Dharma protects those who protect Dharma

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Dharma protects those who protect Dharma

The word dharma is derived from the root, dhr, meaning ‘wear’. Dharma is that which is worn. Dharmaraja said: “Whoever protects dharma will in turn be protected by dharmaâ€.

Dharma is the foundation for the welfare of humanity; it is the truth that is stable for all time. The man who does not follow dharma is a burden on earth. All the wealth he may accumulate will not accompany him when he leaves the world. It is more important to earn the grace of God than earn all the wealth in the world.

In all worldly activities, you should be careful not to wound propriety, or the canons of good nature... 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 someone else’s way; you must be ever vigilant to discover the Truth behind all this scintillating variety. That is your dharma.

There isn’t one dharma for Indians and another for westerners. Dharma is universal. There is a test that may be applied to any action and you may thereby determine if it is according to dharma. Let not that which you do, harm or injure another. This flows from the recognition that the light, which is God, is the same in every form and if you injure another you are injuring that same light that is yourself.

There are five types of dharma or duties: Kula dharma or duties relating to one’s occupational group, desa dharma or duty to the nation, matha dharma or duty pertaining to one’s religion, gana dharma or duties relating to society and aapad dharma, one’s duties when faced with danger.

All these five types of duties are related to one’s life in the phenomenal world and are not concerned with the Supreme Reality. All these duties have penalties for their violation. Without these penalties organised life is impossible.

Dharma protects those who protect dharma. The true place of dharma is the heart and what emanates from the heart as a pure idea when translated into action is dharma. Each one has to do the duty that has come upon him, with responsibility, to the best of his ability. There should be complete coordination between what one feels, says and does. Work is the best form of worship.

If you begin to regard duty as God, the ego will disappear. You will acquire a sense of oneness and unity of all life; in other words, you will experience divinity in everything. Do your duty with devotion.

Discharge your duties as intelligently and as devotedly as you can; but carry out your duties as if they are acts of worship offered to God, leaving the fruit of those acts to His will, His Compassion. Do not be affected when the results you anticipate are not produced; leave it to Him. He gave you time, space, cause, material, idea, skill, chance and fortune; you did but little of your own. So, why should you feel as if you are the doer? Do your duty as a sincere sadhana.

Whatever you do you must regard it as a duty done without any motive of self-interest or selfish gain. Through desire-filled actions we take birth, through desire-less actions — anaasakti karmas — we can attain freedom from rebirth.

Just do the work. Not for your employers, but for God. Everyone must become a worker, a hard worker, a sincere worker and an enthusiastic worker: Karmajeevi, a karmayogi. Karmayoga is far superior to karmasanyasa.

(Discourse: Sri Sathya Sai Baba)