Sri Golwalkar

 Each nation has its own key-note in life and marches ahead in tune with that national ethos. Our Hindu Nation has also preserved a unique characteristic since times immemorial. To us, the aspects of material happiness, i.e., artha (the amassing of wealth) and kama (the satisfaction of physical desires) are only a part of man’s life. Our great ancestors declared that there are two more aspects of human endeavour, dharma and moksha. They built up our society on the basis of this fourfold achievement, the chaturvidha purushartha of dharma, artha, kama and moksha.

Since hoary times our society has been known not merely for its wealth and affluence but more so for the other two aspects of life. We are therefore called a highly moral, spiritual and philosophical people, who have kept as their ultimate goal nothing short of direct communication with God Himself, i.e. moksha. If this final aim of human existence is left out, then what remains except the feeding of the brute in man? If it is a fact that there is a difference between man and the animal, then the concepts of prosperity and happiness for the two also must differ. If to eat, drink and enjoy abundantly is the only criterion for both, man will have to be equated with a mere beast. Therefore we say that we have also to feed the spirit of man. It is only when we do that, that we can look upon our national existence as being really great and glorious.

So, when we think of the greatness and glory of our nation, we not only think of its wealth and affluence, of all the means of satisfaction of the necessities of the body but also of the mind of the individual which should be made to gradually rise above all these things and place him in a position to which he is entitled as a human being, that is, in direct relation with divinity. It has been said, धर्मादर्थश्चकामश्च, that is, first follow dharma, and dharma will also give artha and kama.

Role of Dharma

When we say that we want to protect and rejuvenate dharma, do we mean the revival of its external form of rituals and formalities? In our country, some people wear the sacred thread – yajnopavita – while some do not. Some keep a tuff of hair, some do not. Some worship idols, some do not. These things have meaning for those who have faith in them. And they are just small external signs of our all-comprehensive dharma. They must not be confused with dharma itself.

Our definition of dharma is twofold. The first is proper rehabilitation of man’s mind; and the second is adjustment of various individuals for a harmonious corporate existence, i.e., a good social order to hold the people together.

Let us take the first aspect. What is meant by the rehabilitation of mind? We know that the personality of man is only a projection of his mind. But the mind is like an animal, which runs after so many things and it is so constituted as to be one with all the desired things. Ordinarily, man’s mind does not stop to consider what is right and what is wrong. It stoops to any level in order to fulfil its desires. With such a mind, man is not likely to rise higher than the level of an ordinary animal. Therefore the mind is to be cultivated in self-restraint and certain other great qualities. Those attributes of good conduct are mentioned in various contexts in the Bhagavad-Gita and our other holy scriptures. They have described five yamas for the body and five niyamas for the mind.

The other is the social aspect. Man’s life has to be attuned to the wider interests of the people as a whole. Both these aspects are complementary to each other. The first aspect is defined as –

यतोभ्युदयनिःश्रेयसिद्धिः स धर्मः ।

which means that the arrangement which enables and encourages man to control his desires and create within himself the competence to realise the Divine Essence or the Eternal Reality even while enjoying a rich material life, is dharma. The second aspect is –

धारणात् धर्ममित्याहुः धर्मो धारयति प्रजाः ।।

which means that the power which brings individuals together and sustains them as a society is called dharma. A combination of these two definitions shows that the establishment of dharma means the building of an organized social life wherein each individual has realized his oneness with others in society and is imbued with a spirit of sacrifice to make others’ material life richer and happier, and develops spiritual strength which leads to the realization of the Ultimate Truth.

There is one more way of looking at this blending of the development of the individual with the integrity and welfare of the society. We have been told by our great thought-givers to discriminate between what is permanent and what is impermanent. Shankaracharya has called it nityanitya-vastu-viveka. Let us, for the time being, keep apart its high philosophical interpretations and apply to our national life. Individuals come and go. Countless generations have come and gone. But the nation has remained. Drops of water come, stay for a while and evaporate; but the flow of the Ganga goes on ceaselessly. So is the eternal flow of our national life. We, the individuals, appear on the surface like bubbles or drops for a moment, and disappear. The `permanent’, therefore, is the national life. The ‘impermanent’ is the individual. The ideal arrangement would therefore be to transform the impermanent-the individual-into a means to attain the permanent – the social good – which would at the same time enable the individual to enrich and bring to blossom his latent divinity. This is dharma in its twofold aspect, which leads mankind to its ultimate goal of Realization of Godhead-moksha.