Q&A – Dharma & Sanatan Dharma – is there a difference?

Audience member 1: Not a question, but thank you very much for sharing this knowledge.

We all understand dharma in different ways [Acd: Yeah] but dharma is the same. And if you allow me, I might share how I understand it in few lines.

For me, the dharma has got different meanings. Few of you rightly described. And dharma is connected to karma, and these are the guiding principles to perform any karma, or any karma that happens in the universe is kept with the dharma.

I connect, say, with due regards, with accepting whatever people have their ideas and how it is mentioned in Vedas and our holy scriptures. Dharma is a set of, also a set of cosmic laws which are happening in this universe. And as you rightly pointed out and rightly said, that the love, feeling of love, the feeling of, brings out divinity in us. And that—the dharma which is happening in the universe tries us to take along with it. And this is how we find the real meaning of our life, if we can listen to this, what sanātana, or what dharma is telling us, what to do, how to do, if we have got power to listen to this, look to this.

And this thing, I believe, is our journey not from outside, but it’s a journey inside. And if we are inside, as much as we can go inside within us, and we can listen to our consciousness, our ātman, and what dharma is telling us, and we can perform our karma duty righteously, in a right way.

So, what your divinity was saying something which my divinity was accepting. And I’m really grateful that we had spent this time with you. Thank you very much.

Acharya das: Thank you also very much.

I hope that there is no misunderstanding—and this is not related to what you said, but just in general, that we want, for instance, the idea of people—even though Krishna is saying in “sarva-dharmān parityajya” to give up, it is not an abandonment and then nothing. There was an abandonment of duty and then fully surrender unto Me.

But we understand that most people are not yet in a position, and willing, to take such a big leap and to do this. And so that is what is so extraordinary about the whole system of Vedic dharma: If you can’t do this, then at least do this. And if you have a hard time with that, then let’s try this one. And if that’s too difficult, then maybe we can do this.

I mean, Krishna does that with Arjuna when he explains to him that if you cannot follow this, then at least do this. And if you can’t do this, then at least… So that there is always this very embracing and compassionate encouragement for everyone.

But I think what I was just—one of the things I wanted to share was for people not to get stuck on a certain platform and think that now I am doing my duty, there is nothing more to do.

This performance of the duty in this situation is meant to help you—arouse this urge to seek, is there more that I could be doing? Is there a greater flavour to be had, a greater taste, rasa?

And so even when we speak in the way that we’ve spoken about sanātana dharma, there is no idea of putting down or deriding other forms of dharmic expression. They are all perfect in that it is this wonderful progression.

But we just don’t want people to become stuck. Go all the way. It is in your interest. You will become most perfectly happy if you do.

Does this sound like a good proposition?

Audience member 2: Thank you for that wonderful point. Just to follow up on that, how do we take up this proposition? [Acd: how do we?] Take up this proposition? Like [Acd: this proposition?]… on our side.

Acd: Okay, thank you. It’s—they have a term sādhana, which literally means, the means to attain an end.

So, there’s— according to what people saw as being the goal for them, people adopt a process that will take them progressively towards it. So if one wants to come to the highest level of self-realization and God-realization, then the foundational practice is this practice of meditation upon these spiritual sounds.

When we do that, we are directly placing ourself in the proximity of that which is divine, of God, the highest spiritual reality. We may not fully experience that because we may be very covered. We haven’t—there’s a lot of stuff going on and we’re very busy and we have so many desires and we are very controlled by filters that we have, the way we see things.

But when one—it’s kind of like, on a foggy morning, do you guys get fog in Sydney? Probably not. You do sometimes? Okay.

When you have a, like, I mean, in a place where the fog is really heavy, and you look out the window, and you can’t even see the end of the yard, and even the street is all whited out. It’s just a big white out. And then the sun comes up, and you can kind of see a little bit of glow in the sky, but you can’t see it. But the rays of the sun begin to burn off the fog, and it gradually begins to dissipate. Now I can see the tree across the street. Oh, now I can see the hills in the distance. As it becomes burned off, I see with more clarity.

The effect of having a regular practice that is rooted or founded in this meditation process, or practice, is so powerful that without any other endeavour, without any other separate attempt at anything, it will be enough to gradually begin to dissipate the fog so that you can see with increasing clarity.

And what is it that you are seeing? You become increasingly aware of your own spiritual identity and how this body is actually not you. And a transition will begin to happen where instead of you being dragged everywhere by your mind and your desires and everything that’s going on in your mind and in your body, that you are the one with the driver’s wheel. Increasingly, you become more able to engage in things that help you in this journey and to refrain from things that hold you back.

There is a need to cultivate some knowledge we broadly call yoga wisdom, ātma jñāna. Knowledge of the soul, knowledge. It’s important. It’s not essential. The meditation part, the chanting part is essential. The cultivation of knowledge is not essential.

If one simply and sincerely engages in such a practice over time, there will be a growing appreciation of things. You will gain insight and knowledge into your identity, the nature of the world. You’ll get to see things differently.

But it is helpful in the journey, and it can help also inspire us to be more careful in our practice and how we are engaging in the meditation, and to really stick with it, even when your mind’s telling you, “Nah, you just do it tomorrow or do it later. It’s okay. It’s okay. Skip a day. It doesn’t matter.”

So that is the foundation, those two things.

And of course, part of it is what’s called saṅgha, the spiritual association, to be able to mix with like-minded people, not in the weird stuff that they might be doing, but in the good stuff. If somebody is not very fixed spiritually, they may be a little bit all over the place as they’re moving in a good direction forward. And to share with people time, and with—when there’s a spiritual focus is also very helpful. It’s encouraging.

So those are the main principles. If you want detail on the adoption of a meditation practice, that gentleman standing over there, tell him to, please share a little time. And there’s a bunch of people here that run different programs to help people in this journey.

Is that okay? That’s the beginning. As one progresses, you will learn that there is things, more things that you can adopt, that really make it so that you can progress with more ease.

Convener: Anybody else?

Audience member 3: Once you reach that stage, what happens? [Acd: What happens?] Yeah. Like, to you live your life—I mean, you would definitely live your life in a very different way, thinking very differently than what other people think. What does that stage feels like? What happens?

Acharya das: Thank you for that question.

In this process, one will begin to really awaken more and more to their own spiritual identity. And when that begins to happen, they will see themself, they will see others, and they will see this world differently.

And the difference is not so much what they are physically doing, for instance, but why you are doing it. So, in this world, the spiritual disease, if I can call it that, that everybody is infected by, is this idea that I am at the centre of everything.

I see everything in relation to me, right? I call my parents my parents, my husband, my wife, my children, my friends, my countrymen. I see everything in relation to me. I actually see the world in relation to me. I seek to be the central enjoying agent.

I want to make a happy life. I plan how to do that. I want to build things around me so I have like my own little kingdom and me as the central enjoying agent in the middle.

That consciousness that everybody is infected with is not the consciousness of the ātma. This is the consciousness that is coming because of the ahaṅkāra, the false ego, the false concepts of self. And you cannot artificially change that. You cannot by any artificial means just by trying outwardly to do this activity or to not do that activity.

In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna says that one who outwardly follows all these principles, but inwardly is always contemplating on the objects of the senses, is simply a pretender.

So it is not by the external things, necessarily that it will be known. It’s a question of what is really going on inside.

And so the journey of self-realization is to go from a position of being so completely focused on myself, which is the natural condition of all materially entangled beings, to 180 degrees of utter selflessness, where I only seek to be pleasing to God.

So in the Bhagavad-gita Krishna says,

“All that you eat, all that you offer and give away, all austerity that you perform, all charitable activity, everything that you undertake should be done as an offering unto me.” [Bhagavad-gita 9.27]

And so now we’re talking about—in the beginning, it is a process that’s called karma yoga, where one engages in the activity—we engage in activity to try and get some reward. We want to get some fruit. So, in karma yoga, I learned, okay, I got this much. Maybe this much I can offer to the Lord. And at least I’m offering something. And it’s fine, that’s good.

And second part of that is to learn to engage in some service towards others, to be concerned about some greater good for everyone.

And so when I begin to engage in that type of activity and I’m doing the meditation practice, I become increasingly purified. It awakens what’s called a higher taste. I begin to taste something that’s very nice.

And as I begin to taste that, things that were lower, now they just lose, you’re just not attracted to it. And so there’s going to be this subtle shift, but it’s more internal than external.

When a person looks at someone who is on a very good spiritual path, journey, they don’t seem to be necessarily very different than anybody else. But if they get to know them, then they will discover some differences. And it has to do with their motivation. Why am I doing this?

Okay? Good enough? So it is a gradual process of purification and transformation.

It’s not artificial and false. It’s not that you can just pretend, and you dress up the right way and you’re the big spiritual guy.

One of my close friends who was my mentor in the beginning of my spiritual journey, back in those days—I’m pretty old. I’m 75 already. So back in those days when I was young, John Wayne was like the big hero, right? He was the movie hero. And my friend said, “In life, everybody wants to be John Wayne. And when they come to try a spiritual life, they want to be John Wayne of the spiritual life. They want recognition. They want to be really cool. They want to be ‘so spiritual’ and have everybody look at them and honour them and praise them.”

This is not spiritual, this is material.

So there were many things will be learned along the way, but it is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful journey. And if you begin and you can maintain some practice and some good association, it will transform you from the inside.

You will become peaceful and happy. And that is rare in this world to find anybody that’s peaceful and happy. Right? It practically doesn’t exist.

Now it’s become crazy, all because of these so-called smartphones. Everybody’s just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and just hunting for that thing that will fill up the emptiness.

We all feel an emptiness. This is the foundation of advertising. There is a recognition, all people are empty. All you have to do is offer your product with the message, “This will fill up the emptiness.” That’s the foundation of advertising. That’s a basis for it.

And so, with social media and everything, it’s just, it is a promise for perfection, for happiness, for fulfillment, but it doesn’t have any of those things. And we are craving, and so we’re scrolling and scrolling and never-ending scrolling. People wake up—the first thing they do is reach for the phone. It’s like, oh my God, what kind of a life is that, that the first thing that you do is reach for the phone?

Because of my training, the first thing I do when my eyes open, I remember Krishna. I say, Krishna. I’ll wash my face and pick up my beads and I’ll sit quietly, begin to take the Holy Name. And it begins the foundation for my day.

I will consider, what will I be doing today. Part of the spiritual process, you will become more conscious and thoughtful. What can I do today that’s actually going to make my life better.

And during the course of my day, I may have unpleasant experiences and run into difficulties and I try to deal with it. But then I need to be introspective. And in the evening when I do some meditation also, I can think, I think I could have done better today. In this situation, I didn’t deal with it well. My children, my friends, my boss, whoever, the person that cut me off on the road, [gesticulates rudely] Why did I behave that way? Why did I do that?

Just I was compelled by what’s called the triguṇas, the modes of nature, by the mode of passion and ignorance. I was just grabbed, and I immediately surrendered and I acted out something that doesn’t help me, that doesn’t make me a better person, that doesn’t show kindness to others. And I think, “Oh my God, that was ridiculous. I need to do better.”

And our life becomes a practical journey and a search for this wonderful experience, this awakening of spiritual love.

Okay?

Audience member 4: Can we call it witnessing [hard to hear]

Acharya das: Can we call it what?

Audience member 4: [hard to hear] what’s happening to us… like witness, like we [hard to hear]

Acharya das. Yeah. It doesn’t have to be overly—the ability to be able to step back and look at things is human. In lower life forms, the ātma is the same as my ātma. But in lower life forms, the dog is compelled to act to whatever urge comes over it. It is compelled to act. A human being can say, “Do I want to go there. Is it going to benefit me if I do that?”

Even when a person is very angry, and maybe you’re raising your voice and it’s getting very heated, sometimes you can hear like a little voice, “Don’t say that, don’t do it, don’t do it,” but I do it anyway. But we must cultivate, this is called the buddhi, but it also can be the caitya-guru, the guru within, the paramātma, who is giving us some guidance.

So I must learn to be more perceptive, to listen to this direction, this suggestion, and your life will become better. Don’t just react.

I tell people, “In a moment of raised emotions, don’t say anything, don’t act, don’t make any plan.” In heightened emotions, whether they are considered positive, like when somebody’s overly happy by some material experience, and then in that moment of, yaaya, they might just commit to something or whatever, that later, whoa, that was a bad move.

So whether positive or negative, in any state of heightened emotions, don’t speak, don’t act, don’t make a plan, don’t make a commitment. You need to calm way down. Go do some breathing, maybe some japa, walk a little bit. And then when you are calm, just think, how should I respond to this, that’s going to make my life better and that person’s life better also.

So part of this process—it’s very practical. Not only are you having a growing spiritual internal experience, but the way that you’re interacting with others, with the world, really changes also.

And this is a legacy that you can leave, that your circle of influence, whether it is family and friends, when they observe your changes, they become inspired to change also.

Okay.

One more.

Audience member 5: We know the dharma and it has an opposite, which is adharma.

It’s very easy to relate and understand, but sanātana dharma was tricky to understand, at least to me. Will it ever end. Will there be an end to this sanātana dharma.

Acharya das: Is there an end.

Audience member 5: Yeah. It is eternal, but is there an end.

Acharya das: No. Actually, all of the jīvas in Vaikuṇṭha, they are living sanātana dharma. They are—the eternal nature of the ātma, that constant expression of the soul itself, that is the real sanātana dharma.

It’s okay when people understand it a little bit different way or whatever, or they begin to confuse dharma with sanātana dharma, but actually they’re a bit different. But we should be just encouraging.

But actual sanātana dharma is not of this world. It is the nature of the jīva. And the nature of the jīva is fully expressed in that spiritual dimension. It can be expressed here, but it will be fully expressed in the spiritual dimension.

One does not have to die in order to have that experience. While residing—

One thing, one thing, this is really important. Self-realization and God-realization is not for special people only, that you need some special ability or talent or determination. It is everybody’s eternal nature. It only needs to be uncovered and that nature will come out. That is a wonderful message. It’s for everyone. It is our nature, our eternal nature.

Okay?

Thank you so much.

Applause.

Convener: So perhaps we can finish off maybe with five minutes of kīrtan, a little lullaby [Acd: Yeah, please] to send everybody home on. It would be really nice.

Acharya das: Or you want me to do a lullaby?

Convener: Oh, you can do it too. Yeah, it would be lovely. Thank you.

As Acharya says, this is the practice. Everything you’re looking for is contained within these wonderful transcendental sounds. So, we spend our whole lives looking all around the world, relationships, travel, activities, this, that, and the other thing.

And we keep on getting smacked in the face, basically, don’t we. We keep on not finding what we’re actually looking for. But all the great teachers teach us the same thing. All of the great spiritual teachers in our lineage teach us the same thing.

Everything we are looking for can be found within these wonderful transcendental names. So join with us now just for a few minutes before we go home and rest your hearts and mind in this transcendental sound.