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Dharma
At the
end of the great epic poem Mahabharata, which tells
history of India, the emperor Yudhisthira, famous for
his rectitude, goes to the top of Meru Mountain to get
his final liberation. During his trip he is faithfully
accompanied by a dog.
Yudhisthira, having lost his wife and children, is alone
on the top. Up there Indra (king of gods and father of
his brother Arjuna) appears and invite him to enter the
paradise. Yudhisthira is allowed to keep his body in
reward for having ruled with fairness and justice.
He is
going to enter with the dog beside him, the last
companion of his life, but Indra stops him and says,
“leave him outside”!
Yudhisthira, after a short hesitation, politely refuses
the offer. How could he ever abandon on that desolate
place that little animal, which has relied on him?
His
conscience doesn’t permit it. Although Indra exhorts him
to leave the dog saying there is no evil in this, the
emperor doesn’t feel like abandoning the animal. His
decision is taken.
He
prefers to renounce beatitude and paradise than make a
living being unhappy.
“I’ll be
able to come only after this loyal creature, which
trusts me, ends its earthly life. Now my duty is to take
care of him.”
At that
moment the dog turns into Dharma, the God who embodies
the right direction, the law, the rectitude, the right
acting (and emperor’s father).
Yudhisthira is revealed by his father that is was the
last test to pass.
How can
this episode be read?
Someone
gives this interpretation: at the end of our life we
need to abandon the right acting because it results from
a social and not a universal law.
This
could be the right perspective especially if we base on
Western translations or on the interpretation of Peter
Brook’s film The Mahabharata (in the last part of the
film Yudhisthira’s renounce to his reward is a
punishment; the emperor joins his wife and brothers and
they stay in a sort of limbo waiting for their
liberation).
But my
interpretation is different. My hypotheses, on which we
can discuss, is nearer to what I mean for the right
acting.
First of
all we have to take care of people and things we have
been given by our Dharma (the right law). At the end of
this phase, freed from ties and debts, we’ll be ready to
go for our realization.
In other
words: if I decided to get married and have children,
before retiring into a monastic life somewhere, I have
to be sure my husband or wife and my children are
economically and emotionally self-sufficient.
If I’m
practising meditation in the late morning and my
four-year old child is hungry, hasn’t had his breakfast
yet and doesn’t dare to disturb me because he’s afraid
of my irritated reaction, what’s the value of my
meditation?
If I’m
doing japa holding mala in my right hand and the string
of beads in my left hand for keeping count of prayers (hindu
prayer recitation, like catholic way, uses a kind of
rosary) and see someone tripping and risking to fall,
what’s the value of my prayer if I don’t stretch even a
hand to help him?
We could
object that certain high results are possible only with
constant exercise and proper techniques.
But
what’s the use of technique without comprehension?
Doesn’t
it make bigger an already prominent ego, especially in a
society persuaded that its exigencies must be satisfied
completely, immediately, easily and at any price?
Also the
commitment to attend a course, like yoga, which helps us
to know ourselves and get rid of afflicting problems, is
shattered by a light headache, laziness and not
excellent weather conditions (it’s not unusual I give
lessons followed by few students because the others are
discouraged by two drops of rains or a trivial reduction
of temperature). Maybe who skip lessons for irrelevant
reasons are those who quarrel with their family needing
their help when they want to meditate …!
Well, in
our society where people believe that the way to acquire
realization, welfare and approach to spirituality in as
easy and convenient like getting a handful of pills is
very hard to understand what is right acting is (Dharma)
Hari Om Tat
Sat
by Emy Blesio
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