The bhutan observer
March 2018
Truth behind Dharma and Design of Destiny
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Historically, Bhutan was divided into petty kingdoms ruled by dharma rajas known as the desis who were religious as well as political heads of the state. Like elsewhere in the world, they engaged in constant battles with the neighboring kingdoms. Dharma was used as a tool to enhance their petty expansionist interest let alone promote spiritual progress. The residue of the spiritual side has come down to us in the form of the so-called dharma we see today. Here is a great need to comprehend what the real Dharma implies in the present context of universality, concept and practice and see spirituality as something distinct from the cultural hangovers. I have taken insights from Swami Ananda Prabhu and Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to compile some of the ideas below with anticipation to broaden the horizon of the readers.
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There is a general tendency to equate religion with Dharma which is a serious mistake. Religions flourish with a belief system, an established leader, a defined code of conduct which comes in the form of a book or a set of teachings. In sharp contrast to this, Dharma encompasses much broader view of the entire human race not just the followers or believers. It does not demand your obedience nor does it propose belief to any god or a deity or a particular philosophy or scripture. While it can be perceived that religions came to this world undoubtedly with a motive for human well-being during different times in history, the dharma which is popularly known by the name Sanatana Dharma means it has neither beginning nor end. Here God is not the ultimate goal rather Mukti or Liberation is. It is said that there were thirty-three million gods and goddesses but that was when the population was so much and culturally everyone had the freedom to make their own deity or Ishta Devta loosely translated in English as demi-god. It is essentially a Godless culture because there was not a single God we were following. And all we seek is the divine. In a nutshell it can be clearly said that what we want is to know the truth and realize our true nature. Given that we must discard the false identity that we attach ourselves and realize our pure humanity as a stepping stone.
There has been a lot of emphasis on the issue that our destiny is designed somewhere up. It is extremely important to know that practically our destiny is in our own hands All our actions are a result of the tendencies of the karma. In other words, our destiny is determined by our own actions. For every action we take consciously or unconsciously, we are bound to enjoy or suffer the consequence of that action. It is therefore observed that 'You are the making. You are the doing'. Here everything is happening as cause and effect. Yogis spell out three stages of the same karma and bondage we suffer. First as soon as the child is born, the karma which the tender life accumulated in its previous birth becomes the Prarabda karma. This is the basis of the karma of the present life but at the same time he also accumulates sanchit karma side by side which is carried forward. The sanchit karma packs itself as agami karma at death and unfolds itself again as prarabda upon birth. This is how the karmic cycle works life after life. Hence, we need appropriate yoga to break this karma if we are to achieve Mukti or freedom from the bondage of karma.
What is Yoga? As generally understood yoga is not about twisting or bending your body nor about performing scores of bone-breaking physical exercises. That could be a very small part of the yoga. In a true sense yoga means union – union of the self with the supreme, the source of creation. It is essentially based on the fact that the self is longing to be one with the supreme and only that can satiate the human aspiration. The crux of the vedic knowledge, the highest observation probably made, the nectar of vedic wisdom is -Aham Brahmasmi . This literally means I am the spirit. You would only be parroting the Vedh if you do not grasp the essence of this mantra. We would not be expected to read all the 4 vedas. But for everyone's information, and as per my knowledge goes, there are 100,000 slokas in the vedh. 80,000 is dedicated to Prakriti, 16,000 to Shakti and 4,000 toPurush. Please remember only 4,000 talks about the purush tattwo or spiritual aspect. It is natural that most people would only be entangled in the karma kanda aspect of vedh not the Gyan kanda which is the nectar
Proof of truth is available only to those who sincerely seek and are humble enough to say I do not know. If you are already full, you won't be able to take in. Swami Prabhu Padha, the founding Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness [ISKON] in his book, Life Comes from Life states the so-called scientists sleeping in a dark room refuse to come out when someone tells them there is sunshine outside. They want proof of sunshine. You need to come out if you really want to see the proof or the sunshine. In another instance, once a guru gave a small test to his two aspiring devotees. He asked them to break a stick in a place where nobody sees them. The two of them returned after sometime and one of them said he broke the stick in a cave where there was not even sunlight. The other one humbly told the guru that 'Guruji, wherever I went I myself could see it.' The guru was very pleased with his answer and chose him to be his disciple. Both these illustrations point to self who is the witness to everything.
Those who only seek material well-being are surely in darkness but those who seek only spiritual progress are doubly in darkness. True self-realization involves integration of the physical with the spiritual. One needs to see the difference between knowledge and information. We gather information from various sources, but knowledge is the profoundness of learning that comes from deep within you. In an answer to a question, an anonymous philosopher said, 'To know thyself is both the beginning and end of education'. Let us delve into this observation and see for ourselves where education begins and where it ends. Let this be a food for thought for everybody.
There has been a lot of emphasis on the issue that our destiny is designed somewhere up. It is extremely important to know that practically our destiny is in our own hands All our actions are a result of the tendencies of the karma. In other words, our destiny is determined by our own actions. For every action we take consciously or unconsciously, we are bound to enjoy or suffer the consequence of that action. It is therefore observed that 'You are the making. You are the doing'. Here everything is happening as cause and effect. Yogis spell out three stages of the same karma and bondage we suffer. First as soon as the child is born, the karma which the tender life accumulated in its previous birth becomes the Prarabda karma. This is the basis of the karma of the present life but at the same time he also accumulates sanchit karma side by side which is carried forward. The sanchit karma packs itself as agami karma at death and unfolds itself again as prarabda upon birth. This is how the karmic cycle works life after life. Hence, we need appropriate yoga to break this karma if we are to achieve Mukti or freedom from the bondage of karma.
What is Yoga? As generally understood yoga is not about twisting or bending your body nor about performing scores of bone-breaking physical exercises. That could be a very small part of the yoga. In a true sense yoga means union – union of the self with the supreme, the source of creation. It is essentially based on the fact that the self is longing to be one with the supreme and only that can satiate the human aspiration. The crux of the vedic knowledge, the highest observation probably made, the nectar of vedic wisdom is -Aham Brahmasmi . This literally means I am the spirit. You would only be parroting the Vedh if you do not grasp the essence of this mantra. We would not be expected to read all the 4 vedas. But for everyone's information, and as per my knowledge goes, there are 100,000 slokas in the vedh. 80,000 is dedicated to Prakriti, 16,000 to Shakti and 4,000 toPurush. Please remember only 4,000 talks about the purush tattwo or spiritual aspect. It is natural that most people would only be entangled in the karma kanda aspect of vedh not the Gyan kanda which is the nectar
Proof of truth is available only to those who sincerely seek and are humble enough to say I do not know. If you are already full, you won't be able to take in. Swami Prabhu Padha, the founding Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness [ISKON] in his book, Life Comes from Life states the so-called scientists sleeping in a dark room refuse to come out when someone tells them there is sunshine outside. They want proof of sunshine. You need to come out if you really want to see the proof or the sunshine. In another instance, once a guru gave a small test to his two aspiring devotees. He asked them to break a stick in a place where nobody sees them. The two of them returned after sometime and one of them said he broke the stick in a cave where there was not even sunlight. The other one humbly told the guru that 'Guruji, wherever I went I myself could see it.' The guru was very pleased with his answer and chose him to be his disciple. Both these illustrations point to self who is the witness to everything.
Those who only seek material well-being are surely in darkness but those who seek only spiritual progress are doubly in darkness. True self-realization involves integration of the physical with the spiritual. One needs to see the difference between knowledge and information. We gather information from various sources, but knowledge is the profoundness of learning that comes from deep within you. In an answer to a question, an anonymous philosopher said, 'To know thyself is both the beginning and end of education'. Let us delve into this observation and see for ourselves where education begins and where it ends. Let this be a food for thought for everybody.
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- DILIP BISHWO, Iowa, USA
Contact the writer at: bishwod@bhutaniowa.org
Contact the writer at: bishwod@bhutaniowa.org
The article presented in this column is the personal opinion of the writer and doesn't represent the opinion of BCI or any other organizations what so ever. The BCI has only offered the medium to the writer for expressing his opinion through this website.
