Dharm(a)
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Contents |
What is dharm(a)?
The basics
Shardha Batra, February 15, 2021: The Times of India
Dharma Is Based On Loka Sangraha
Dharma is the cosmic law which holds things, people, families, society, nations, and the countless, disparate elements of the cosmos together as a cohesive, harmonious and meaningful whole.
When this mystical law is translated into motivations and actions, appropriate to a specific individual in a specific situation, it transcends personal desires and attachments and manifests as dharma in its aspect as duty.
The ‘Vedas’ expand the word ‘dharma’ to include the abstract truths of ‘Satyam’, ‘Brihad’ and ‘Ritam’.
Satyam is the essential truth of a situation, deeper and more complex than the surface appearance. It is a result of ‘buddhi’ penetrating the threadbare essence of a situation. Brihad means vast and all inclusive. It is a change of spectacles which enables integration of multiple warring facts into an all-sweeping eagle vision which joins visible and invisible dots.
Satyam and brihad when combined translate into ritam – righteous action. It is the warrior fighting the battle with soft skills of a psychotherapist. Ritam includes diagnosing feelings, wielding compassion and the art of relentless, disarming dialogue. Satyam, brihad and ritam are the outcome of ‘Prajna’ which is a synthesis of a clear impartial objectivity with sensitive subjectivity and the practised ability to discover out of the box solutions to intimidating deadlocks.
The deity in-charge of dharma is also Dharma. He is born from Brahma, married to the daughters of Daksha and father of Nara Narayana. Symbolically, Dharma is born to Brahma – the creative waking consciousness or mind. Dharma marrying Daksha Prajapati’s daughters is symbolic of Dharma being lord of all potential talents required to connect diverse individuals. Dharma is the father of Nara, jiva atman, and Narayana, Paramatman, making it the seed leading to the birth of the embodied soul as both man and the divine avatar in a combined mission to restore cosmic integrity. Dharma is the result of transcending the ego. Its foundation is the Vedic concept of yajna, sacrifice, and the lofty ideal of loka sangraha, collective well-being, which was given by Krishna to Arjuna at the critical juncture of the Mahabharata war. In the Bhagwad Gita 3:20, Krishna says, “O Arjuna, Janaka and others attained perfection by action. You should perform action with a view to loka sangraha – protecting and holding together of people.” This does not allude to a Karl Marx-like principle where the individual is subservient to a homogeneous collectivity. Loka sangraha is collective wellbeing based on being able to appreciate and honour individual differences. Never giving up on an individual irrespective of his uniquely different view, religion and approach; it unites people based on the universal divine spark in all.
In the Gita, 3:21, Krishna continues: “Whatever a great man does, other men also do. Whatever he sets up as a standard, that is emulated by the people.” The common man closely watches and emulates the ideals and trajectories of such a leader, drawing inspirations to sacrifice the lesser for the greater ideal of ‘i win, you win’.
Such a leader becomes an arrow in the hands of the divine archer, an instrument for not only uplifting and supporting the weak but also ushering in global harmony and peace.
The essence of dharma
The entire creation is governed by dharma and the Vedas, believed to be the very breath of the Supreme Brahman. The Lord abides by the truth of the Vedas and upholds the dharma they embody. His incarnations and His leela Vibhuti is merely for this purpose, pointed out Sri Kesava Dikshitar in a discourse.
The Itihasas and the Puranas show that dharma is endangered time and again when people tread the path of adharma. Desire for power, wealth, or kingdoms, and anger when one’s desires are thwarted are the chief reasons for swerving from righteousness and duty. There are many instances in the Mahabharata where dharma and its practices are analysed and debated.
During the period of exile, there are times when Bheema, Arjuna and Draupadi feel angry and impatient. Bheema would often question the value of virtue, since despite abiding by dharma they have been forced to face much misery. He would argue with Yudhishtira that use of force is necessary in their case to regain the kingdom. Draupadi too would often appeal to Yudhishtira to wreak vengeance on the Kauravas. But Yudhishtira would advise caution and patience.
The law of dharma is subtle and difficult to comprehend and cannot be made explicit downright, though it is intuitively felt within by each one in some way or other. It depends on many factors such as moral merit, conduct, goodwill, justice, context and milieu. Moreover, individual dharma is allied with that of the family, society, etc, in which one is placed. The ties cannot be broken or untied by human effort. Only by the grace of the Almighty, can one hope to get release from the innumerable ties that bind.
Whether it is joy or sorrow, virtuous living by doing one’s duty is the best course of action.
Dharm(a) is eternal
The Times of India Jan 11 2016
Acharya Mahapragya
Some changes are perceptible and others are smaller changes. A cloud moves a bit, the wind blows, the sun's rays get sharper, and then dark clouds fill the sky, it rains, it shines, it stands dark against twinkling stars and a bright moon. In a single day we see the sky changing so much.
Man too changes so many forms from morning to night ... now happy , now hopeful, now low, now depressed, now loud, now quiet, now overcome by emotion, now lost in thought and so on.If one could maintain a diary of every emotion, thought process, one diary would easily fill up.
Everything is constantly changing.Not just our moods and manner but look at fortunes Lakshmi as we call it.Fortune is now here, now somewhere else. Youth is ephemeral ... someone who was very beautiful and young once may be haggard and old today . Every thing about life is constantly changing; it is chanchal. What is nischal or eternal? Dharma is eternal. I will not try translating dharma; it is more than religion, it defines your being. Now if we ask which dharma, we get into a fix. And then if we start naming it as Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Islam, Christian, Jewish and so on, we will get stuck.
That which cannot be got from matter or from money , that is called dharma. That is also veetaragatha or detachment. In fact, veetaragatha is more than detachment. It is healthy disinterest in the material world, not shunning it. Veetaragatha cannot be bought. When this attitude of disinterest in the material world increases, attachments will reduce and we can start living truly . We will then not be measuring our world through desire.
Once, a couple, deeply into meditation and spiritual pursuits, was walking from village to village when the husband found a heap of gold coins and ornaments on the road. How did it come there, he wondered.He quickly threw some mud on it so that his wife, who was following at some distance, did not see it and get attracted to it.
The wife caught up with him and asked, “What is that heap?“ He mumbled something inaudible. “I know it is gold. Why do you hide it? It is you who has to evolve, not me.If you did not value it, you would not have covered it or feared that I would be tempted,“ said the wife.
So the first step towards veetaragatha is to know what to value and how much value to ascribe to what. How much value to ascribe to people, to material things and how to differentiate between them? Only the one who has the right attitude can pass by a heap of gems without being tempted. At this point we can venture to understand dharma. Once we know the value of consciousness, matter will cease to matter.
This understanding comes with an awakened chetna or consciousness.
An evolved philosopher said there are only three precious gems. They are water, grain and sweet speech. The first maintains life, the second sustains it and the third is essential to keep relationships. I wish to add a fourth: the breath. But for the breath, we would not be here to talk of values.
They make dharma which is nischal and leads you towards healthy disinterest in the material and towards purity of soul and therefore automatically towards nonviolence. Let us think along these lines to bring balance between consumption and restraint, between nomenclatures and true dharma.
The Whys And Wherefores Of Dharm(a)
Devdutt Pattanaik, The Whys And Wherefores Of Dharma. Nov 01 2016 : The Times of India
People have always remarked on how many words in Indian and European languages have a common root, suggesting their origin from an archaic Indo-European `Aryan' language. However, the word `dharma' does not fall in this list. It has exclusive Indic origins and usages.
The Republic of India uses the term `dharma' to mean religion, and so secularism is translated as dharmanirpeksha, but this meaning does not do justice to the word. Scholars repeatedly state that the word is not translatable in English. Words like law, righteousness, ethics, morality , are all found wanting.
The word has limited usage in the Vedic Samhita (about 63 times), hardly a few times in the Brahmanas, then it almost disappears in the Upanishads. It resurfaces with Buddhism, then explodes with the Dharmashastras, Ramayana and Mahabharata. Along the way , meaning shifts, too.
In the Rig Veda, it is used as something foundational, to ritual, to culture, to nature, to the cosmos itself, in lines similar to the use of the word `rta'. But we also find it being associated with kings, thus connecting it with governance. In the Shatapatha Brahmana, it is the Shatapatha Brahmana, it is associated with a space where there is water, hence prosperity , and an end of the ways of the jungle matsya nyaya.
But when the Buddha uses the word dhamma, he refers to the foundational principles of the world, and of life, as he saw it. Dhamma reveals the world as anicca, ephemeral; dukka, causing misery and anatta or unsubstanstial. Without knowledge of dhamma, the Buddhist monk could not hope for nirvana. Jainism uses the word dharma for the principle of movement, and adharma for stillness. As Buddhism spread, the word dharma starts reappearing in Vedic contexts with increasing frequency . It becomes less cosmic and ritual, and more social, referring to code of conduct, first for brahmins only , then for different communities varnaashrama-dharma giving rise to works known as Dharma-sutras, and Dharma-shastras. It is used in works of grammar, to speech that does not follow rules of grammar, and in Mimansaka as ritual that does not follow the prescribed process.
In the Valmiki Ramayana, composed around the same time, we find the word over 1,000 times, and the protagonist Rama is said to be the embodiment of dharma. In the Mahabharata, we find different arguments about what dharma actually means, and there are even points where artha, wealth, power, is seen as more important than dharma, even though Vyasa keeps raising his hand and saying that if dharma is upheld, artha and kama (pleasure) will follow. Here dharma is used in a more general sense of governance.
Archaeologists have found a 250 BCE Ashokan edict in Kandahar in Afghanistan, where the Greek word `eusebeia' is used as a translation for dharma. This word refers to the various social and religious traditions that keep the gods happy , which include public festivities, private rituals and reverential behavior between humans.
Perhaps the most practical meaning comes to us from Kautilya's Arthashastra which states that in the absence of kings, dharma collapses, and jungle law reigns supreme, suggesting that dharma is essentially humanity , which separates us from beasts. But there is always the risk of a king following adharma, and imposing jungle law in the kingdom for his own benefit.
