Is dharma practical in this age?

Transcript

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thank you and is dharma practical in this age is dharma easy dharma is actually never easy it is even in the time of Mahabharata the whole Mahabharata story is based on how difficult it is to choose dharma so Bhishma had a difficult choice Yudhisthira had a difficult choice to fight against his relatives Karna had a difficult choice so there are difficult choices which we have to make so dharma in that sense is never easy so there are difficulties and we have to go through those difficulties to make right choices now making right choices involves two things first is knowledge and second is will power so now there are two kinds of you could say dilemmas or crisis there is a moral dilemma and there is a ethical dilemma sometimes we use the word morals and ethics as interchangeable but they are not exactly interchangeable moral dilemma is when I have two choices one of which is moral and the other is immoral and I have to choose between the two so here what I need is moral strength, strength of character so for example if say there are hundreds of examples suppose a doctor can make more money by getting a patient go through more tests now more money will come by that but going through all the more tests the patient may suffer more the treatment will not start fast enough this requires the moral strength to resist the temptation of money so this is moral crisis so in this case we require moral strength but ethical crisis means there are two choices or ethical dilemma both of them are moral but which is a higher morality that is difficult to decide so for example somebody may say I always speak the truth that’s a good thing but suppose there is a riot going on and there are some rioters who are cheesing our friend our friend comes and hides in our house and then the rioters knock at our door is he there here? what do I do at that time? so one moral thing to do is to speak the truth the other moral thing to do is to protect somebody in life so at this point it is not just a matter of moral willpower moral strength of willpower here one has to have subtle intelligence to understand that both are moral principles but which is a higher moral principle so the Mahabharata often has this kind of crisis where in the moral dilemmas not moral dilemmas but ethical dilemmas then at that time one has to make a wise choice and that requires going into subtleties to understand not just the principles of morality but to understand the relative importance of the principles of morality so usually the way we learn to practice Dharma is by associating with those who are living according to Dharma so Dharma is more caught than taught taught means somebody gives instruction this is right this is wrong that is important but it is caught caught means when we observe others living this is how this is to be done this is not what is to be done so actually if we are not in the association of those who are trying to live according to Dharma, Dharma will seem very difficult to practice so if we live with materialistic people living spiritually will seem almost impossible but if we are living with living with or at least associating with spiritually minded people then living spiritually becomes possible not just possible it actually becomes relishable we find higher happiness so so the Dharma is actually never easy to practice in the modern times materialism is far more materialistic temptations are a lot and that’s why it is easy to get carried away by those temptations but even now Krishna is there in our hearts and Krishna wants us to make right choices and if we strive to make the right choices then Krishna will give us the guidance about how to execute those right choices in our situation so by association of devotees and by our sincere intention to serve Krishna we can move forward in our lives and choose to act dharmically even when it is difficult and even if we make sometimes wrong choices that is ok it is not that nobody expects us to be a perfectionist suppose sometimes we make a wrong decision and as soon as we realize hey this is wrong come back on the right track like I supposed to go like this go off this way oh I have gone off track come back again so we may veer off course sometimes but even if we veer off course if we are there are specific decisions and there is generic intention generic means overall intention so if my overall intention is to serve Krishna my overall intention is to contribute in a positive way in life in a mood of service then even if my specific decisions go wrong the generic intention is what counts and then we will realize dhami buddhiyogam tam yena mam upayanti te Krishna says in 10.10 in the Bhagavad Gita that I will give you the intelligence by which you can come to me so either we will be able to make the right decision in the beginning itself or even if we make a wrong decision we will realize it if we associate with devotees consult devotees they will also guide us instead of acting this way you could have acted this way future I will take care of this so by the association of devotees by sincerity, by practicing bhakti there are major dharmic decisions there are big decisions if we decisions where things are clear this is right and this is wrong if at that time I make the right choice then by that I am showing Krishna that I want to be guided and then Krishna will guide us when things are difficult to decide but when things are easy to decide at that time itself we make wrong choices then we are showing Krishna that I don’t want to be guided Krishna says ok you don’t want to be guided, stay confused actually to stay confused is also in one sense good worse than being confused is to is to be wrong and to think that I am right is to rationalize what I am doing so we will all face situations where dharma will be very difficult to decide but there are many situations in our life when things are more or less clear this is what I should be doing in this situation and if we act dharmically when it is clear for us then Krishna will guide us to act dharmically when it is not so clear for us does it answer your question? thank you