Tag: dharma

Here are five steps to an amazing life. At every step, your life will get noticeably better. Put together, you’ll be experiencing perfection. This is not something made up, but the cumulative wisdom of thousands of years of the yoga tradition, now confirmed by modern science.

Step#1: Self-observation

The first step is to look inside. Before you can make any changes to how you’re living and what your mind is doing, you have to become a witness to your own self. What are you thinking, what’s your focus, what are you feeling? Track your mind’s movements and get in touch with not only your emotions but what’s behind them. Keep track of your motivations and desires and see what their outcomes are.

Take time to examine your consciousness. Silence is key for this. Focus not on external things or your endless to-do list, but just on yourself. Get to know yourself deeply.

Step#2: Self-responsibility

Once you’re looking inside, now you can start taking control of what’s going on. This is when you take the helm and direct your life to where you want it. You assume FULL responsibility for your well-being. No more victimhood. You put aside any idea that your happiness depends on anything or anyone else. You and you alone call the shots when it comes to how you’re feeling and the quality of your life.

You can read more about this in my earlier blog on the topic.

Step#3: Mindfulness

Now that you’re trying to command your mind, the first thing you need to do is to bring it to the here and now, which is a basic definition of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the portal for all higher states of consciousness. Being in the here and now is the solution to just about every form of suffering you impose on yourself.

As your mind drifts to the past, you experience melancholy and lamentation. When your mind jumps to the future, in the false hopes of future happiness, you experience anxiety, fear, and frustration. True joy begins in the now.

You can read more about this in my earlier blog on the topic.

Step#4: Dharma

Being in the here and now allows you to bring your full attention to your task at hand. This raises a key question: what should I do? This is where the concept of dharma comes in.

Dharma means your duty and essence. What’s the best you can do right now? What’s the purest expression of the best of you at this very moment?

Dharma means prioritizing your true nature and learning to balance out your different demands and responsibilities properly. It’s about being guided by values, not external goals. It’s about living your purpose.

This is one of the key components of The 3T Path. This video will help you understand the concept a little better.

Step#5: Bhakti

Lastly, and most importantly, you need transcendence. You need love. Bhakti means transcendental love and devotion. Once you’re in the here and now, living the best of you, now you can make that your spiritual practice, by connecting it all in love of God. Love is the highest expression of the soul. You know this because you’ve experienced how love makes feel great.

But love requires an object. You have to love someone. And you can only love someone to the extent they are “loveable”. That’s why, though we can all agree that love is the highest state of mind, we end up not experiencing it enough. Not many people are so loveable.

Even if you don’t understand or accept the concept of God, at least you can see the logic here. God is defined as infinitely loveable. As such, you can love Him and Her infinitely, which naturally gives you access to an infinitely high state of consciousness and bliss. As an added bonus, God, being transcendent, is always with you, so you can experience this loving connection anywhere, at any time.

Conclusion

So, there you have it: 5 steps to an amazing life. The first four will make your life flow with grace and enthusiasm. The last will take you beyond the constraints of material life, to an ocean of bliss.

In the book, The 3T Path (https://3tpath.com/books/) you can see in detail all these points, the techniques necessary to make them happen and how this can transform your life.

Watch my video on this topic here.

Look what they’re saying about The 3T Path book: “A life-saver!” – Ivan Llobet

 

There are two important terms in the path of yoga: dharma and karma. Many times I’m asked: “What’s the relationship between these two terms?” Here I’ll explain in simple terms the meaning of each, how they are connected and why this knowledge will help you live better.

Karma in Sanskrit means “action.” The law of karma is thus the law of action. Beyond the Newtonian law of action and reaction governing the physical world, the law of action and reaction also affects the experience of embodied souls. Karma should be understood as one of the laws of nature, acting on the metaphysical plane.

Dharma is a rich concept, and the word has many meanings, but my focus will be on dharma as that which needs to be done – essence and duty. Duty can be imposed; essence cannot. Dharma is thus that duty born of who you truly are, of your nature. It’s not an external or social imposition. It’s what you need to do at any given moment to be the best person you can be. It’s doing the right thing at the right time. Being dharmic is more than just doing good or avoiding hurtful or violent behavior, though that is certainly included in the concept, and it can’t be boiled down to a list of don’ts or things to be avoided. Dharma is fluid and alive and sensitive to different aspects of your life. Major changes to your dharma can occur from one second to the next. One way to understand dharma is to rephrase the classic line: “Don’t ask what the world can do for you, but ask what you can do for the world.”

The law of karma is an educational system built into nature, designed to help the embodied soul improve its moral, or dharmic, behavior. Every action you perform has a moral quality to it. Was it the right action? Was it within your dharma to be doing it? If so, did you do it with attention, with care? Did you do your best? If so, then you generated an appropriately positive result. If not, then you get an appropriately negative result. The law of karma puts a mirror in front of you. You get what you give. Or as the Bible says, you reap what you sow.

The reactions produced from our actions come in the form of objects, facts, and situations in life. Everything in your life now – your DNA to your social status, bank account, job situation, neighborhood, planet, health, and everything you own – is the result of your past activities. At every moment, the entire configuration of external reality in your life is a karmic reaction. The only exception is divine intervention. The more you develop your spirituality, and especially your devotion to God, the more your karma may be adjusted by God to suit your spiritual elevation. It’s like getting a presidential or royal pardon. You were tried and found guilty, but the ruling power of the country pardons your crime. Or to give an even better example, if you become a star pupil, then the school may take special interest in your education and adjust your syllabus to help you develop your full capabilities.

Thus, dharma shows you what should be done. Karma, in the sense of the Law of Karma, is the reaction you get according to how “dharmic” your action was. The closer to your dharma, the better the material reaction, the better will be the karma you accumulate. The further from your dharma, the worse the reaction, the worse will be the karma you accumulate.

A yogi, however, doesn’t want any kind of karma. Karma keeps us bound to birth and death, stuck in the material world. Yoga, in its primary application, is a technique for overcoming and eliminating your karma, once and for all, and with that attaining liberation.

So, the yogi will follow his or her dharma, but now as offering to God, with no desire for future reward. This technique is the basis of Krishna’s teachings to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita and is called karma-yoga. There are three key aspects to transform a mundane action into a transcendental action in karma-yoga: 1) be in harmony with your dharma, 2) do the action as offering to God, for His ultimate satisfaction and 3) be in the here and now, without desiring future results from your action. With this you won’t accumulate any karma in the act and gradually you’ll become liberated from material existence.

In the book The 3T Path – Self-improvement and Self-realization in Yoga, available here: https://3tpath.com/books/, you’ll get a much more in depth understanding of dharma, karma, God and how to put it all together in the practice of karma-yoga.

Watch my video on this topic here.

Yours,

Giridhari Das

Look what they’re saying about The 3T Path book: “Excellent roadmap for the Bhakti path. This book has a neat and clear step-by-step process for one to engage in authentic Bhakti Yoga. The practical, organized, and simplified format was a welcome contrast to some books which are too complex for beginners.” – Billy Kubina Jr.

Have you noticed a marked difference between doing something because you want and feeling like you’re being forced to do it? It’s not just your imagination. There’s something very real going on that you should understand. Find out here what it is and why being true to yourself feels so good.

One of two things can happen: either you’re doing something because you really want to do it or you’re doing it because something or someone is forcing you to do it. In the language of psychology, it’s called intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation means the action is coming from you. You embrace it, you understand it and you want to do it to fulfill your goals. Feels good before, during and after you do it. In “The 3T Path” book I explain this in terms of living your dharma. When you’re living your dharma, you’re living your essence. Dharma is your essence in action.

Extrinsic motivation means that you’re being driven to do something for external reasons. Maybe it is your idea, but you’re doing it for money, or you’re doing it to fit in socially. Maybe you’ve got a job – you asked for the job, you need the job – but you have no joy in it and you’re just there to get the paycheck. So, you work, but your motivation is totally extrinsic. Not a happy place to be, right?

The experience is so different because, neuroscience shows, these two processes act on a different part of the brain! Two people can be doing the same thing, but different parts of their brain are more activated, because one is doing the thing intrinsically motivated and the other extrinsically motivated. This is serious stuff. When we’re doing something intrinsically motivated we’re being true to ourselves. It’s you really being you. That’s why it feels so good. This is how you want to live.

So, what can we do about this? First, be mindful and self-observant. Observe yourself and your feelings at all times. Be aware of how you’re feeling. Are you doing something you want to do, that you find meaning in doing, or not? If not, why aren’t you being true to yourself?

If you’re not doing something you want to do, something that’s intrinsically motivated, then you can do one of two things:

1. Adjust your attitude. Look deep for meaning in what you’re doing. Find the intrinsic motivation in your work, exercise routines and relationships. See in what way what you’re doing right now is actually important in fulfilling your goals and in being who you are.
2. Do something else. If you just can’t find meaning in what you’re doing, you have to change it. Don’t settle for living a life that’s not yours. Don’t sell you soul and have a job you hate, just for the money. Don’t be in a relationship that’s not for you, just because you think you have to or because you’re worried about the opinion of others. Sure, you can’t just quit your job, you have bills to pay, etc. But you certainly can seek to adjust things. Move towards a more meaningful life, career and relationships, towards being your true self.

Being true to yourself feels so much better and it’s physiologically a different experience. This is the basis of a good life. Every effort you put into making this happen is well worth it.

Here’s my video on this topic.

 

Check out what they are saying about my book, “The 3T Path”: “This impressive book from Giridhari Das makes it clear why he is a spiritual internet star. This systematic, eloquent book provides valuable guidance for those seeking serious spiritual progress.” – Hridayananda Das Goswami

There are two things that really matter in life, which deserve your focus, because they’ll bring you the best of what life has to offer. I’m talking about dharma and bhakti. Understand what they are, and why they are important.

Dharma is a rich concept, and the word has many meanings, but my focus will be on dharma as that which needs to be done – essence and duty. Duty can be imposed; essence cannot. Dharma is thus that duty born of who you truly are, of your nature. It’s not an external or social imposition. It’s what you need to do at any given moment to be the best person you can be. It’s doing the right thing at the right time. Being dharmic is more than just doing good or avoiding hurtful or violent behavior, though that is certainly included in the concept, and it can’t be boiled down to a list of don’ts or things to be avoided. Dharma is fluid and alive and sensitive to different aspects of your life. Major changes to your dharma can occur from one second to the next. One way to understand dharma is to rephrase the classic line: “Don’t ask what the world can do for you, but ask what you can do for the world.”

There is immediate satisfaction in doing your dharma, because it means living your essence. When our actions are aligned with our dharma, we’re living life in its full potential, and this brings a deep sense of satisfaction. The passage of time in a life lived in dharma brings an unshakable sense of satisfaction, a profound feeling of having lived our purpose and of having done our best.

The final objective in yoga is love of God, divine love. Love is the purest and highest expression of the eternal individual self, the soul. And to love God the perfection of the ability to love. Yoga means “connection” and nothing creates a stronger and more beautiful connection than love. Connecting with God in love is called bhakti-yoga, or just bhakti. It’s not surprising that Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that, of all kinds of yogis, those who connect to Him in bhakti are the highest. Chapter after chapter, Krishna emphasizes that bhakti is the topmost and essential ingredient to achieve spiritual perfection, and that without it, it’s simply not possible to do so. The sage Patanjali also describes in the Yoga Sutras that “the perfection of the perfection of yoga” is achieved by “iswara pranidhana”, which means dedicating oneself to God.

Bhakti is love and to love is to live life to its perfection, for nothing is better than love. Life is the symptom of the soul and the perfection of the soul is to love. Loving God, the infinitely lovable, means to achieve the supreme perfection of existence. It’s the flux of life at its highest.

Thus, dharma and bhakti are what really matter in life. These two bring profound feelings of satisfaction and joy as we live them and accumulate over time to give a supreme sense of well-being.  Everything else comes and goes, but these two provide long-lasting effects.

Sensory, superficial pleasures don’t last at all. That nice dinner you had, that cool movie, fun holiday, buying a new car, getting a promotion at work… none of these last. We can hardly remember them. Their pleasurable effects are ephemeral, and all too quickly fade away. To live life chasing these fleeting sensations of happiness which are gone in the blink of an eye is like trying fill a sieve with fine sand.

And, from the more esoteric aspect of revealed knowledge found in the sacred texts of yoga, we find that it’s precisely bhakti and dharma that we take with us beyond the grave. Bhakti is never lost, Krishna explains in the Bhagavad-gita, and dharma determines your next incarnation, if you haven’t yet practiced bhakti enough to become liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

So, be wise, and experience for yourself how good it is to invest in dharma and bhakti, at every moment of the day. In my new book, “The 3T Path – Self-improvement and Self-realization in Yoga”, I explain in detail the concepts of dharma and bhakti and how you can put them in practice in your life. You can find the book here: https://3tpath.com/books/.

Check out my video about this topic here.

Check out what they are saying about my new book: “I absolutely enjoyed this book by Giridhari Das. Enlightenment and Transformation: a good read!” – Jengel