An extract from Dharma and Illumination
Religions sometimes give us commandments and rules where the underlying idea seems to be that if we please God in this life by fulfilling those obligations, he will reward us in an afterlife. But Dharma is something deeper than this. It concerns our link, not with an outer God, but with our own deeper Self. It is getting in tune with our spiritual nature, God within, and uncovering a light and peace that is usually concealed by our obsession with worldly life.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Dharma is called the nectar of immortality, because it leads to the recognition of the immortality of the Self.
Those devotees are most dear to Me who follow the nectar of the spiritual law (Dharma) as spoken of by Me; who have an unwavering faith; to whom I am the highest (value and goal) and who are ever devoted to Me. (12:20)
Presented in this way, Dharma seems a very grand principle, something that only serious students of religion would concern themselves with. But actually, the way of Dharma is as natural as the desire to breathe fresh air and avoid stale air, and what it involves can be very simply expressed.
For example, the sage Shri Dada used to visit a primitive community who lived in the woods. They were branded as criminals and regarded by the people as dangerous and therefore shunned. Shri Dada arranged for a visit, and when he first stood before them, he sang them a very short song about Dharma:
What keeps the heavens from falling?
What supports the earth? What causes the rain?
It is Dharma.
To speak the truth, to be kind to all,
To be honest and gentle,
Remembering ever the holy name of Rama, is Dharma.
He and his disciples became closely involved with the community, and he reminded them:
Compassion is the basis of Dharma and the heart which is not moved by the sufferings of the people around it, is not a dharmic heart. When you approach such people, do so with a genuine feeling of love.
These are universal ideas at the core of all religions, of all true spiritual thought. The same principle is expressed in Blake's 'The Divine Image', where the human-hearted virtues are seen as an expression of the divine:
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
....Where Mercy, Love and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
Dharma is not aimed at pleasing an outer God, but entering into harmony with our own higher nature, coming into tune with the Infinite within. Then, let us ask, what is the highest within us? This is brought out in the lines of the Japanese Buddhist sage, Kobo Daishi:
The Buddhas in the innumerable Buddha-lands
Are nothing but the Buddha within our own soul.
To speak of the Buddha within our own soul means that there is spiritual illumination and complete fulfilment already present at the core of our being. This is what is highest in us, what the Bible calls our divine image. It is the essential divinity of man. Yet it has to be uncovered, brought out, through a course of action based on spiritual self-development. And this is the unfoldment of the Dharma, as we recognize that there is a course of life that will lead us to spiritual illumination.
The progress is, first, to saturate the mind in the spiritual values of wisdom and compassion. These values spring from the fountainhead of our own true being. It is then that our actions will be freed from their selfish motivation. They will function in harmony with the highest, the divine presence. This divine presence within us transcends individuality. Yet in its expression in the phenomenal world, it ever works for the good of all. A modern spiritual writer has expressed it like this:
The man who is fully obedient to Dharma, conforming himself to his divine image, has surrendered his own will and he fulfils his role as obediently as the actor plays the part laid down for him. Every movement is directed, not by forethought or desire, but by the ruling of the immanent principle, which is his own Self.
Man's highest responsibility, and most rewarding course, is to live according to Dharma. To understand what this means does not call for a deep study of any particular philosophy. We have to learn to understand the contents of just one book that we always carry with us: the book of our own heart.
As we move forward in life, the workings of the law of Dharma make themselves felt as a certain pressure in our inner being. This pressure first manifests as a restlessness. We find that whenever we push ourselves forward, driven by purely selfish motives, we may achieve a short sense of satisfaction, but not peace of mind. On the other hand, if we find ourselves acting in a genuinely thoughtful and unselfish way, perhaps even sacrificing a personal pleasure in order to help, or when we act without being troubled by thoughts of success or failure, our inner being experiences a kind of calmness and sense of well-being. Our awakening to the law of Dharma begins when we detect this pattern, which we will soon discover is a law emanating from our own higher being...