Chapter III

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.