thought, word and deed? Love, Equanimity, Rectitude, Non-violence - these are the attendant virtues of the servant of the Lord. How can cruelty and callousness co-exist with these virtues? To have selflessness, the spirit of self-sacrifice and the spiritual eminence required for the dedicatory outlook, one must have first won the four characteristics: Sathya, Santham, Prema, Ahimsa. Devoid of these, mere naming will not make any deed a votive offering.

Acts which are expressions of Dharma are deathless and only those who know that they are deathless can perform them. That is the highest destiny of man. Instead of reaching it, he is intent on doing acts against Dharma. Man is everywhere degrading himself from his status as a child of eternity to the status of a child of Futility, from an Amrithaputhra to an Anrithaputhra! Holding nectar in the grasp, he is drinking the poison of sensual pleasure. Neglecting the joy of the contemplation of the fundamental Atmic reality of the Universe, he is entangling himself in the external trappings of this objective world or appearances. One can only bewail that this fate has overwhelmed man!

In the Gita too it is declared "I am the bliss of Brahmam, of Positive Immortality, of Timeless Dharma, and Eternal Bliss". The sloka is in the XIV Chapter:

Brahmanohi prathishta - aham amrithasya avyayasya cha
Saaswathasya cha dharmasya sukhasya - aikaanthikasya cha

It is this Amrithadharma that is described in the Upanishads and since the Gita is the kernel of the Upanishads, the same is emphasised in the Gita too. The Dharmic way of life is as the very breath: It is the road to self-relisation. Those who walk along it are dear to the Lord; He dwells with all who are truthful, whose deeds spring from Dharma. That is the reason why the Gita teaches Arjuna to develop certain qualities, which help the practice of Atmic Dharma. These are delineated in slokas 13 to 19 of the XII Chapter. Those who have drunk deep at the fountain of the Gita will remember these. The most important of the slokas in this context is:

Ye thu dharmyaamritham idam yathoktham Paryupaasathe
Sraddhadhaanaa math paramaa bhakthaasthe atheeva math priyaah

What a grand idea this sloka conveys! That is the concluding sloka of the series which gives the qualities one has to develop. It calls the entire group Dharmyaamritham, the Dharmic way to immortality! The Lord has declared therein that those who have these qualities, those who trust in Him as the only ultimate Goal, those who are attached to Him as the single-mindedly are dearest and nearest to Him.

Note the expression, Dharmyaamritham, used here. Ponder over it and draw inspiration from it! The Nectar of the Lord's Grace is deserved only by those who adhere to the Lord's Dharma. Simple folk believe that they have Bhakthi towards the Lord, but they do not pause to inquire whether the Lord has Love towards them! People who pine to discover this are rather rare. That is really the true measure of spiritual success. The same person is king to his subjects, son to his parents, enemy to his enemies, husband to his wife, father to his son. He plays many roles. Yet, if you ask him who he is, he would be wrong if he gives any of these relationships as his distinctive marks. For, they are pertaining to physical relationship or activities. They are all terms denoting physical kinships or professional relationships, names attached to temporary statuses. Nor can he reply that he is the head, the feet, the hands, etc., for, they are but the limbs of the physical form. He is more real than all the limbs, beyond names and forms which are all falsities hiding the basic Brahmam; he is known as 'I'; reflect over that entity well, and discover who that 'I' really is.

While, it is so hard to analyse and understand your entity, how can you pronounce judgement on other entities with any definiteness? What you refer to as 'I' and as 'You' relate to the body, the appearance; they are not Sath. The Atma is One and Indivisible; Dharma based on That is genuine Dharma.

Some ask: "You go on saying 'Atma', 'Atma'; well what is the Rupa or form of this Atma?" But, wherefrom is Atma to get form? It is eternal, unchanging, immortal. It is goodness, right, beneficence. It is immutable, unblemished. It cannot be limited by any particular name or form. It can be understood by the Jnana that dawns in and through the Karmadeha, i.e., the body acquired as a result of activity. The body alone has name and form, and so, in every activity of the body, you should manifest the Atmadharma, Dharma based on the Atma-consciousness.

It is said, "the Atma is neither male nor female; nor cattle nor sheep nor horse nor elephant nor bird nor tree; it is beyond such categorisations". These distinctions and differences arise on the basis of activity; the Atma is incapable of modification; only one thing can be posited about it, viz., that It is. The sum and substance of all this is that the Atma is the Absolute, the Paramartha. The rest is all particular, insignificant, false, unreal, denotable, and identificable.

Take a palanquin. Before being transformed into that article, it was a tree, which got changed into timber and planks and finally into a palanquin. With every change in form, the name too changed. Sitting in a palanquin, no one would say, he is on a piece of timber or on a tree. Objects undergo change; they are not eternal. They are not Sath, real.

Objects can be distinguished only by means of name and form. They can be described only by means of their characteristics. For they are artificial and temporary.

What exactly is a chair? It is a particular modification of wood, isn't it? Remove the wood, the chair too disappears. Think of the wood which is the substance and the 'appearance' of the chair will vanish. So too, Dharma! Varnadharma, Grihasthadharma, Vanaprasthadharma, Sanyasadharma, Brahmacharyadharma, this Dharma, that Dharma... all are modifications of the basic Dharma, like the chair, the bench, the palanquin etc. The separate varieties disappear as soon as you go deep into their nature, the corporeal Dharmas fade away and the Atmadharma alone remains. The articles of furniture vanish and the wood alone remains, so too, the objective Dharmas disappear and Atmadharma alone shines in unique glory.

Of course, for the worldly career, the corporeal Dharmas are important. I won't say they are not. As wood is turned into furniture and used, Atmadharma or Santha Dharma or Sathyadharma has to be shaped into Grihasthadharma, Vanaprasthadharma, Varnadharma, Stridharma, Purushadharma etc. The stuff is the same in all; the substance is identical, in every separate form. How can the substance be used up? It can only be transmuted and transformed and the various modifications named differently when used for different purposes. The Atmadharma can be viewed piecemeal and compartmentalised for different purposes, as the wood is hewn and sawn and joined, and arranged and rearranged, but, it is Atmadharma nevertheless. So long as the different systems of Dharma are derived from that "Wood", there is no harm; remember however that the furniture can never be regrouped into the original tree! Apply that Atmadharma in the fields of worldly activity but do no call the worldly Dharmas, Atmadharma! That will be playing false to the Ideal, the Absolute.

Dharma is the moral path; the moral path is the Light; the Light is Ananda. Dharma is characterised by holiness, peace, truth and fortitude. Dharma is Yoga, Union, Merger; it is Sathya. Its attributes are justice, sense-control, sense of honour, love, dignity, goodness, meditation, sympathy, non-violence; such is Dharma that persists through the ages. It leads one on to Universal Love and Unity. It is the highest Discipline and the most profitable. All this 'unfoldment' began with Dharma; all this is stabilised by Sathya; Sathya is inseparable from Dharma. Sathya is the law of the Universe, which makes the sun and the moon revolve in their orbits. Dharma is the Vedas and the Mantras, the Jnana they convey. Dharma is the course, the path, the law. Wherever there is adherence to morality, there one can see Sathya-dharma in action. In the Bhagavatha too, it is said, "where there is Dharma, there is Krishna; where there are both Dharma and Krishna together, there is Victory". Dharma is the very embodiment of the Lord; since the world itself is the body of the Lord, the world is but another name for the Moral Order; no one can deny it now or ever.

The Vedantha, the Adhyatmic Sastras, Dharma - all invite man to live and act as Bhagavan, and not as bondsman. Then, all acts become Dharmakarma and not Kamyakarma (acts done with intent to gain the fruits thereof). The shackles of bondage cannot be avoided by a mere change of the type of activity. They can be avoided only by changing the point of view from the Deha to the Deva, from the Created to the Creator. The moral qualities also will be rendered stronger, thereby. Some persons hold the opinion that being employed is bondage, while sitting at home without any specific work is freedom! This is a sign of want of intelligence. When employed in a job, one has to obey the superior officer. But, can one escape the demands and compulsions of relations even while at home? Well, even when one is amidst friends only, can he avoid the necessity of acting according to their fancy? Can one be free at least from the need to take care of one's own body and cater to one's own comfort? How then can man feel free, while in the cage of bondage? All life is a prison, whatever the difference between one type of sentence and another. It is so, as long as the attitude of identifying the Self with the body is there.

That is why once Sankara said, "the egoism based on the body is what is meant by Naraka or Hell". Egoism of this kind is just another form of the contra-Divine attitude. Who can remove all the thorns and pebbles from the face of the earth? The only way to avoid them is to move about with footwear. So too, with the Vedanthadarsana or Philosophy of Vedantha. With the vision fixed on Sathya or the Reality, with full faith in the Brahmam which is your own essential nature, you can by-pass the need to transform the external world to suit your ideal of happiness and Sathyadharma can be attained. He who tramples down egoism and declares with conviction thus: "I am not the bondsman of this body, which is the repository of all types of servitude; the body is my bondsman. I am the master and the manipulator of everything, I am the embodiment of freedom", is already liberated. All codes of duties must help in this process of the destruction of the ego; they should not foster it and make it grow wild. That is the road to freedom. If a person, finding life with the son miserable, goes to the daughter and lives in her house, that is not winning freedom! That's only a way of feeding the ego. This search for sensual happiness cannot be elevated into "Dharma".

After all, what is a home for? For the enjoyment of the bliss derived from the contemplation of the Lord, for getting the opportunity to meditate on the Lord undisturbed. All the rest can be ignored, but not these. The True Dharma of the individual is to taste the bliss of merging with the Absolute, and attain true Liberation. A person who has reached that stage can never be bound, even if he is put in the grimmest of prisons; on the other hand, for a person who is the slave of the body, even a blade of grass can become an instrument of death. The true Dharma is to be immersed in the Atmic Bliss, the Inner Vision, the steady faith in the identity of one's real nature with the Absolute, and the realisation that all is Brahmam; these four are the authentic Dharma. In this physical existence as particular individuals, these four are named for the convenience of practice (but yet saturated with the Inner Dharma of Atmic Reality) Sathya, Santham, Prema and Ahimsa, so that particularised individuals who are only personifications of that Absolute can follow them in daily life. The mode of pursuit of Dharma, now as in the past, is to adhere to these high principles in every act and thought. The Sathya, Santham, Ahimsa and Prema of today are but the Unintermittent immersion in the Atma, the Vision fixed on the Inner Truth, the Contemplation of One's Real Nature and the Knowledge that all is Brahmam, the one and the only. These, the Fundamental and the Derived, must be co-ordinated and harmonised. Then only can it be termed Atmadharma. 

It does not matter what your activity is, or what name and form you have chosen. A chain is a chain whatever the material it binds, whether it is iron or gold, is it not? So too, whether the work is of this type or that, so long as the Atma Dharma is the base, and Atmathathwa the root, it is Dharma beyond doubt. Such work will bless one with the fruit of Santhi. When the waves of egoist fear or greed drive one forward, either into the privacy of the home, or the loneliness of the forest, or to any other refuge, it is impossible to escape suffering. The cobra does not cease to be a cobra, when it lies coiled. Then too, it is cobra nevertheless. In daily practice, when acts are motivated by the basic Principle of the reality of the Atma, every act becomes stamped with the seal of Dharma. But when acts are motivated by convenience and selfish interest, the Dharma becomes pseudo Dharma. It is a variety of bondage, however attractive it may be. Like prisoners in a jail pushed in a single file by warders, either to the court of trial or the dining barracks, the prompting of the senses pushes the bondsman forward either to a place of sorrow or to a place of relief.

Why, even the feeling, "That is a friend" or "This is an enemy" is an error. This delusion has to be given up. The Lord, the embodiment of Prema, is the Only Constant Friend and Relative, Companion, Guide and Protector. Know this and live in that knowledge. This is Dharma built on the bedrock of Understanding, that is Life built on the bedrock of Dharma. Ignoring this fundamental basis, when attention is concentrated on external polish, the goal moves beyond reach. Attachment to the world can be destroyed only by attachment to the Lord. Why complain that the ground cannot be seen, when what you have been doing all the while is to fix your gaze on the sky? Watch the ground and look at the sheet of water that reflects the sky, - then you can see, at the same time, the sky above and the earth below. So too, if you must adhere to Sathyadharma (which after all is the practice of the Immanent Atmic Principle) you must see, in every act the reflection of the Glory of the Atma; then, attachment to the Lord will transmute the attachment to the world into a pure offering. The goal should not be altered or lowered; that is to say, the essentials should be kept intact. Dharma does not depend on the various names and forms that its application entails; they are not so basic; it depends more on the motives and the feelings that direct it and canalise it. 

Dharma Vahini, chapter II
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

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.

In all worldly activities, you should be careful not to offend propriety, or the canons of good nature; you should not play false to the promptings of the Inner Voice, you should be prepared at all times to respect the appropriate dictates of conscience; you should watch your steps to see whether you are in some one else's way; you must be ever vigilant to discover the Truth, behind all this scintillating variety. This is the entire Duty of Man, your Dharma. The blazing fire of Jnana, which convinces you that all this is Brahman (Sarvam khalvidam Brahmam) will consume into ashes all traces of your egoism, and worldly attachment. You must become intoxicated with the nectar of Union with Brahmam; that is the ultimate goal of Dharma, and of Karma inspired by Dharma.

"Sacrifice ajnana and ahamkara at the altar of Jnana, and install Dharma therein"; this is the message of the Veda. Every single unselfish act, which prepares the ground for the merging of the Soul with the Over-Soul, which broadens the vision towards the basic Brahmam immanent everywhere, is a Dharmic act. Each such act is a tiny stream that swells the river of holiness rushing towards the sea of Brahmajnana. Your acts and activities are all rituals in the worship of the Paramathma that pervades the Universe. Whatever is done in an attitude of dedication and surrender is a component of the Dharma, which leads to Realisation. The strategy of the Bharathiya way of life is directed towards the sanctification of every moment and every word, thought and deed, into a step towards the realisation. You have to understand ancient Dharmakarmas by entering into their symbolic meaning. The spiritual field has many a technical term, with its own special connotation. These have to be clearly understood, so that you can grasp correctly the teaching of the Sastras. Let us take an example: People used to celebrate Yajnas in ancient times; and they sacrificed Pasus or animals in these Yajnas. But, the animal is only a symbol. It was not the dumb creature that had to be cut to pieces. The animal leads a life of sacrifice, without man completing its career at the sacrificial pole! The animal that has to be disemboweled and offered is different; in the spiritual vocabulary, animal means "the body-consciousness", "the I-consciousness"; and it is this that has to be slaughtered. The Lord is known as Pasupathi or Govinda; Pasupathi means the Lord of all Jivas, Pasu meaning Jiva; Govinda means the Guardian of Cows or Jivas, "Go" meaning Jiva. The tending of cows is a symbolic leela of Krishna to indicate His Mission of tending Jivas. The Sastras have profound inner meanings. The aim of Dharma is to make the Jiva give up the attachment to external nature and the illusion that it causes and to make it realise its Reality or rather, un-realise what it has now taken as real, so that it may stand revealed in its genuine identity.

These meanings must be learnt by young and old. Take for instance, the Siva Temple. Right in front of the Idol of Shiva we have the image of Nandi, the Bull. You are told that the Sacred Bull is the vehicle or Vahana of Shiva and, that is the reason for its being there. But, really speaking the Bull or the Pasu represents Jiva while the Lingam is the symbol of Shiva. "No one should pass between the Bull and the Lingam, the Jiva and the Shiva", it is said; for they are to merge in one. Shiva has to be seen through the two horns of Nandi, they say. People when asked the reason for this procedure reply, "Well, it is holier than other methods of viewing the Lingam". But the inner meaning is, "You must see the Shiva in Jiva" - Pasu and Pasupathi are one: Nandi and Iswara become Nandiswara. Both are only two ways of referring to the same entity. When in bondage, it is Nandi; it is Iswara, when the bound becomes free and Nandiswara is achieved; it is worshipped and is entitled to be so honoured. When the Pasu is offered to the Pasupathi, and its separate identity is cast away, that is the true Yajna. The significance has now been forgotten. Today, these symbolic acts have changed beyond recognition. The practices of today and the principles of yesterday are far apart. Even the smallest detail of secular life has to be inspired by the higher ideal of spiritual fulfillment. Then, even simple folk can be led step by step towards the goal. When you do not discriminate the process and the purpose of every act, but still go on doing it, it becomes a funny fossilised version. Once, even Prahlada said, "Since it is difficult to destroy egoism, man finds it easy to destroy this dumb animal as a substitute. Animal sacrifice is the manifestation of Thamoguna; it is the path of bondage. The sacrifice of the animal of egoism is the Sathwic Yajna, in the Godward path of Liberation." Thus the Paramaartha of those ancient days is turned into Paaramaartha of these days! (Paramaartha means the highest goal; Paaramaartha means the fool's goal). Thus, every one of the ancient practices, once full of meaning, has grown wild beyond recognition. Branches have shot out in various directions. It is not now possible to pluck the tree by the roots and plant a new one. So, the existing tree has to be trimmed and trained to grow straight. The highest goal has to be constantly remembered, and not diluted into the lowest.

Dharma Vahini, chapter 1

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

What is meant by Dharma? What is the essence of Dharma? Can Man, common man, lead a happy life and survive if he sticks to Dharma? These doubts confuse the mind of man naturally in the course of his life. Solving them is necessary, even urgent.

As soon as the word Dharma is mentioned, the ordinary man takes it to mean: The giving of alms, feeding and providing lodging to pilgrims etc., the adherence to one's traditional profession or craft, law-abiding nature, the discrimination between right and wrong, the pursuit of one's innate nature or the freaks of one's own mind, the fruition of one's fondest desires, and so on. Of course, it is a long, long time since the spotless countenance of Dharma has been tarnished beyond recognition. Beautiful fields and groves run wild with neglect and soon become unrecognisable bushland and thorny jungle; fine trees are hewn by greedy men and the shape of the landscape is changed. With the passage of time, people get accustomed to the new state of things and they do not notice the transformation, the decline. This has happened to Dharma also. Every man has to acquaint himself with the outlines of Dharma, expounded in the Vedas and the Sastras and the Puranas. Misunderstood by incompetent intelligence, unbridled emotion and impure reasoning, they have been grossly diluted and their glory has suffered grievously. Just as the rain drops from the clear blue sky get coloured and contaminated when they fall on the soil, the unsullied message of the ancient Rishis, the example of their shining deeds, the bright untarnished urges behind their actions are all turned into ugly caricatures of the original grandeur, by uncultured interpreters and scholars.

Books written for children contain illustrations to clarify the text; but they spend their time with the pictures, forgetting what they are intended to make clear; in the same way, the unwary and the uneducated mistake the rituals, designed to illustrate the grand truths, as profoundly real in themselves; they ignore the truth which they were meant to elucidate. Travelers moving along the road rest for a while in wayside shelters but during their stay, they damage by neglect or misuse the very structure that gave them rest. So, too, the dull and the perverse alter the very face of Vedic morality and deceive the world into believing that their handiwork is what the Vedas teach!

When such mauling of Dharma took place, when the face of Dharma suffered disfigurement at the hands of the enemies of God, the Lord responded to the call of the gods and the godly and saved the world from ruin, by restoring Right and Truth in the field of Dharma and of Karma, i.e., in both Ideal and Practice.

Now, who can cure the present blindness? Man has to slay the six-fold beast of Arishadvarga, leading him on to disaster through the pulls of Lust, Anger, Greed, Delusion, Pride and Hate. Thus, only can Dharma be restored. The Lord was referred to as Dharma by the Vedas and as Vijnana by Buddha.

For, in those days, no one liked the word "Veda", as in the times of the Asura called Somaka, when those who followed the Vedas desisted from calling them "Veda". While in mortal dread such behaviour is passable. Yet the Buddha was full of reverence for the Vedas; he was ever infused with God. The Buddha is often spoken of as an atheist, a Nasthika! Well, if the Buddha is a Nasthika, who then is the Asthika, the theist? The entire life of the Buddha is a saga of Dharma. Sankara is criticised by some people as opposed to the path of Dharma and Karma. But Sankara opposed only the Dharma and Karma which have fulfillment of Desire in view. He was indeed the Great Teacher who taught the path of Dharma and Karma, of endeavour impelled by the understanding of the basic Truth.