Food for thought : 17.04.2022
When your actions are dharmic
The results don't affect you.
Let us divide this statement into two sections
What are dharmic actions?
We have often read and heard about dharmic actions from our elders and scholars and very often we encounter situations which may seem dharmic on the surface, yet it is not. Let us look at the tools to measure dharmic actions and non dharmic actions.
The tools for measuring dharmic actions are
Intent/ aim / purpose
Time/ Kala
Mode/ method
Let us now analyze them one by one:
Intent:
Any action we perform has an intention sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly.These actions may or may not be viewed by others but we should always take a conscious look at them, This is called awareness/introspection/ understanding etc.
so when we introspect whether it has
Dharmic or non dharmic
Necessary or unnecessary
Helpful or not helpful
It gives us perspective and a way to understand a particular situation of a particular action.
When the above three points are answered, it becomes clear what our intention is in doing or saying something.
I’ll give you an example:
There is an argument between two brothers about who takes the car. As a result the elder brother wants to take the car to bring their mother to the doctor while the younger brother has an urgent board meeting. The father says to the elder brother, “ why don’t you adjust, he is after all your brother”. By measuring the dharmic/necessity/helpfulness on the above scale, we can determine whose intent is meaningful
Time/ Kala:
The timing of actions determines their dharmic value. Doing the right thing at the right time is very important for it to be dharmic. For instance, if you see a person bleeding profusely after an accident,act immediately. A decisive decision becomes dharmic when taken at that time.
Other examples are :
Bhishma deciding to support the kauravas
Krishna being the sarathy of Arjuna
Explains dharmic actions very well
Mode/ method:
To decide what dharmic action to take, you need to keep the above points in mind. For instance, you cannot say ill gotten money through various dubious means can be justified by donating a portion of it to charity.
Let us come to the second part:
2. The results of your actions do not affect you.
A decision to perform an action based on dharmic principles will not create new karma.
The fruit or Karma consists of three parts
The innermost beeja or the core of the intent
the middle layer Is the kala / time
outer layer is the method
The existence of the fruit is invisible or does not exist at all when these three layers are examined in a nirpeksh manner.
Therefore, adhering to dharmic norms is extremely important so that dharmic actions do not create karma. This is because such actions do not create another reason for us to undergo a remedial process for such acts.
Comments