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 dharma " .

 

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)