DHARMA/PART 1
DIFFERENCES
WHEN the nations of the earth were sent
forth one after the other, a special word was given by God to each, the word
which each was to say to the world, the peculiar word from the Eternal which
each one was to speak. As we glance over the history of the nations, we can
hear resounding from the collective mouth of the people this word, spoken out
in action, the contribution of that nation to the ideal and perfect humanity.
To Egypt in old days, the word was Religion; to Persia the word was Purity; to
Chaldea the word was Science; to Greece the word was Beauty; to Rome the word
was Law; and to India, the eldest-born of His children, to India He gave a word
that summed up the whole in one, the word Dharma. That is the word of India to
the world.
But we cannot speak this word, so full of
meaning, so vast in its out-reaching force, without making our bow at the feet
of him who is the greatest embodiment of Dharma that the world has ever seen -
our bow to Bhishma, the son of Ganga, the mightiest incarnation of Duty. Come
with me for a while, traveling five-thousand years back in time, and see this
hero, lying on his bed of arrows on the field of Kurukshetra, there holding
Death at bay, until the right hour should strike. We pass through heaps upon
heaps of the slaughtered warriors, over mountains of dead elephants and horses,
and we pass by many a funeral pyre, many a heap of broken weapons and chariots.
We come to the hero lying on the bed of arrows, transfixed with hundreds of
arrows and his head resting on a pillow of arrows. Far he has rejected the
pillows they brought him of soft down, and accepted only the arrowy pillow made
by Arjuna. He, perfect in Dharma, had, while still a youth, for the sake of his
father, for the sake of the duty that he owed to his father, for the sake of
the love he bore to his father, made that great vow of renouncing family life,
renouncing the crown, in order that the father’s will might be done, and the
father’s heart be satisfied. And Shantanu gave him his blessing, that wondrous
boon, that Death should not come to him until he came at his own command, until
he willed to die. When he fell, pierced by hundreds of arrows, the sun has in
his southern path, and the season was not favourable for the death of one who
was not to return any more. He used the power that his father had given him,
and made Death stand aside until the sun should open up the way to eternal
peace and liberation. As he lay there for many a weary day, racked with the
agonies of his wounds, tortured by the anguish of the mangled body that he
wore, there came around him many Rishis and the remnants of the Aryan kings,
and thither came also Shri Krishna, to see the faithful one. Thither came the
five princes, the sons of Pandu, the victors in the mighty war, and they stood
round him weeping and worshipping him, and longing to be taught by him. To him,
in the midst of that bitter anguish, came the words from One whose lips were
the lips of God, and He released him from the burning fever, and He gave him
bodily rest and clearness of mind and quietness of the inner man, and then He
bade him teach to the world what Dharma is - he whose whole life had taught it,
who had not swerved from the path of righteousness, who whether as son, or
prince, or statesman, or warrior, had always trodden the narrow path. He was
asked for teaching by those who were around him, and Vasudeva bade him speak of
Dharma, because he was fit to teach (Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, § LIV).
Then there drew closer round him the sons of
Pandu, headed by their eldest brother Yudhishthira, who was the leader of the
host that had brought Bhishma to his death; and he was afraid of coming near
and asking questions, thinking that as the arrows were really his, being shot
for his cause, he was guilty of the blood of his elder, and he ought not to ask
to be taught. Seeing his hesitation, Bhishma, whose mind was ever balanced, who
had trodden the difficult path of duty without being moved to the right hand or
the left, spoke the memorable words: “As the duty of Brahmanas consists in the
practice of charity, study, and penance, so the duty of Kshattriyas is to cast
away their bodies in battle. A Kshattriya should slay sires and grandsires and
brothers and preceptors and relatives and kinsmen, that may engage with him in
unjust battle. This is their declared duty. That Kshattriya, O Keshava, is said
to be acquainted with his duty who slays in battle his very preceptors, if they
happen to be sinful and covetous and disregardful of restraints and vows. . . .
. . Ask me, O child, without any anxiety”. Then, just as Vasudeva, in speaking
of Bhishma, had described Bhishma’s right to speak as teacher, so Bhishma
himself in turn, in addressing the princes, described the qualities that were
needed in those who would ask questions on the problem of Dharma:
“Let the son of Pandu, in whom are
intelligence, self-restraint, brahmacharya, forgiveness, righteousness, mental
vigor and energy, put questions to me. Let the son of Pandu, who always by his
good offices honors his relatives and guests and servants and others that are
dependent on him, put questions to me. Let the son of Pandu, in whom are truth
and charity and penances, heroism, peacefulness, cleverness and fearlessness,
put questions to me.” (Ibid. § LIV.).
Such are some of the characteristics of the
man who may seek to understand the mysteries of Dharma. Such are the qualities
which you and I must try to develop, if we are to understand the teachings, if
we are to be worthy to enquire.
Then began that wonderful discourse, without
parallel among the discourses of the world. It treats of the duties of Kings
and of subjects, the duties of the four orders, of the four modes of life,
duties for every kind of man, duties distinct from each other and suited to
every stage of evolution. Every one of you ought to know that great discourse,
ought to study it, not only for its literary beauty, but for its moral
grandeur. If we could but follow on the path traced by Bhishma, then would our
evolution quicken, then would the day of India’s redemption draw nearer to its
dawn.
With regard to morality - a subject closely
bound up with Dharma, and which cannot be understood without a knowledge of
what is meant by Dharma - with regard to morality, some think that it is a
simple thing. So it is in its broad outlines. The boundaries of right and wrong
in the common actions of life are clear, simple, and definite. For a man of
small development, for a man of narrow intelligence, for a man of restricted
knowledge, morality seems simple enough. But for those of deep knowledge and
high intelligence, for those who are evolving towards the higher grades of
humanity, for those who desire to understand its mysteries, for them morality
is very difficult: “Morality is very subtle,” as the prince Yudhishthira said
when he was dealing with the problem of the marriage of Draupadi with the five
sons of Pandu. And one greater than that prince had spoken of the difficulty;
Shri Krishna, the Avatara, in His discourse delivered on the field of Kurukshetra,
spoke on this very question of the difficulty of action. He said:
“What is action, what inaction? Even the
wise are hereby perplexed. It is needful to discriminate action, to
discriminate unlawful action, to discriminate inaction; mysterious is the path
of action” (Bhagavad Gita, iv. 16-17.).
Mysterious is the path of action;
mysterious, because morality is not, as the simple-minded think, one and the
same for all; because it varies with the Dharma of the individual. What is
right for one, is wrong for another. And what is wrong for one is right for
another. Morality is an individual thing, and it depends upon the Dharma of the
man who is acting, and not upon what is sometimes called “absolute right and
wrong”. There is nothing absolute in a conditioned universe. And right and
wrong are relative, and must be judged in relation to the individual and his
duties. Thus the greatest of all Teachers said with regard to Dharma - and this
will guide us in our tangled path – “Better one’s own Dharma, though destitute
of merit, than the Dharma of another, well discharged. Better death in the
discharge of one’s own Dharma; the Dharma of another is full of danger” (Ibid.
iv. 35.).
He repeated the same thought again at the
end of that immortal discourse, and He said - but then changed in such a way as
to throw fresh light on the subject: “Better is one’s own Dharma, though
destitute of merits, than the well executed Dharma of another. He who doeth the
Karma laid down by his own nature incurreth not sin” (Ibid. xviii. 47.). There
He expounds more fully this teaching, and He traces for us one by one the
Dharma of the four great castes, and the very wording that He uses shows us the
meaning of this word, which is sometimes translated as Duty, sometimes as Law,
sometimes as Righteousness, sometimes as Religion. It means these, and more
than any of them, for the meaning is deeper and wider than any of thee words
expresses. Let us take the words of Shri Krishna when speaking of the Dharma of
the four castes: “Of Brahmanas, Kshattriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, O Parantapa,
the Karmas have been distributed, according to the gunas born of their own
natures. Serenity, selfrestraint, austerity, purity, forgiveness and also
uprightness; wisdom, knowledge, belief in God, are the Brahmana-Karma, born of
his own nature. Prowess, splendour, firmness, dexterity, and also not flying
from battle, generosity, the nature of a ruler, are the Kshattriya-Karma, born
of his own nature. Ploughing, protection of kine, and trade are the Vaishya-Karma,
born of his own nature. Action of the nature of service is the Shudra-Karma,
born of his own nature. Man reacheth perfection by each being intent on his own
Karma”.
Then he goes on to say: “Better one’s own
Dharma, though destitute of merit, than the well executed Dharma of another. He
who doeth the Karma laid down by his own nature incurreth not sin”.
See how the two words Dharma and Karma are
interchanged. They give us the key which we shall use to unlock our problem.
Let me give you first a partial definition of Dharma. I cannot make the whole
definition clear at once. I will give you the first half of it, dealing with
the second half when we come to it. The first half is that “Dharma is the inner
nature, which has reached in each man a certain stage of development and
unfolding”. It is this inner nature which moulds the outer life, which is
expressed by thoughts, words, and actions, the inner nature which is born into
the environment suited for its further growth. The first idea to grasp is that
Dharma is not an outer thing, like the law, or righteousness, or religion, or
justice. It is the law of the unfolding life, which moulds all outside it to
the expression of itself.
Now in trying to trace out this difficult
and abstruse subject, I will treat it under three main divisions. First,
Differences, for people have different Dharmas. Even in the passage quoted,
four great classes are mentioned. Looking more closely, each individual man has
his own Dharma. How shall we understand these? Unless we grasp something of the
nature of difference; why they came to be, why they should exist, and what me
mean when we speak of differences; unless we understand how each man shows by
his thoughts, words, and actions, the stage he has reached; unless we grasp
this, we cannot understand Dharma. Then secondly, we shall have to deal with
Evolution. For we must trace these differences as they evolve. Lastly, we must
deal with the problem of Right and Wrong, for the whole of our study leads up
to the answer to the question. “How should a man conduct his life?” It would
not be worth while to ask you to follow me, into difficult regions of thought,
unless in the end we are to turn our knowledge to good account, and try to lead
lives according to Dharma, thus giving to the world that which India was meant
to teach.
In what does the perfection of a Universe
consist? When we begin to think over a universe and what we mean by it, we find
we mean a vast number of separated objects working together more or less
harmoniously. Variety is the keynote of the universe, as unity is the note of
the Unmanifest, of the Unconditioned - the One without a second. Diversity is
the note of the manifested and conditioned - the result of the will to become
many.
When a Universe is to come into existence, we
learn, the First Cause, the Eternal, the Inconceivable, the Indiscernible, the
Subtle, shines forth by His own Will. What that shining forth may mean within
Himself none may dare to guess. What it means on the side from which we regard
it, that to some extent may be grasped. Ishvara comes forth, but He, coming
forth, appears enwrapped in the veil of Maya - there are two sides of the
Supreme in manifestation. Many words have been used to express that fundamental
pair of opposites: Ishvara and Maya, Sat and Asat, Reality and Unreality,
Spirit and Matter, Life and Form. These are words which we, in our limited
language, use to express that which is well-nigh beyond the grasp of thinking.
All that we can say is: “Thus have the Sages taught us, and thus we in humility
repeat”.
Ishvara and Maya. What is the universe to
he? It is the image of Ishvara reflected in Maya - the perfected image of
Ishvara, as He has chosen to condition Himself for this particular universe
whose birth-hour is come. His image - limited, conditioned. His
Self-conditioned image, the universe is in perfection to declare. But how shall
that which is limited, that which is partial, image Ishvara? By the
multiplicity of parts working together in one harmonious whole; infinite
variety of differences, and the manifold combinations of each with each, shall
speak forth the law of the divine thought, until the whole thought is expressed
in the totality of that perfected Universe. You should try to catch some
glimpse of what this means. Let us together seek to understand.
Ishvara thinks of Beauty; at once His mighty
energy, all-potent, generative, strikes upon Maya and develops it into myriad
forms of objects that we call beautiful. It touches the matter that is ready to
be moulded - for example, water; and the water takes on a million forms of
Beauty. We see one in the vast expanse of ocean, still and tranquil, where no
wind is blowing, and where the sky is mirrored in its deep bosom. Then we catch
another form of Beauty, when the wind lashes it into billows upon billows, and
abyss beneath abyss, till the whole mass is terrible in its fury and grandeur.
Then a new form of Beauty comes forth from it, and the raging and the foaming
waters are hushed, and the ocean is changed into myriad-ripples, glittering and
glistening under the moon which shines upon them, her rays broken and bent into
a thousand coruscations. And this gives us another hint of what Beauty means.
And then we look at the ocean where no land limits the horizon and where the
vast expanse is unbroken, and again we stand on the shore and see the waves
breaking at our feet. With every change of mood of the sea, its waters speak
out a new thought of Beauty. Another glimpse of the thought of Beauty thrown
into water we see in the mountain lake, in the stillness and serenity of its
quiet bosom; and in the stream that leaps from rock to rock; and in the torrent
that dashes itself into millions of spray-drops, catching and refracting the
sunlight into all the hues of the rainbow. So from water in every shape and
form, from the tossing ocean to the frozen iceberg, from the foggy mists to the
gorgeously coloured clouds, bursts forth the thought of Beauty impressed upon
it by Ishvara, when the word came forth from Him. When we leave the water, we
learn new thoughts of beauty in the tender creeper, in its mass of brilliant
colours, in the stronger plant and the sturdier oak, and the dark obscurity of
forest depths. New thoughts of Beauty come to us from the face of every
mountain peak, and from the vast, rolling prairie where the earth seems to
break into new possibilities of life, from the sand of the desert, from the
green of the meadow. If we are tired of the earth, the telescope brings to our
view the Beauty of myriads of suns, rushing and rolling through the depths of
space. Then the microscope reveals to our wondering gaze the Beauty of the
infinitely small, as the telescope does of the infinitely great: and thus a new
door is opened to us for the contemplation of Beauty. Around us we have
thousands and millions of objects that are all beautiful. From the grace of the
animal, from the strength of man, from the supple charm of woman, from the
dimples of the laughing children, from all these things we catch some glimpses
of what the thought of Beauty is in the mind of Ishvara.
In this fashion we may sense something of
the way in which His thought broke into myriad forms of splendour, when He
spoke as Beauty to the world. The same is the case with Strength, Energy,
Harmony, Music, and so on. You grasp, then, why there should be variety:
because no limited thing may fully tell Him, because no limited form may fully
express Him. But as each becomes perfect of its kind; all combined may partly
reveal Him. Thus the perfection of the Universe is perfection in variety and in
the harmony of interrelated parts.
Having reached that conception, we begin to
see that the Universe can only gain perfection by each part performing its own
function, and developing completely its own share of life. If the tree tries to
imitate the mountain, or the water to imitate the earth, each would miss its
own beauty and fail to show that of the other. The perfection of the body does
not depend upon every cell doing the work of the other cells, but in each cell
doing its own part perfectly. We have brain, lungs, heart, digestive organs,
and so on. If the brain tried to do the work of the heart, and the lungs tried
to digest food, then the body would indeed be in a melancholy condition. The
health of the body is secured by each organ doing its own part. We thus realize
that as the universe develops, each part is going along the road which is
marked out by the law of its own life. The image of Ishvara in nature will
never be perfect, until each part is complete in itself and in its relations to
the others.
How can these innumerable differences arise?
How can all these differences come into existence? How does the Universe, as it
evolves as a whole, stand in relation to its parts evolving each on its
separate line? We are told that Ishvara, expressing himself on the Prakriti
side shows forth three qualities - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. No English words
are equivalent to or can satisfactorily translate these. I may however, for the
moment translate Tamas as inertia, the quality that does not move, that gives
stability; Rajas is the quality of energy and motion; and Sattva is perhaps
best expressed by harmony the quality of pleasure-giving, as all pleasure
springs from harmony and only harmony can give it. Then we learn that these
three gunas are further modified in seven kinds of ways, seven great lines, as
it were, along which innumerable combinations evolve. Every religion speaks of
this sevenfold division, every religion proclaims its existence. In Hinduism,
they are the five great elements and the two beyond. These are the seven
Purushas of whom Manu speaks.
These three gunas combine and divide,
arranging themselves into seven great groups, from which arise vast numbers of
things by various combinations; remember that into each separate thing each of
these qualities enters in different proportions, modified in one of the seven
fundamental ways.
From this primary difference brought over
from a Universe of the past - for world is linked to world and Universe to
Universe - we find that the downpouring life divided and subdivided itself as
it fell into matter, till, reaching the circumference of the mighty circle, it
rolled back upon itself. Evolution begins at the turning-point, where the wave
of life begins to return to Ishvara. The previous stage is the stage of
involution, during which this life is becoming involved in matter; in evolution
it is unfolding the powers that it contains. We may quote Manu where he says
that Ishvara placed His seed in the mighty waters. The life which Ishvara gave
was not a developed life, but a life capable of development. Everything exists
in germ at first. As the parent gives his life to generate the child, and as
that life-seed is built up through many combinations, until it reaches birth,
and then year after year, through childhood, youth and manhood, until maturity
is reached, and the image of the father is seen again in the son; so does the
Eternal Father, when He places the seed in the womb of matter, give the life,
but it is not yet evolved. Then it begins its up-climbing, bringing out one
phase after another of the life that it is gradually becoming able to express.
As we study the Universe, we find that its
varieties differ in their age. This is a thought which bears upon our problem.
This world was not brought into its present condition by one creative word.
Slowly and gradually and by prolonged meditation did Brahma make the world. One
after another living forms came forth. One after another the seeds of life were
sown. If you look at any Universe at any point of time, you will find that the
variety of that Universe has Time for its chief factor. The age of the
developing germ will mark the stage at which that germ has arrived. In a Universe,
at one and the same time, there are germs of various ages and stages of
development. There are germs younger than minerals, making what are called
elemental kingdoms. The developing germs called the mineral kingdom are older
than these. Germs evolving as the vegetable world are older than those of the
mineral, that is, they have a longer stretch of evolution behind them; the
animals are germs with a yet longer past, and the germs we call humanity have
the longest past of all.
Each great class has this diversity as to
its beginning in time. So also the separated individual life in one man - not
the essential life, but the individual and separated life - is different from
that of another, and we differ in the age of our individual existences as we differ
in the age of our bodies. The life is one - one life in all; but it is infolded
at different stages of time, as regards the starting-point of the seed that
there is growing. You should grasp that idea clearly. When a Universe comes to
its ending, there will be present in it entities at every stage of growth. I
have already said that world is linked to world, and Universe linked to
Universe. Some units at the beginning will be at an early stage of evolution;
some will be ready to expand ere long into the consciousness of God. In that
Universe, when its life-period is over, there will be all the differences of
growth dependent upon differences in time. There is one life in all, but the
stage of unfoldment of a particular life depends upon the time through which it
has been separately evolving. There you grasp the very root of our problem -
one life, undying, eternal, infinite as to its source and goal; but that life
manifesting itself in different grades of evolution and at different stages of
unfoldment, different, amounts of its inherent power showing forth according to
the age of the separated life. Those are the two thoughts to grasp, and then
you can take the other portion of the definition of Dharma.
Dharma may now be defined as the “inner
nature of a thing at any given stage of evolution, and the law of the next
stage of its unfolding” - the nature at the point it has reached in unfolding,
and then the law which brings about its next stage of unfolding. The nature
itself marks out the point in evolution it has reached; then comes what it must
do in order to evolve further along its road. Take those two thoughts together,
and then you will understand why perfection must be reached by following one’s
own Dharma. My Dharma is the stage of evolution which my nature has reached in
unfolding the seed of divine life which is myself, plus the law of life
according to which the next stage is to be performed by me. It belongs to this
separated self. I must know the stage of my growth, and I must know the law
which will enable me to grow further; then I know my Dharma, and by following
that Dharma I am going towards perfection.
It is clear then, realizing what this means,
why we should each of us study this present condition and this next stage. If
we do not know the present stage, we must be ignorant of the next stage which
we should aim at, and we may be going against our Dharma and thus delaying our
evolution. Or, knowing both, we may work with our Dharma and quicken our
evolution. Here comes a great pitfall. We see that a thing is good, noble and
great, and we long to accomplish in ourselves that thing. Is it for us the next
stage of evolution? Is it the thing which the law of our unfolding life
demands, in order that that life may unfold harmoniously? Our immediate aim is
not that which is best in itself, but that which is best for us in our present
stage, and carries us one step onward. Take a child. There is no doubt that if
you take a woman-child, she has before her a future nobler, higher, and more beautiful
than the present when she is playing with her dolls; she will be a mother with
a baby in her arms instead of a doll; for that is the ideal of perfect
womanhood - the mother with the child. But while that is the ideal of a perfect
woman, to grasp at that ideal before the time is ripe will do harm and not
good. Everything must come in its proper time and place. If that mother is to
be developed to the perfection of womanhood, and is to be mother of a family,
healthy, strong, able to bear the pressure of the great life-stream, then there
must be the period when that child must play with her dolls, must learn
lessons, must develop the body. But if, thinking that motherhood is higher and
nobler than play, that motherhood should be grasped before its time, and a
child be born from a child, the babe suffers, the mother suffers, the nation
suffers; and this because the season has not been regarded, the law of
unfolding life is violated. All sorts of suffering arise from grasping the
fruit ere the fruit is ripe.
I take that example because it is a striking
one. It will help you to see why our own Dharma is better for us than the well
executed Dharma of another that is not in the line of our unfolding life. That
lofty post may be for us in the future, but the time must come, the fruit must
ripen. Pluck it ere it is ripe, and your teeth are set on edge. Let it remain
on the tree, obeying the law of time and sequential evolution, and the soul
will grow according to the power of an endless life.
That then gives us another key to the
problem - function is in relation to power. Function grasped before power is
developed is mischievous in the extreme to the organism. So we learn the
lessons of patience and of waiting on the Good Law. You might judge the progress
of a man by his willingness to work with nature and to submit to the law. That
is why Dharma is spoken of as law, and sometimes as duty; for both these ideas
grow out of the root-thought that it is the inner nature at a given stage of
evolution and the law of the next stage of its development. This explains why
morality is relative, why duty must differ for every soul, according to the
stage of its evolution. When we come to apply this to questions of right and
wrong, we shall find that we can solve some of the subtlest problems of
morality by dealing with them on this principle. In a conditioned universe,
absolute right and wrong are not to be found, but only relative rights and
wrongs. The absolute is in Ishvara alone, where it will for ever be found.
Differences are thus necessary for our
conditioned consciousness. We think by differences, we feel by differences, and
we know by differences. It is only by differences that we know that we are
living and thinking men. Unity makes on consciousness no impression.
Differences and diversities - those are the things which make the growth of
consciousness possible. The unconditioned consciousness is beyond our thinking.
We can only think within the limits of the separated and the conditioned.
We can now see how differences in nature
come to be, how the time factor comes in, and how, though all have the same
nature and will reach the same goal, yet there are differences in the stages of
manifestation, and therefore in the laws appropriate for every stage. That is
what we need to grasp tonight, before we deal with the complex problem, how
this inner nature develops. Truly difficult is the subject, yet the mysteries
of the path of action may be cleared for us as we grasp the underlying law, as
we recognise the principle of the unfolding life.
May He, who gave Dharma to India as her
keynote, illuminate with His unfolding and immortal life, with His light
effulgent and unchangeable, these dark minds of ours that dimly try to grasp
His law; for only as His blessing falls upon the suppliant seeker, will His law
be understood by the mind, will His law be engraven in the heart.
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