How to get sAdhana credits for your actions – kAma, artha and dharma

Posted on by

In the previous posts, these are the arguments and conclusions I presented.

  • Follow your heart’s desire. kAma.
  • Earn wealth – artha
  • Serve the human/social cause – dharma
  • But none of these will give you mOksa -freedom or gnyAna – knowledge – by themselves.

The way to get sAdhana mileage out of kAma, artha and dharma, is through engaging your manas with the brahman if you are a mOkSa and gnyAna aspiring vEdAntin.

I will define sAdhana as any action you undertake to know/love/be one with the brahman.

You can think that everything is the brahman, everything is from the brahman, everything is by the brahman and everything is for the brahman.

In easier english everything is, is from, by and for the divine!

Also if you are the sort of person whose ‘blood boils at injustice’ please note that what you consider dharma and adharma mean nothing from the perspective of an ant, a cloud or a rice plant, a bee or a calf.

They see nothing great about “the human cause”, “human endeavour” and “human progress”. Rats being injected by cancer cells – would possible damn the whole human species if they could! They think zit about cancer research and it’s ‘nobility’.

Once you take an earthian perspective, human concerns take a lighter place in your mind. Yes, as a human, you care about humans extra, but that is NOT the ‘Life view’.

If you are the sort of person who bears the whole burden of human guilt towards other species on your shoulders, just remember that the other species think nothing of hurting humans – man-eating tigers, snakes, stray dogs that carry away human children and eat them (under the protection of rich “dog lovers” societies), rats that will lay waste to crops, bugs that eat books, drink blood and cause sickness.

Just see that every species looks after itself – that is neither virtuous nor contemptible – it is just natural.

‘Life’ itself sides only with itself and with stronger life-form. The loser/weaker becomes dinner (or slave or worse)!

Back on track.

If you want mOkSa : Grow beyond the duality of dharma and adharma.

Here we deviate slightly from swAmi vivEkAnanda. He was willing to die a million times for his people , ie us. For him mOkSa was what you aspired for, while forsaking kAma and artha and while striving for dharma (jagad hita).

Instead, we follow kRSNa – we work for ourselves, our families and our species and our planet – but only our actions. Our manas is engaged in the brahman.

We know that we are not our body-mind, we are not even our prANa (life). We have a body-mind-prANa thing at our disposal. We are cit (consciousness – sort of thing). We are Ananda (joy).  Others think/say they are their body-mind-prANa-thing and are happy to do so! That’s okay.

Some of us are lucky enough to do yoga/chanting/yagnyAs/pUja/pilgrimages/adhyayana/abhyasa and other activities that help us focus on the brahman, externally and internally. Some of us devote all our activities to kAma, artha and dharma.

Even so, if we devote our manas to the brahman as kRSNa explained – we are on our way to brahma vidya (knowledge of the brahman).

That is how dharmic actions can give you sAdhana mileage. That is why vEdAntins must read the bhagavad gita. It is one of the three texts that you Must Read. The other two are brahma sutras and upanishads.

Love,

satyA

DSC00183 : Photo by me : When we had rains! The way to get sAdhana mileage out of kAma, artha and dharma, is through engaging your manas with the brahman.

About these ads