From dharma to karma

A clear conscience and being able to go to sleep peacefully at night is what matters most to this corporate honcho.

I believe that happiness and spiritualism cannot be a quest in itself. God expresses Himself in all his manifestations. I see God in the bartender who uses all his skills, diligence in serving his customers and making them feel happy and satisfied. In accomplishing his job sincerely, he has served God. Even a simple gesture of following the traffic rules, which prevents accident, or giving way to an ambulance carrying a critically-injured, is an act of God. The diversity of this world observed in all the flora and fauna is God's creation. Walk through a garden; observe carefully. What do you see? Simple acts of pollination, flowering of buds, metamorphosis of a larva to a splendid butterfly — a whole eco system in balance. No human mind could have conceived these millions of creations, with their endless possibilities. What do you call that? Call it what you may — God, supernatural power, but there is no denying the existence.

Our ancient scriptures say that there are four stages of life everyone has to go through —
b ra h m a ch a r y a , grihistha, sanyas, and vanaprastha. There can be no r e nu n c i at i o n (tyag) without i n d u l ge n c e (bhog). Only a person who has seen and indulged in all the pleasures of life can give it all up. We have to go through all stages and live to the fullest. And here I do not mean to sound like a hedonist. In Sarat Chandra's Last Question seeing young boys observing hard penance, the female protagonist questions why is it that these children of a very tender age have to undergo so much hardship in observing brahmacharya? Those who never had any happiness in life, can they ever give happiness to others? Instead of superimposing brahmacharya on them, why not leave them to live a normal childhood?

Trying to be rigid and drawing lines between materialism versus spirituality is an exercise in futility. I think I could be wearing designer clothes, watches, vacationing at exotic places and yet be spiritual. I believe that the more one runs after happiness, the more happiness will elude him. Happiness is an elixir that has to be sieved from our everyday existence. It cannot be a goal or an end in itself.

I personally would not put any representation of God or any religious symbol in my brief or toilet seat for the same reason as I would not do that with, say, my parents’ pictures. It is a question of respect and not any rigid dogma. Spirituality means following my dharma through my karma. Dharma is that essential quality without which an object or a being loses its existence or its characteristics. If I have a sweet, can I ever explain to anyone how sweet that is? Or if my hands were to get scalded, can I ever measure the intensity of pain? That is the
dharma of a sweet or the fire that hurts me. Similarly, my dharma or passion in life has been to nurture entrepreneurs through partnership. That is what I have strived to achieve all my life. My karma leads me to live a life where I am accountable to myself for all my deeds, being able to look myself in the eye straight up in the mirror without any guilt pangs, having a clear conscience and being able to go to sleep peacefully at night. Beyond that, I don't dwell on spirituality much.