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1.4.1 Dharma, 5.2 am

Today, I will speak upon the meaning of Dharma. You know, there are many meanings to the word Dharma. It is a very significant concept, but one that is often misunderstood. To do your Dharma is to realize your essential nature and express it in your life. To act in a Dharmic fashion is to act in a way which is in harmony with your essential nature and with the nature of all living beings. This is also very significant. So, you must realize your Dharma and you must act in a Dharmic fashion. If you do this, you will not harm others, you will not covet what belongs to others. You will follow Yama and Niyama because the essential nature of a human being is spiritual. The essential nature of a living being is love. So, if you are to realize your Dharma, you are to immerse yourself in the feeling of love.

This love can be of three types. In the first type, there is attachment to the object. In other words, the love is directional. It is focused upon a given object and it is dependent on a positive response from that upon which it is focused. There is the feeling "I love so and so" and the desire that "so and so will love me". That is the first type. In the second type of love, there is no desire to gain anything. "I love so and so because they are worthy of love and I have utmost desire to give them my heart". This love is very selfless. It is very pure but it is still attached to an object. In the third type of love, there is the feeling of love alone. There may be some object, but that object is not unilateral. "I love the God which is in every living being, in every particle of this universe, in my own self and in the one before me". The feeling of love is not only unconditional and pure but it is omni directional. This love is the love which should be cultivated because it is beyond the attachment to finite objects. It is directed to that which underlies the finite objects.

You see, in the first kind of love, there is desire for acquisition "I want so and so to love me, I want this from them, I want that from them so I will give my love". It is a kind of business deal. In the second kind of love, there is no business transaction. I love you because I care for you. I do not care if you care for me or you do not care for me, still I care for you". This is not a business type of love, it is an unconditional love, it is of a superior nature.

But in the third type of love, it is not only that you are capable of giving your love unconditionally but there is also awareness of what is the true object of your affection. There is no misconception involved. There may be great love for one personality or for one individual but love is not isolated to that person. "I love that one only, not anyone else". It is not like this, it is instead "I have come to know love itself". So, you see, it is not only to love another, but to come to know love itself. To love that which is the essence in every object, in every living being. That love is an awakened love, one that is pure. It is often called compassion. Do you know why it is called compassion? It is called compassion because it is unconditional. You do not want anything from anyone and there is also a diffuse quality. It is an expression of love which does not have a particular focus, but is available to all.

When this compassion is achieved, there is the feeling that all beings are great, all beings are the manifestation of the Infinite Divinity, and "I am loving all of them with all my heart. I have greatest care as to the welfare of the greatest being and of the most simple. I do not care if one is a king and wealthy, I will feel compassion. I will feel love and care for that one and also for the small and simple creature who has nothing, who is without shelter and without proper clothing. I will also care for that one. I make no differentiation between them because they are both the manifestation of Divinity in human form. Also the animal kingdom is also Divine. The little creatures in the forest are also the very manifestations of God. Their welfare is also important to me, I care also for each and every one of them. And even for the little spider on the wall, I have the same care as for the great king". This type of care, this type of love, this type of unconditional love is called compassion.

You know, when a spiritualist develops their meditation practice, when they develop their spiritual heart, compassion will grow stronger and stronger in them. Compassion should not be confused with sentimentality. To be a soft and spineless person is not to be compassionate. To cry about the suffering of this person or that creature and to feel sorry for them is not to be compassionate. Compassion is not a sentimentality, it is a much kinder thing than this. You see, you may think "I cannot stand to see the poor creature go hungry, so I will feed it and feed it and feed it. But is this compassionate? You make the creature dependent on you, it cannot survive for itself. You are feeding and feeding and then it must go in the forest and you must go away to another place and then it must starve because it has not learned to feed itself. Such an act, such a sentimental act, is an expression of sentimentality, not compassion.

A compassionate person will think "This animal must learn to care for itself and it will". The compassionate person will assist the animal to learn to do this. Though the creature may suffer in the learning, they will survive and they will grow stronger and that is a compassionate act, to help the creature thus.

So, compassionate acts are not simply sentimental. There is very deep love involved. To be able to act with great compassion requires another ability and that is viveka. There must be knowledge and discrimination otherwise compassion becomes very difficult to express. In order to be a compassionate being, to express the highest form of love, one must have the capacity to know what is for the welfare of another and what is not. To do this, one must know that which leads towards Divinity, that which assists living beings as opposed to that which binds them, which hampers them, which creates confusion and suffering and which brings them back into the throws of animal existence. You see, unless you can discriminate you will have a very difficult time being compassionate. So a part of compassion is discrimination. They are like two sides of the same coin. And what is discrimination based on? It is based on the ability to perceive what is real, what is unreal, what goes towards the Infinite and what goes away.

Now this ability is based on another and that is the ability to be honest with yourself, to take an honest look at what exists around you. Many people, you know, cannot do this. They think "I know this, I know that. I am so intelligent, I have studied so many years, I have so much knowledge". But, in fact, their knowledge is quite twisted. And why is this? Because they lack the capacity to be honest with themselves and therefore they lack the capacity to see with clear eyes. That is why the practice of Satya is very important in spiritual life, so that the vision becomes objective and the mental distortions and illusions become less. A person who can look honestly at themselves and at the world around them is a very rare gift in this world.

If a person learns this real honesty, this genuine honesty, then they will acquire the gift of Viveka. They will acquire the ability to perceive the essential nature of every living being around them. They will acquire the ability to know what leads towards God and what leads away. This is the gift of honesty. It is not so easily acquired and you know, if this is acquired then automatically there is the development of deep love. One leads to the other. Love leads to discrimination, discrimination leads to love. They are two sides of the same coin.

So, one who has compassion will have this Divine love and they will also have discrimination. Such a person is a gift to the world because they will stay established in their essential nature. They will walk the path of Dharma. They will have the capacity to walk the path of Dharma. To walk the path of Dharma, to truly do it, is not so simple. The term is thrown about but to actually walk this path requires a great deal of personal work to develop both compassion and discrimination. Then, one possessing these qualities, who acts in the world from this knowledge, may be considered a Dharmic individual.

Without compassion and discrimination how can you express your essential nature? Your essential nature will be hidden from you. Your essential nature is love itself, is it not? Your essential nature is Divine. Your essential nature cannot be perceived by you unless you have uncovered the illusions of the mind through the sword of discrimination and found the path to your own essence. When this has been done you will automatically know compassion. You will see you are no better and no worse than the simplest creature and you are no better and no worse than the highest and greatest lord of the land.

You will have a balanced mind and then, when these distortions of inferiority and superiority are stripped from you and your perception is clear and your heart is kind, you will automatically have equanimity of mind. Having equanimity of mind, an ability to discriminate between what is delusion and what is reality, and having deep love and compassion for all beings, you will automatically be a Dharmic individual. Do you see how it goes? One is related to the other, to the other. They all go hand in hand. So if you want proper development you must have all round development. You cannot simply develop one aspect and ignore the others. You must develop all around so that discrimination comes, love comes, equanimity comes, they all come together because they all fit together. You cannot truly have one without the other.

So you see, the very wise Yogis of the past, having realized this and having understood the pathways out of the delusions of the mind, have set the system of Yama and Niyama, the system of basic codes of behavior to be followed to develop the mind so that a clear and loving approach may be adopted over time. This approach of Yama and Niyama, this moral standard is not a kind of puritanical moral code that you must follow to be a good person and if you follow you will be better than someone else. It is not like this. This is a western thought of moral, puritanical values. This has nothing to do with such thinking. This Yama and Niyama is not about being a better person than someone else. It is about unwinding the fundamental bondage's, the fundamental delusions which pen the mind of an average person into the world of illusion. It is to break the fence which keeps you bound in illusion, in the pen of illusion, and free you so that you may know the open space of truth. Truth comes when discrimination is developed, when love is developed, when equanimity is developed. When actions are automatically Dharmic then, Satchitananda, truth, bliss, and consciousness comes into view.

So you see, you must follow the basic tenets of Yama and Niyama, not to become a moral person, better than so and so because you follow these tenets, but to open the door. To allow yourself to move out of the pen of delusion. To free yourself. You have been penned in by all of these mental confusions which are natural to the developing mind. You see, it is an evolutionary process. When one possessing life upon life of animal existence moves into a human body, at first the human mind, though it has all the potential of the Divine, will be animalistic in its tendencies. But, as time goes on, as the principles of Yama and Niyama are followed, whether they be called that or something else it does not matter, but once the road has been taken to free the mind from these delusions of animal existence and to awaken the awareness held in the more subtle sheaths of the mind, then the development of a true humanity, a true human life will begin.

Over time, the following of these principals will have a distinctive effect on the mind. The subtle sheaths of the mind will begin to vibrate, the sense of discrimination will come about, the heart will fill with love, not for objects. Not "I love you, so you will get me this, you will give me that". No, no, no. "I love you because you are a manifestation of love itself as I am also and I love you and I love all beings because all beings are the very expression of the Divine. They are the Infinite in manifest form and deep within themselves, though they do not know it, they are great beyond the description of words. So I must honor every living being."

This is the path of Dharma. And it is also the path of blessedness. They are one in the same.

If you would be Ananda Margi, it is this path you must follow. The path of blessedness. It is not an organization. Ananda Marga is the path of blessedness. It is open to all, it is the path of Dharma, it is open to everyone. I have come in this world so that this path may be known to living beings, so that they may walk it. I have not come to establish an organization. I have come for my mission. My mission is not an organization. It is the path of blessedness. It is to make the path of blessedness available to every living being on this planet. That is my mission.

So, some people have come to some confusion about the nature of my mission. They have confused the externals with the actuality. The mission itself is to create the opportunity for living beings to walk the path of blessedness, to lead a Dharmic life as we have just discussed. So, you please convey to others what is the nature of My mission lest they become confused.

You know, organization is a very helpful tool when one is attempting to implement such a monumental mission. It may be helpful to have a Sangha of individuals who have dedication to the mission and who will sacrifice their lives in dedication to see that this great mission be accomplished. They themselves must walk the path of blessedness as we have discussed and then developing the qualities and characteristics of a Dharmic person, they may bring others along the path also. Now, this development takes some time for most people, so before it can be done in actuality, it must be grasped, as best as possible, in the confused mind and then acted upon. Now, organization is important for this, but organization is not mission. They should not be confused nor should organization be place above mission. Mission is first, organization is a tool for implementation of mission. If organization is used for any other purpose, it becomes something else. Do you understand?

So, you dedicate yourself to the upliftment of all living beings, to leading a Dharmic life, to the path of blessedness, both personally and for all living beings. I think, now, I am finished for today.