Dharma and Duty-The Right Action at the Right Time _ A Role for Every One Part 03

[Guest guest]

Dharma and Duty-The Right Action at the Right Time - A Role for

Everyone Part 03

 

Our duties depend on our karmic inheritance, age, and position in life.

We have duties in the world and duties in spiritual practice. Some

duties are to ourselves; some are to others. For example, it may be

appropriate for young people to work and establish a place for

themselves in the world. It is not wrong to earn a living and possibly

gain wealth if we earn honestly and use wealth for the benefit of

others. In youth we have family and social responsibilites. However,

when we reach an advanced age we have the duty of detaching from the

world and fulfilling our spiritual search. Some of our duties are

based

on age; other relate to gender or position in life.

 

So, too, every profession, every stage of life, each sex, each period

of life as fixed by age - childhood, boyhood, adolescence, youth,

middle age, old age - has duties and obligations, which set the norm

and guide the individual to benefit himself and society.

 

Each of us must follow his or her own path. It is better to do our

own duty poorly than to perform another's duty well. The duties we

are called to perform may be determined by circumstances or factors

beyond our control. Our freedom to follow a vhosen course may be

limited due to our obligations. One individual may have freedom to

choose his or her own path, while another may be restricted to a

narrow range of opportunities. Each of us has personal duties and

opportunities resulting from our past actions. We may exercise

limited choice in determining what our program will be.

 

" Dharma is like a mother. One can choose a wife, but no one can

choose a mother. Dharma is in the same position as one's mother is.

We have no choice and we cannot transform dharma " Baba

 

Continued... Dharma and Duty-The Right Action at the Right Time -

Like What You Have to Do Part 04