The Essence of Dharma-6.

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12/04/2017.
(Spoken on February 11th, 1973)

The structure of existence, the nature of the universe, is the determining factor of all activities of human life, so all life is spiritual. There is no such thing as unspiritual life. It does not exist, and it is impossible. Anything that is universally related is spiritual. You may be wondering why I am connecting spirituality with the universe; it is a very pertinent question indeed, to which I will return a little later on. Why should universality be connected with spirituality? Even physical science accepts that everything is connected with the universal whole, but it is not spiritual, so why am I connecting spirituality with the universal nature of things? This is a point we shall discuss shortly.

In Indian psychology, philosophy and culture, the universal relations have been taken for granted as relevant to every activity in human life, and the duty of man was called a dharma, an obligatory attitude on the part of every individual in regard to his or her cosmic relations. There is no one in India who has not heard of the word ‘dharma’. They will say, “This is not dharma.” He may not know what dharma is, but he will speak the word dharma. It is not dharma, not logical, not justifiable, not justice. That is what he means by saying this is not dharma.

Justice is connected with dharma, dharma is connected with duty, and duty is connected with the universe. See how things are connected, how beautifully they are related! Our activities are connected to the universe; therefore, in order that our activities be tenable, acceptable, justifiable and good, they must bear a relation to the universe. If our action, our conduct, our attitude does not bear a relation to the universe, it cannot be called dharma. If our conduct has a relevance only to our little family of a few members and has no connection with anybody else in the world, it is local dharma, not samanya dharma, and it is not ultimately justifiable.

Swami Krishnananda
To be continued ..


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