12 Nov 2010 —
Question
Q172: Detachment or Dharma?
Question 172:
“For you, what comes first: acting with detachment, or acting according to dharmic values and principles?”
Please make your answer clear and brief (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
Aum Dharma-adharma Vivarjithayai Namah
As AMMA says:
It’ with true unconditional love that helps us to transcend
the good and evil sides of the world external.
Ofcourse, to the ego-infected mind, rotten by the darkness of ignorance [Rajas & Tamas], Dharma is understood as Adharma and vice-versa.
E.g. Ravana and Kumbakarna
Duryodhana and Karna etc …
Only the pure Satvic mind can discriminate and to attain such pure mind, we need to cultivate detachment [VAIRAGYA], the formost among the qualities of Sadhana Chatustayam – Viveka, Vairagya, Sama-dama aadi satsampatti, Mumukshatvam.
It’s through detachment, Vairagya, we are able to love truly and dicrimate between Dharma and Adharma.
Dharmic-Lifestyle habits, lead to detachment, where all the ‘petty war-load thoughts’ are defrocked, exposed and sentenced to languish where they belong, in the pale stale catacombs of time. Amma and I blast a fire hose of love-presence into each moment’s task… a forever of it’s own. Floating buoyantly in the glassy sparkling waters of the universal mother. May I never relent.
Act like an instrument in the hands of Amma… Then the action becomes according to Dharmic values and principles without any attachment…
i think i act according to dharmic values and principles first. detachment is very hard for me at this stage in the game. acting according to dharmic values is easier for me because i am able to think, “what would Amma do”, and then i try to act accordingly. easier said than done, but i try! 🙂
I think acting with detachment comes in dharmic values and principles.And dharmic values,priciples will bring detachment in me..But most mandatory is Ammas grace.Without humility nothing can me to me,isn’t it.
If I am being told by my master that Attaching yourself with worldy things will only bring sorrow then certainly detachment should come,then doesn’t it come to me.And heart is the place for praying to lord.All values priciples comes in Amma.When we think about that oneness,unity then these diffrences vanishes.
acting according to dharmic values and principles
Early on in sadhana I would have said the Dharma but as time has passed, emboding detachment came naturally. Now I see that acting through detachment the dharmic values and principles naturally arise.
Detachment is acting without making everything about the ego – the sense of a separate “I”. Acting in accordance with dharma is acting mindful of our fundamental oneness and the desire of all sentient beings to be free from suffering. They are both the same from their different perspectives. In the Gita Krishna first talks about acting with detachment, then says “make everything an offering to Me”. Ultimately both are the same.
Whatever my Divine MAA makes me do. If we have known what we are then no confusion
Dharma I guess is my first instinct and then when I see that stress is taking over I apply detachment 🙂
I hope I can act the reverse way!
Detachment is the first that helps to implement dharma. Karmayogi in implementing dharma. But all the above is not possible in present times.
I think, acting with detachment will come first.If we wish to detach ourself from the worldly activities ,we should attach to something higher than that. Eg:if we want to walk little forward, we should detach one foot from the earth,then only the other foot can go forward.Once if we got mental state of detachment in our actions ,automaticaly the despassion will arise in our attitiude.So there will not be a desire for the fruit of actions.As long as the desire for the fruit of actions is absent ,there is no question of Adharma in the actions of anybody.So the implementaion of Dharma will happens automatically in our actions.Dharma is dos and don’ts according to the Vedas and Upanishats,and it varies from person to person.Eg;The Putra dharma is different from pita Dhrama.The Dharma of a Raja is not same to the Dhrama of the dharmapatni of a praja.
Always “acting according to dharmic values and principles”. I was never able to know whether I act without or with detachment. But, I am able to accept even the worst situations after it has happened. Slowly coming out of it illumined by the Scriptural declarations and the impermanence of the material world.
“Both go hand-in-hand” is my opinion.
If i don’t worry about the result of my action, that doesn’t mean that i can do it wrongly :).
So i should act without attachment, but at the same time do the action according to dharmic values and principles.
In my case,both interfere with each other a lot. Sometimes they take the same point of view. For example,sometimes detachment helps in doing dharmic things.But sometimes the reverse happens,i cannot do dharma because of lack of detachment.A long way to go towards either,in my own case.
I believe if we act according to the dharmic principles or values, naturally detachment comes in action. if we are acting according to the dharma, with proper discrimination, we cannot be attached to any thing. A blend of these will draw us more closer to surrender also.
What I find interesting about action is that it can become eventually spontaneous with Yoga, and perhaps, with time and Grace, you might not even need to ask yourself this question, and/or to choose acting according to dharmic values or instead, with detachment..But if you look closer at action in that state you might notice that values and detachment are complementary, and that you are resorting to them both, alternatively or together.