Start Where You Are
It really does not matter what you have been doing till now but if you find yourself interested in dharma, you can start following some basic principles, from today itself.
As an urban Hindu, you may feel totally lost when trying to learn about dharma with the intention of bringing it into your lives. This is common and nothing to feel shy about. The good thing is, that you are curious about the way of your ancestors and something within has inspired you to seek more.
You have heard that following dharma can change your life, it brings peace and can help you flourish. However, you are not sure what is meant by “dharma”.
In a nutshell, we can say that dharma is that which “sustains”. Now if our actions and life is conducted as per that which sustains, it is bound to flourish. On the other hand, if we are going against the stream of sustenance, we will naturally create obstacles for ourselves.
Following the values and principles laid out by our sages and seers, as embedded in our ancient library of scriptures, helps us progress in life and evolve towards moksha or ultimate freedom from the cycle of birth and death.
To begin with, we can start aligning our lives with dharmic principles through two ways:
Leading a Virtuous life:
The existence of humane and virtuous conduct in one’s life is dharma. Truth, self-control, willingness to serve, compassion, goodwill, and pleasantness are these virtues. – Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswatji Maharaj
We must attempt to bring the above qualities in our lives. This is the common or “samanya” dharma for everyone and trying to follow this brings contentment and makes us good human beings.
Our heart always supports what is good and true. The one who lies to others, hates being lied to. A womanizer does not like others eyeing his wife or sister. One who is self-centred, we want to be served. We may be nasty to others, but we wish to be treated with compassion. We could be wishing ill of others, but we want that others have goodwill towards us. We might be unpleasant, but we expect friendliness and pleasantness towards ourselves and our loved ones.
Therefore, it is important to do onto others like we shall expect others to do to us. This is the basic common dharma for every human being to follow.
Tip – These qualities may not be very easy to cultivate. We can start with stopping ourselves from indulging in the opposite of these. For example, stop lying if you are used to doing so. Stop being harsh to others unreasonably. Slowly, goodness shall come into your life.
While being a virtuous human being is important, it is also important that you try to let go of bad karma and activities that shall bring you and others harm, even if that may not be your intention. We need to have a clean heart as well as sensible behaviour, bringing us to the next point.
Letting go of what is harmful:
We have been born as a healthy functional human being. The human life is precious and our soul or jivatma takes birth as so many other life forms before getting the birth of a human being. It is the only birth in which we can aspire to attain the ultimate Truth or moksha. This physical body is a vehicle for which we must be grateful. It is our dharma to sustain it, protect it and keep it well-nourished so that we make good meaningful use of this human birth.
Activities like drinking, smoking, taking drugs, gambling, addiction to pornography, multiple partners, are known to be detrimental to physical, mental, emotional and social well-being. Things that destroy our mind, create emotional instability and pain, can cause serious mental illness, harm our loved ones and family, cause diseases, quick aging and make us incapable of realizing even our basic human potential.
If we are invested in these activities, it would be very challenging to attain any kind of peace and inner growth that we are seeking. Thus, we must attempt to reduce and ultimately, let go of indulgence that is against dharma.
Unfortunately, these activities are quite normalized in big cities. Maybe you also have couple of such habits (or all of them!) but now it is time for a positive change in your life. It may not all happen overnight but at the same time, you can succeed over a period if you are ready to make small changes in the right direction.
It is never too late for you to change ways. To start following dharma you must start cultivating good virtues, embrace activities that are good for you and give up harmful habits.
Start with small steps, keeping expectations reasonable.
Suggestion – Chant your favourite God’s name for 10 minutes each, the first thing on waking up and just before sleeping. Do this to express gratitude for all that you have including a functional mind and body. Example: Shiv-Shiv, Krishna-Krishna, Durga-Durga, Ram-Ram or Shivaye Namah, Krishnaye Namah, Durgaye Namah, and so on.
