Miscellaneous - Religion   

A way of life

CHENNAI: One of the well-known verses of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Krishna’s declaration to Arjuna that “whenever righteousness (Dharma) is on the decline and unrighteousness is in the ascendant, I manifest Myself in a body.” This begs the question what Dharma is and why the Supreme Being should descend into the world to set it right. The term “Dharma” has a lot of ramifications. The way of life as laid down by the Vedas is circumscribed by Dharma which is the reason why the Vedic tradition is known as Sanatana Dharma. The Supreme Being is the ultimate Dharma and it is He who sustains the order (Rta) in creation.

In his discourse, Sengalipuram Sri B.Damodara Dikshitar said Dharma meant the underlying order in the universe and the way of life lived in harmony with the order in nature. In this broadest sense of the term everything—sentient and insentient—in nature abides by its Dharma, of which some will be general (Samanya) to its category and some unique (Visesha).

In the case of human beings, who are at the highest order of evolution, Dharma is more nuanced. The Vedic concept of Varnashrama Dharma envisages the realisation of every human being’s potential.

The rationale of Varna (division of society) is the difference in the inborn qualities (Guna namely Sattva, Rajas and Tamas) of each individual, which predispose him naturally to a certain type of conduct, and thus Varna is functional and not determined by birth. Hence the duties vary accordingly and it is by discharging the duties that human life becomes meaningful as otherwise humans will be no different from other living beings. Adherence to Dharma is also the basis for the pursuit of the other ends (Purushartha) of human life: fulfilment of desires, wealth and liberation.

That the primary duty of a human being is observance of Dharma can be seen from the Taittiriya Upanishad in which the preceptor after teaching the Vedas instructs his disciple, “Speak the truth. Practise righteousness. There should be no inadvertence about truth. There should be no inadvertence about righteous activity.” The Upanishad concludes that this is a Vedic injunction.

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