Dharma-Based Culture

The Game Bhagwan Plays

Bhagwan is wonderfully playful. He has given every human being the freedom to build their own tangles. With boundless free will and limited capacity, each person arranges their commerce, their dealings, their rushing about, their entanglements. It becomes natural to slip into routine. And in this self-created game, a person becomes so entangled that the true purpose of human life is forgotten entirely. A mother busy in the kitchen gives her child a few toys and sends him to play in the courtyard — but if the child then forgets the mother because of the toys, how can that be right?

Alarms Set by the Rishis

To keep humans alert and aware of their own development, to keep them striving and eager for their life's true purpose, Indian civilization has set many alarms. The Rishis (sages) designed various occasions, festivals, and observances in such a way that through them, both the social and the spiritual dimensions of human life would grow.

For example, the month of Margashirsha is considered sacred because Bhagwan says in the Gita, "Among months, I am Margashirsha" — making it a month of divine glory. Shravan is regarded as supremely sacred. Chaturmas (the four sacred months) holds special significance. Every fortnight, Ekadashi, Purnima, and Sankashti are observed as important days. In this way, Indian culture designed a system to periodically reawaken the Dharma consciousness that naturally fades in the course of daily routines. Hindu civilization arranged for the child to find his way back to the "mother" from the distractions of play.

The Defining Character of a Civilization

Every civilization, every nation, has a defining trait. The quality or principle that predominates gives it its distinctive character. French culture is known as an aesthetics-centred civilization. The defining trait of America is "wealth" — everything there revolves around, is woven by, or gets tangled in money. The defining trait of the British is "politics." If we had to describe Indian civilization in a single word, we would have to call it a Dharma-centred culture.

Everything for Indians revolves around Dharma. Whether it is the four Varnas — Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra — as a framework for social organization, or the four Ashramas — Brahmacharya (studentship), Grihastha (householder), Vanaprastha (retirement), and Sannyasa (renunciation) — as stages of individual life, or the four Purusharthas — Dharma, Artha (material prosperity), Kama (desire), and Moksha (liberation) — as the aims of human existence: everything emerges from and is illuminated by the stream of Dharma.

Dharma as Wrapping Paper

Every teaching in our tradition was handed to us wrapped in the "wrapping paper" of Dharma. If the subject was health, it did not say merely "exercise" — it said perform Surya Namaskar, for it is Bal-Upasana (worship of strength). The idea of Upasana (devotional practice) and Archana (ritual worship) permeated everything. Even the dietary rules around ritualist fasting — what may be eaten and what may not — carry the wisdom of health within them.

Through this approach, the outer benefits naturally follow, but alongside them, the human mind is shaped quietly. Possibilities for inner development open up. Sweetness enters relationships. When we look at nature, a sense of sacred glory awakens. And in our relationship with Ishwar, both intimacy and fearlessness grow.

When we speak of Dharma as "wrapping paper," the thought arises: once the gift inside is received, the wrapping is no longer needed and can be discarded. But no — with Dharma it is not so, and it must not be so. It is the essence and substance of Dharma that illuminates every other dimension of life as well. Family, marriage, household, parenting, health, relationships, business, social engagement — in their broadest context, even "Artha" and "Kama" are governed by Dharma. This is exactly why Maharshi Ved Vyas raised his hands and declared: why do people not observe Dharma even to attain Artha and Kama?

Philosophy and Practice

Dharma has two essential aspects:

First comes Philosophy — Tattvagyan (knowledge of fundamental principles), Gyan Kanda (the chapter of knowledge), thought, the inner essence and its meaning.

Second comes Mythology, ritual — the outer form, Karma Kanda (the chapter of action), customs, practices, and traditions.

Both aspects of Dharma are important and valuable. But ritualism must never come at the expense of philosophical understanding. One must grasp the essence and then live according to tradition. If the outer form needs to change with changing times and circumstances, then it must change — it should change. But in the process of that adaptation, we must take care not to discard the essential truth along with the old ideas.

O Lord of this Adhik, grant us the thinking capacity and the discerning wisdom to embrace what is good and to let go of what is not.