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Author: Raj Kumar, B.E., Post Graduate Diploma & M.E. (P.H. & Env. Engg.), D.H.E. (Hons.) F.I.E. (1); F.I.W.W.A., F.I.A.E.M.
Author is an alumni of IIT, Roorkee and Water Engineering Institute, Delft, Netherlands. This article was originally published in the IIT, Roorkee Annual Souvenir 2007; published here with the permission of the author.
The various ingredients of Dharm, generally, lie scattered and fragmented in human conscience and the writer has endeavoured to bring about a systematic consolidation thereof. He has, thus, given shape to the skeleton of Dharm and this enables one to assess fairly how far he stands away from its various fronts. This assessment, by and large, reveals upon him that the task of bringing himself near to these fronts is not as difficult as he hitherto considered and, as such, his in-born instinct to be as near to Dharm as possible, gets awakened. As a result, changes take place in his way of thinking and interacting with others thereby adding to his present and future quality of life and thus moulding him into a better person.Awareness in respect of Dharm conveyed by the article will, therefore, steadily increase the number of “men of quality” on this earth. This will bring much more of peace and tranquility alround and thus this earth, truly, will become a far better and more worth-living place.
Out of the four ancient civilizations of the world, viz., the Egyptian civilization of Nile valley, the Mesopotamian civilization of Euphrates – Tigris valley, the Indian civilization of Indo-Gangetic valley and the Chinese civilization of Huang and Yang-tse valleys, the Indian civilization is considered as the oldest one. One most outstanding contribution of this Indian civilization is that our sacred soil gave birth to what is called “Dharm”. The world “Dharm” comprises a set of cardinal principles codified by our wise ancestors – Rishis
and Munis, as a result of their extensive studies in respect of life and long-term experimentations therewith, to suitably channalise our attitudes and behavior, and day-to-day activities to make our lives healthy, happy, contented and purposeful. These principles, if followed with utmost honesty and sincerity, are also said to exalt our manhood to the highest level of divinity. All our visits to temples, reciting prayers and hymns, and observance of various rituals; and the traditions we are instructed to follow, are meant, exclusively, to motivate and to lead us to live our lives in conformity with the principles laid down by Dharm.
These principles are to live with: (1) Truth, (2) Non-violence (Ahimsa), (3) Tolerance, (4) Rationality, (5) Up-rightness, (6) Service to mankind as well as to animals, including lower animals, and, (7) Austerity.
Non-violence also includes not causing injury to others’ feelings; rationality means our approach based on sound logic, or our attitude or behavior conforming to the principle of dispensation of natural justice to those whom we deal with; austerity includes also the conservation of ones physical as well as intellectual energies to be gainfully utilized by him for noble pursuits. It also includes not overspending or not wasting our resources so that the others, for whom these are scarce, could also share therewith. Further, uprightness includes (1) Sobriety, (2) Discipline, (3) Kindness, (4) Simplicity, (5) Honesty, (6) Integrity, (7) Humility, (8) Magnanimity, (9) Trust-worthiness, (10) Urge for taking responsibilities, (11) Upkeep of promise, (12) No double-speaking, (13) No jealousy for others’ gains, (14) No ill-will towards others, (15) No avarice, (16) No anger, (17) Acceptance of one’s mistakes with all grace and frankness, (18) Painstaking spirit, (19) Helping attitude, and, (20) Patience and perseverance.
The Dharm being very old was called “Sanatan Dharm” (Sanatan means very old). It has been dealt with at length in our ancient scriptures, e.g., Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas, it was also called “Vedic Dharm”. Further, because of historical reasons we were called “Hindus” hence Dharm was also called “Hindu Dharm”, or more briefly, “Hindutva” or “Hinduism”. Since Dharm carries alongwith it an all-prevailing sense of universality, it stands to be quite different from the words like “religion” or “mazhab” that have sectarian connotations and, therefore, needs finding an entirely different place in the dictionaries of foreign languages. Since Dharm originated in our country, people residing outside, by and large, do not have clear conception of Dharm and they, perhaps, found it convenient to dovetail it with the words like “region” or “mazhab”.
In the B.C. era and also during the first millennium A.D., favorable conditions existed for our scholars to move out to other lands to serve people there by the way of educating them in respect of Dharm and also otherwise, but our history of the long period right after the downfall of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, up to the date of our country’s independence did not offer such types of opportunities. Further, in the post-independence era, history being favorable notwithstanding, other factors cropped up and the correct sense for which the Dharm stands, could not be adequately conveyed to the people and they continue to misinterpret it.
Dharm is most unfettered by the time and the space in the sense that it has relevance right from the time of its birth, to continue ad infinitum; and also at each and every point of the universe – on loftiest mountain peaks, in deepest oceans, on vast sandy deserts and desolated ice-lands, in volcanoes and on and inside of all stars, planets and satellites and in all the vast empty spaces. Consequently, the word “Dharm” always carries the concept of “Universality” about it and it is, therefore, also known as “Universal Dharm”.
Ordinarily Dharm is extremely tolerant and allows one to commit acts in contravention thereof, if done out of sheer ignorance. It also remains unconcerned even if such excesses are done deliberately provided the person concerned makes sincere determination not to repeat the same. In cases of severe defaults, however, he has the option to undergo the requisite penance failing which he is sure to face the wrath of the Almighty – the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent and the Omniscient, because Dharm stands firmly by the proverb “as you sow, so you must reap”, and this is adequately established by our everyday life experiences.
Dharm is an integral and hence inseparable part of our body, not in physical form but in an invisible state. Within us, its realization steadily grows along with the growth of our body and because of its having abundance of spirituality, enables us to appreciate the privileges that we derive from those around us, living as well as non-living, including nature, and motivates us to pay back, with gratitude, therefor. In the absence of this sensitivity, however, life goes meaningless and hence Dharm has been aptly described as “a way of living”. Indeed this way of living provides us with due guidance and guards us against making all abusive wastage of our body and intellect, thereby bringing all solace, comfort and peace upon us. This is, de facto, the divine bliss that sensible people invariably aspire for.
It is, indeed, very unfortunate that our bountiful heritage, Dharm, that we inherited from our learned fore-fathers, has been given a derogatory meaning by our present-day political leaders, most obviously, to suit their selfish interests. They have conveyed, in abundance, and continue to convey day in and day out, in most unambiguous language, that Dharm stands only for “communalism”, and in case, it is made to guide them in their public dealings, it is bound to bring annihilating consequence upon the country. They have coined the word “Secular” to misleadingly stand for “anti-communalism” and have made this word the key of their public administration.
The old dictionary meaning of the word secular is: profane, unsacred, something devoid of spirituality, something not ordained by the religion. The term “secular”, unfortunately, has conveyed very incorrect, totally absurd and truly disastrous signals thereby causing greatest disservice to the nation. The result is that our present-day youth, who takes abundant pride in declaring himself “secular”, has conveniently shaken off all his responsibilities to the society as well as to the country. No discipline remains binding upon him and he feels himself quite free to indulge in all sorts of anti-national, inhumane, most selfish and utterly mean activities with the sole aim to provide himself with plentiful of easy money and all luxuries of life. There is an all-round crisis of Dharm and crisis of character and the entire nation finds itself fully engulfed in a whirlpool of total destruction.
The present-day pitiable scenario of our country makes us to remember our noble kings of the olden past who, though monarchs, administered their pubic affairs with the yard-stick of Dharm for all the well-being, safety, security and satisfaction of their people. Dharmraj Raja Harish Chandra, Ram, Krishna and Yudhister may be said to be legendary figures and, therefore, their existence may be denied, but our subsequent history of the period before the onset of Christian era and a millennium thereafter, is full of praises of the exalted kings like Chandra Gupta Maurya, Ashoka the great, Chandra Gupta Vikramaditiya, Harsh and the like. These kings were truly great, most successful and were greatly loved and respected by their people and this is because they always used the touch-stone of Dharm to weigh the propriety of their personal as well as administrative decisions and actions.
We have been copying the west to give shape to the administrative system of our country’s governance but we have miserably failed in our efforts. The reason is that this is being done ad nauseam, without appreciating the fact that the virtues of competence, honesty, integrity and supremely good character, to be possessed by our political leaders, are sine-qua-non for carrying on with our democracy to the true satisfaction of our people. Revival of Dharm, only and exclusively, will do the needful.
Today’s world is in a firm grip of a series of miseries brought about by abject poverty, wars, and wanton acts of global terrorism. We had the League of Nations after World War I and now we have the UNO. after Word War II for the peaceful solutions of national-level hostilities. The UNO has also undertaken several other beneficial global-level activities, e.g., eradication of poverty, health-care, literacy, environmental protection and the like, but whereas the League of Nations failed in toto, the contribution so far made by the UNO has also left much to be desired. Our selfish attitudes, coupled with mad materialistic approaches, being the raison d’etre for this sordid state of affairs, has thus made our peaceful existence a utopia. Hopefully a day will come when our continued frustration will bring us to senses to take recourse to Dharm for all-round everlasting peace and prosperity.
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