iKomila

You are our daughter-in-law, you should get up early and do pooja in the morning/evening,
You are my son, you should sweep my ashes in Holy river Ganga,
You are my friend, you should come with me to Mosque,
You are my father and mother, it is your duty to feed me.

We all want something or the other from everyone around us, and mention it is duty / dharma.. What is dharma…:

Once upon a time, Lord Shiva was engaged in penance in the Himalayas. Maa Parvati went to Him and asked, “What is the nature of Religion or Duty? How indeed do men, not aware of the details of Religion or Duty succeed in observing them?”

Lord Shiva said, “Abstention from inflicting injury on others, truthfulness of speech, mercy towards all beings tranquility of soul restrain over the mind and the senses, and a propensity of donating to the best of one’s ablility, form the foremost duties of a householder. Abstention from sexual union with any woman other than one’s own wife, safeguarding the wealth and women committed to his care, reluctance to appropriate what does not belong to him, and abstaining from meat and liquor, are the five chief duties. Indeed, Dharma has many branches, all of which yield happy results. These are the duties for those embodied creatures who consider dharma as superior. These are the sources of merit.
~ Source: Mahabharata, Anushasanaparva, 23 to 27 verses of chapter 141

It explains all, i think…Where do i stand on the scale ?? Do my actions lead me towards it ?? well i am vegetarian, does that count… no jokes, i think i will do an assessment of my actions and share with you all…

Till then, you too watch your actions/dharma

Oh ! there is so much to learn. I mentioned earlier, we should watch our actions. Here again, i read this beautiful story in Mahabharata which goes like this:

After the war of Mahabharata, a distressed Dhritarashtra once asked Vedavyasji, ‘O Lord! How is it that all my hundred sons have been killed and I, the blind old father, remained alive’ I have not committed so grave sins in this life as to face such an irony of fate, and I must have earned some virtues in my earlier lives to be born as a king. Then what is the cause of my terrible suffering”
Vedavyasji sat in meditation to see Dhritarashtra’s past lives and found that in his earlier lives he had been a deer, an elephant and then a king. Thereafter he came out of his samadhi and told Dhritarashtra, ‘124 years back, you were a king and had gone hunting in the jungle. You saw a deer and chased it but could not hunt it as it disappeared in the woods. Seething with rage and with a hurt ego, you set fire to the jungle which burnt down the grass and dried leaves. But in the fire some offsprings of a snake were also burnt alive and the mother was blinded. You are suffering the consequences of that action in this life. You were born blind and all your children have been killed.’

Wherever you may live, whichever job you are engaged in, first of all realize your Supreme Self. Then whatever you do will be without a sense of doership (karta) and hence will not bind you.

The Lord has made the world action-bound. Hence what one gets is only the reactions of one’s own actions.

Wherever you live, whatever actions you perform, do them without a sense of doership (karta) and they will not bind you. Otherwise, with the sense of doership (karta) prevailing in your mind, even insects killed while strolling around would constitute your actions worthy to be stored up. Whether you offer a glass of water to someone or usurp something belonging to another, all these actions are stored up. But the same actions performed without the sense of being a doer create no bondage at all.