How to Practice Righteousness in Daily Life?
The word ‘dharma’ [right conduct/righteousness] is associated with so many connotations that a symposium was arranged in Madras [now Chennai] by Sri Ramakrishna Math in 1984, to discuss them. About twenty speakers took part in it!
The answer to the question, “What is right?” is frequently very difficult to give. After being asked this question by many persons with reference to situations, and after asking myself this question in connection with several different scenarios, I was guided by Bhagavan’s grace to use two criteria to determine what is right. It gives me so much happiness to share this with our readers:
The first criterion is to see whether you are what you profess to be. If I say, I am a human being, well, am I really a human being or am I behaving like an animal? If I say I am a woman, am I behaving like a woman or am I trying to act like a man? If I say I am a student, am I behaving like a student? If I say I am a Sai devotee then, am I behaving like one?
About ten years ago, Bhagavan addressed us the office bearers of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva [service] Organization in Chennai. He pointed out that when the arati [waving of the flame] is performed and sung, we sing “Mata, Pita, Guru, Daivamu Mari Antayu Neeve” (You are father, mother, guru, God, and everything for us), but asked how many of us realize that we are His sons and daughters, disciples, and devotees, and how many of us behave accordingly? He further asked, “Are you behaving like true and ideal brothers and sisters?”
Similarly, if I call myself an Indian, I must not behave like an American; if I call myself a doctor, I must not try to be a businessman first; if I call myself a parent, I must be a good and responsible parent, and so on.
The second criterion to be applied is when two modes of behavior or action are possible, and you have to choose one of them. In such cases, determine which behavior will make you more truthful, more peaceful, more loving, and more non-violent and choose that. In other words, dharma for you in a given place, time, and circumstance can be decided by the greater probability of your being able to practice truth, peace, love, and non-violence.
There may be a number of individual variations allowable within broad ranges of behavior norms. For example: at one time, my friend Ponnappan wanted to keep his moustache. But in one of Baba’s speeches, he heard Him say that manliness is not merely about having some hair above the lips, but in the capacity to control oneself. Baba said that cats and cockroaches also sport a moustache but they are not necessarily great examples of manliness to be followed by others.
Ponnappan was in a dilemma. He loved his moustache! But he loved Baba more so he shaved off his moustache. But he felt very bad. Then he prayed to Baba who then appeared in his dream and allowed Ponnappan to have his moustache back!
Ponnappan’s unexpected death in January 1995 in a scooter accident was widely bemoaned, because he was only 40 years old, had just married a few years back and had recently become the father of a child. Indeed, I was one of the few persons who were calm during that period. Sai devotees began to clamor and ask whether it was dharmic or right for the Lord to be so cruel! They asked whether the line (in the arati song), “Bhakta Jana Samrakshaka Parthi Maheshwara” [the protector of devotees, the supreme Lord of Puttaparthi] was really a correct description of Swami.
My answer to them was as follows:
i) Suppose a game of cricket is going on and a star player makes a mistake of judgment and is bowled out, should the umpire allow him to continue? As per the rules of the game, he declares the player out. Similarly, Ponnappan could have made some error of judgment in driving, etc. and Bhagavan might have acted as an umpire, a neutral and just witness.
ii) Suppose there is a wonderful man with an excellent reputation in a town. Suddenly, police from another place come and arrest him for some crime committed before he started living in this town. Unassailable evidence is presented before the judge of the town, for the crime committed by the man. What shall the judge do? Leave him, because he has been so good? Regretfully, he must punish him for the crime committed in the past. Similarly, Ponnappan could have committed some mistake in the past and Bhagavan might have acted as a fair judge.
iii) A good doctor finds that a patient’s limb has become septic and has developed gangrene, so his life is in danger unless the limb is removed. The dcotor removes the limb in order to save the man. Similarly Ponnappan might have been in danger of becoming too immersed in the material world, and the soul might have been in danger of getting lost for a long time to come, unless he was taken away from surroundings conducive to material or ego entanglement. Bhagavan might have acted as a good spiritual doctor and removed the body to preserve the soul and help it to progress faster.
iv) Suppose there is a president or a prime minister of a country. He comes to know of an exemplary officer in some state or district. He feels that such an officer can be very useful at a higher level so that the nation may benefit as a whole. So, a sudden decision is made and orders are passed for the immediate transfer of the officer to the capital! There may be a hue and cry in the district at the sudden loss of the officer, but neither the officer nor the prime minister will be unhappy about it. So, too, Bhagavan might have acted in His capacity of chief administrator of the spiritual world and taken Ponnappan away to serve in some higher level unfettered by the body.
v) A mother goddess comes to know the innermost desire of a devotee, and helps to satisfy it though it may not be the expressed desire of the devotee or the desire of his relatives. For example, a devotee of Lord Venkateswara prayed intensely for death in the sacred tank of the Tirumala Hills. So, in the next birth, he was born, lost his father, grew up, got a job, and took leave of his widowed mother and sister to go to the Tirumala Hills in order to give his first salary to the Lord. But he passed away in the sacred tank! The mother and sister were inconsolable until Baba showed them the series of incidents like a movie on his palm.
The merciful Mother Sai, knowing the innermost need of Ponnappan to leave the mortal coil after satisfaction of certain desires and exhaustion of certain residual tendencies, might have helped the fulfillment of the same. Who knows? Bhagavan might have acted as the supreme spiritual mother.
We talk so much of what Bhagavan should and should not do just because we throw some flowers on His picture now and then, repeat His names daily and follow some of His teachings.
Is it our dharma as His devotees to question Him with so little faith? How much knowledge about the spiritual dimension do we have to question His actions? As devotees, we should accept the result of our actions in the past birth, and in the present. It is said “Dharmam tu saksad Bhagavat pranitam” that is, the laws of religion are directly enunciated by the Lord.
It is important to practice japa & dhyana in daily life. Japa, or repetition of the divine name of a chosen form of God, or of some elevating advice of the guru, can be done anywhere and anytime, provided it is done with devotion and faith.
But mere repetition does not seem to have much spiritual value. Of course, repetition in the thousands per day may have some effect. But my belief is that even such numerous repetitions are effective mainly due to the will power that is behind such efforts.
All this applies to a chosen divine name or to a traditionally transmitted mantra [devotional formula] like the Gayatri [powerful Vedic verse]. However, if the divine name or mantra has been given specifically by the guru the effects may be miraculous! This is because the guru transmits His power through the mantra.
Personally, I have found it motre useful to attempt to understand the meaning of the name or the mantra, to contemplate over it as much as possible, and practice its injunctions.
For example, if “Sai Ram” is the name chosen for japa, understand and ruminate over the meaning. One of the meanings could be Mother Ram, or the Ram with the attitude of motherliness. Ram means one who gives happiness. The practice of the meaning will involve the feeling and faith that you are secure in the loving care of your true or highest mother—you cannot then have feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, or fear of the future. You must also try to be happy in all circumstances, and to see the positive side of everything. The qualities of Ram must be imbibed by you and slowly assimilated as part of your own nature.
Similarly, if you are interested in the japa of Gayatri, you must understand the meaning of Om, Bhu, Bhuva, sva: and of the main three lines. To me the key word in the mantra is dheemahi meaning “let us meditate.” There is no point in merely repeating this without ever attempting to meditate!
For dhyana, if one is a Sai devotee, one can try light meditation. However, as Baba has pointed out in His Dhyana Vahini [treatise on meditation], one must practice non-violence, ceiling on desires, truthfulness, steadfastness in spiritual goals, regular study of spiritual books, purity, peacefulness despite provocation, harmony of thought, word, and deed, and surrender to God in order to really succeed in dhyana.
If all that is discouraging, one can practice “sarvantaryamitva smaranam” that is remember constantly that God is everywhere and in everyone and think, talk, and act accordingly. The results steadily and surely manifest themselves, and, it can be practiced during all the waking hours.
Regardless of type of dhyana chosen, it may take some time to bear fruit, depending on individual propensities, circumstances, etc. So, patience and faith are necessary. Seek the guidance of more advanced spiritual aspirants whenever you encounter obstacles and special problems.
~P. Vidyakar
Source: Spiritual Impressions
