We always hear about the law of nature OR law of Dharma OR path of Dhamma.
Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitaha (धर्मो रक्षति रक्षित:) - This is a common phrase. If you protect Dharma, Dharma protects you! Its more appropriate to say "If you follow Dharma, then framework of Dharma protects you!". Law of Nature or Dharma means the eternal universal framework that acts as a moral binding force on every human being through their minds. It helps the mind distinguish what is right and what is wrong. Dharma is the path of righteousness and as you develop good habits, you are rewarded with mental purity and clarity. Hence your mind is calm and peaceful which is its default nature.
As you deviate from the path of Dharma, you are punished with mental impurity (cravings, aversions leading to negative emotions like anger, helplessness, fear, depression, anxiety, etc.). This ultimately manifests as physical diseases.
If you want to practically experience this, do go to the 10 day vipassana course (dhamma.org). It's a tough meditation course.
All 10 days, you will be asked to follow the 5 precepts to help develop good habits which are:
1) No killing (Peace)
2) No stealing (Earn your needs)
3) No sexual misconducts (Be a responsible family head)
4) No Lying (Be truthful)
5) No Intoxicants (Eat and drink nutritious food)
These are called Shiela (good habits) which are necessary but not sufficient in the path of Dhamma (i.e. to attain Nirvana). The other necessary things that complete the path is Samadhi (i.e. control of mind to remove impurities and to express your default nature like love, compassion, gratitude etc.) and finally Panya (i.e. wisdom to apply theory to practice and gain confidence in the path and tools like Anapaana/Vipassana meditations that make you aware and equanimous).
In Hinduism also, these are the same concepts expressed in slightly different ways. In the ISKCON way (International society for Krishna consciousness) which follows the Gaudiya Vaishnavism tradition, the tenets are the same.
To develop it, you are asked to chant "Hare Krishna, Hare Rama" for 2.5 hours a day which purifies your mind and helps gain control of the mind. Through Bhakti/devotion, you realize that your body and mind are not eternal, neither are they all powerful. Hence, you accept Krishna as the supreme energy, the Bhagavan, the Paramatma, the Brahman and surrender to him. You sing and dance in his praise for 'His' entertainment and hence you are not developing craving. Similarly, when tough times come, you surrender to the God and accept the difficult situation and face it as the consequences of your own past Karma (bad deeds).
Another example is the Patanjali 8 fold path – Ashtanga Yoga Sutra which teaches the same tenets or good habits as a necessary pre requisite in the path of Dharma and spirituality.
1) Yama - Dos and Don'ts of life to develop good habits – 5 Yamas – Ahimsa or non-violence, Satya – Truthfulness, Asteya – Non stealing, Aparigraha – Non greed, Brahmacharya – moderation of the senses.
2) Niyama – Lifestyle observances - Saucha - Purity, Santosha – Contentment, Tapas – Right efforts, Svadhyaya – self-study, Ishvara Pranidhana – Dedication to the highest.
3) Asana – Yoga postures for physical health.
4) Pranayama – Breath control
5) Pratyahara – Withdrawal from sensual objects – Remember the life devoid of passions - That’s achieved by withdrawal from sense objects
6) Dharana - Concentration
7) Dhyana - Meditation
8) Samadhi – Here, Samadhi is different from the Dhamma Samadhi – Here, it means the liberated state.
(Details: https://www.kamalaya.com/yoga-sutras/, https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/philosophy/yoga-sutras/path-happiness/)
As can be seen, the first two of the Yoga sutra heavily emphasizes on developing good habits devoid of passions.
Coming back to the law of Nature/Dharma, understand that it’s the framework that is always present (eternal) and universally valid (i.e. applies to every human being).
You get rewarded if you follow alignment to nature or follow the laws of Dharma.
For example, if you thank someone (gratitude) without Ahankara (ego), for that point of time, you are mentally peaceful.
Similarly, if you help a stranger without any expectations, say you provide directions to a stranger on the street, then you are mentally peaceful.
If you even think of doing good, for example, you think of helping someone in need without any returns, you think of giving service for your country, or you think of helping your partner in household activities, those also help bring mental clarity and peace.
You get punished if you do not follow the laws of Dharma.
Understand that everything starts with the thought in mind and hence, a wrong thought will lead to wrong words or actions. Hence, we should always be aware of ourselves and purify the mind.
One more clarification is that the rights and wrongs are universal, but can be customized to some particular situations as exceptions. Intentions are the most important here – Evil intentions brings mental impurity which leads to cravings/aversions and hence negative emotions which manifests as various physical diseases. Such a person lives constantly in fear, anxiety, etc. and may die an untimely death. The significant cravings/aversions will get attached to the next birth and hence the child will inherit these from the previous birth. Thus it will keep affecting the particular soul's present body and mind (if you may call it that way) birth after birth till the mind is purified of these cravings/aversions.
Rights and Wrongs/ Goods and Bads – Universal applicability.
Let's first understand that there could be neutral thoughts, words and actions.
A lot of our day to day activities come under this neutral bucket. So, these do not contribute to our good or bad deeds (These are called Neutral Karma).
We should try to increase neutral activities as much as possible to attain the final goal of Nirvana/Moksha.
But, life is such that we will eventually land up in a situation where we have to decide if some activities are good or bad. We should try to think, speak and do good without expectations devoid of passions (which then becomes neutral karma).
For example, donating to a particular cause (i.e. sharing something you have in excess) without any expectations of returns is a good activity that produces no karmic bondages.
The same donation done with some expectations of future returns is also good, but it will lead to Good Karmic balance in your Karmic account and hence, you will have opportunities in this birth or next to enjoy the fruits of this till the account becomes nil.
Donating to a wrong cause knowingly (for example, you are giving stale food but wrapped in a good cover just to inflate your ego or to market it to the society) is 'wrong' and it will add bad karmic balance to your karmic account. You will invariably suffer the punishments either in this life or next lives.
One important clarification is that while Karma will take its own time for fruition, the Sankharas of craving and aversion are immediately and gradually being built up in your sub conscious mind. This itself will lead to negative feelings and emotions and keep you suffering in fear, anger, irritability, anxiety, depression etc. So, at the mental level, the suffering starts instantaneously. Karma is just the physical manifestation that occurs in your personal life – say your physical health, economic situation, etc. Your physical body, economic situation etc. are resilient and hence, it may not immediately reflect your wrong doings. But, the seeds sowed in your sub consciousness will keep growing if you feed it and eventually explode. Only by constant awareness and following the good habits and passionless life, can you make your mind pure. This is the biggest learning you should take by reading this blog as you may be knowing about Karma etc., but you may not have realized that the evil seeds you are sowing and watering eventually will destroy your mental and physical peace and condition.
Intention is important whether it was meant for good or bad, not the words or actions.
For example, both a dacoit and a doctor will use a knife.
Dacoit is using the same with negative intentions and doctor for saving lives.
So, dacoit will be sowing the seeds of negativity in his mind which will never allow him to live in peace.
Whereas the doctor may have in advertently made a mistake while trying to save a patient which may result in patient's death. But, it will not affect the mental clarity of the doctor.
Another example is money.
If a person works for earning money without craving about it, it will help.
If a person earns more than needed, he can donate without expectations or at least with some expectations leading to good karma.
If a person keeps on earning money just to satisfy his personal passions (1 bhk house, 2 bhk, 3 bhk, villa, palace, car, better car, even better car, investment in unethical industries like weapons industry, killing animals for food industry etc.), then the person will develop mental impurities as well as bad karma.
To summarize, Dharma is the framework, the moral binding force within each human's mind that is eternal and universal that helps the human to distinguish between rights and wrongs/good and bad and helps him lead a life of goodness ultimately resulting in Nirvana/Moksha.
How to follow the laws of Dharma is given below (repeat of the summary I mentioned in the introduction)
1) We should lead a life ideally without passions. Practically this means reduce your passions as they lead to Cravings and Aversions which make the mind impure and out of balance. You can do the same work without generating passions i.e without generating 'likes' and 'dislikes' and the Sankaras.
2) We should spend more and more time in good thoughts, good words and good actions. It's fine if we think of 1000 good thoughts that translates to 100 good words which may translate to one good action.
In the last section, let us see some examples of men who followed the Dharmic path.
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