Dharma Vahini - Post 33

Dear All,

Swami explains the 4 Varnas /castes with the uniqueness and importance of each one of them in maintaining peace, harmony and prosperity in community in the last chapter of Dharma Vahini.

Swami writes,

BRAHMIN

Brahmins are known by their significant traits: knowledge

(vidya), virtue, action of the most exalted and beneficial kind, and the spread of virtue by example. 

One who promotes these and cultivates these and develops these is a brahmin, whoever one is. That is the qualification and the authority exercisable by the brahmin. 

Only the highly learned person and the person who conducts himself as befits that learning can deserve the status. Earning these qualifications is the effort to be made by those eager to justify that position.

KSHATRIYA

Now for the signs of protectors (kshatriyas). They are

efficient in all undertakings, have heroism, courage, adventure, and an eagerness to punish the wicked and protect the virtuous. 

Those endowed with such qualities are entitled to the status of warrior-hood. They have to take up all tasks with that attitude and establish at home worthy rules for all.

VAISYAS

Next the business people (vaisyas). They have to try to make the currents of commerce flow smooth and fast, to forge communication links that tie the nations into one commonwealth and make wealth multiply in the world. That is their task. 

They must ensure that the concord between peoples is unbroken and undiminished. They have to aspire for “the fame of great deeds and noble achievements” and “the splendour of having helped in the spread of education and health by the erection of schools, hospitals, and the like”. They must devote their wealth to the promotion of all worthy causes. By this means, virtue and righteousness are fostered.

SUDRAS

Now for the laborers (sudras) and their ideal characteristics: They have to produce and gather things of value, not deviating from the path of dharma. 

Always earnest to realize the objects of human existence and always striving for the same, they must intelligently store and protect things produced and try to produce more and more, for the common benefit. 

The things thus collected have to be liberally utilized for the spread of genuine knowledge (vidya) and for the sustenance and support of the virtuous.

In this way, by the cooperative effort of these four types of human endeavour, wealth will become much and manifold and mankind will be rendered happy. 

The four castes (varnas) have to feel that the social order has been designed with the overall aim of maintaining worldly dharma (loka-dharma).

If each caste adheres to its duties, the welfare of the world will doubtless be assured; besides, each will be able to win what is even more important, the bliss of the Atma. 

On the other hand, if all feel that there is but one caste, one code of duties, and one set of rules for all, the welfare and security of the world will be endangered.

If all enter the field of trade, who will purchase and consume the goods offered? If all start teaching, who will learn and practice? If all command, who will obey? If all produce and grow, who will seek the products of their toil?

It is to create the diversity that will contribute to unity, through the practice of truth and dharma in every individual and social act, that the Lord has ordained the way of living according to the duty of caste (varna-dharma).

Infuse every profession and occupation with inner morality, with constant attachment to truth, with the unperturbed equanimity of fortitude; then, follow the duties of the caste (varna) with its prescribed professions —that is the summum bonum, the supreme blessing. 

If you fail to do this, your lot will be misery and chronic poverty. The choice is between the first, the Sri Rama saviour (raksha), and the second, the worldly punishment (lokasiksha) of distress (dhurbhiksha). Your saviour from the punishment is to learn dharma (dharma-sikshana)! 

Love.

Dharma Vahini - Post 32

Dear All,

In the concluding chapter, Swami deals with pre-requisites of following a dharmic path and certain qualities / attributes necessary for a dharmic person.

Swami gives 3 stages in pursuit of Dharma

Three stages to knowledge of dharma

“The knowledge of dharma is reached in three stages:

(1) You must receive training under wise people (vidwans), who are also imbued with dharma.

(2) You must aspire to attain self-purification (Atmasuddhi) and truth (sathya).

(3) You must realize the value of knowledge of the Vedas (Veda-vidya), the voice of God (Parameswara).

When these three are completed, then one understands the truth and how that truth is to be separated from untruth. This

enquiry into truth has to be done in amity and cooperation; all must be equally eager to discover it for the benefit of all. 

Everyone’s opinion must be tested on the touchstone of dharma, of universal good (sarva-lokahitha). The principles that pass this test have to be specially kept apart, used and spread in the world for the advancement of human welfare. By this means, all will develop joy and happiness in equal measure.”

“All are the same (samithih samaani)”, says the scripture. All have the same claim for spiritual wisdom (jnana) and for the means of attaining it, like education. Therefore, all must do noble and pure deeds.”

Swami continues,

The discipline of truth (sathya)

"If you are careless about the discipline of truth, every duty laid on you by dharma and every action prompted by dharma will hang heavy as a burden. Search for the reality behind all these phenomena and that search will make all dharmic actions light and pleasant. 

The Lord has shaped people so that they are inclined toward God and is delighted at the expansion of their vision and happy when they are moral and virtuous. So, people must serve their best interests by adhering to their basic nature, by concentrating on Brahman, by cultivating truth, and by practicing dharma.

Truth has to be sought and tested by all the canons of reasoning. The discipline consists of:

1. The heroism to observe dharma rigorously (ojas).
   
2. Fearless self-control (tejas).
    
3. The discarding of all feelings of joy or sorrow at the ups and downs of life, with equanimity.
    
4. Having unshakable faith in truth and dharma (sahana).
    
5. Mental and physical health of the most excellent kind, earned by discipline and celibacy (bala).
    
6. The desire and ability to speak sweetly and straight, won by the practice of truth and love.
   
7. Withdrawal of the five senses of wisdom (jnanendriyas) and the five senses of action (karmendriyas) from vice and sin and the sublimation of all the senses for the service of truth (indriya-moha).
    
8. The winning of the overlordship of all the worlds by the self-won domination of the inner world.
    
9. The destruction of one’s prejudices and the pursuit of truth at all times (dharma).

The prayer one has to make is, “May all this be conferred on me” as found in the “Chamaka hymn”.

Dharma brings good to all; it confers bliss (ananda) here and hereafter. It is essential that all humanity today see the glory of this universal dharma. 

Love.

Dharma Vahini - Post 31

Dear Readers,

Continuing on the puranic age, Swami writes,

"Once, Krishna told Uddhava thus: “Austerity, wisdom, renunciation (tapas, jnana, vairagya),  yoga (communion), dharma, vow-keeping ritual (vratha), pilgrimage — the merit acquired by these is acquired by My devotees with even greater ease." Realize how great true devotion is! 

By it means, an outcast can excel even a brahmin! A

devotion-less brahmin is inferior to an outcast endowed with devotion. This is elaborated in the Puranas. That which is described in the Vedas as simply, “Not this, not this (nethi, nethi)”, that which is declared as “beyond the reach of the words, far out of the grasp of the mind”, that which is unreachable by the senses, the mind, or the intellect — such an entity is capable of being felt and experienced by those immersed in meditation. Devotion brings it into the consciousness easily and fills the devotee with bliss.

First, 

·       aspirants have to practice the spiritual discipline related to the with-qualities aspect of God;  

·       this will endow them with concentration and, 

·       later, according to the law of procedure from the gross to the subtle, they can merge their minds in the quality-less Brahman itself. 

The mirage leads the thirsty person far away from the tank; the person then turns away and returns to the place where water is available; reaching the tank, the person becomes competent to drink and slake the thirst (sthula-souram-bhika-anyaya). 

So too, aspirants after liberation (moksha) get the desire for meditation and worship of the formless Supreme (nirgunopaasana); the Lord, who is attached to the devotees, takes up the forms that the aspirants and great souls seek. Out of His bounty, He grants all four goals of human life (purushaarthas). "

Author's note:

As a prelude, as though, to the aspect of Devotion and how Swami has described that a sadhaka can evolve through devotion to meditation on the formless Brahman, Swami willed and the author has already posted on " From Form to Formless", only a few days before. You may read to align that post with Swami's words in today's post easily.

Love.