The Divine Cycle

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Posted by: " sai teja " sai_19872000

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Dharma - The Divine Cycle

By Prof. A Anantharaman

 

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Prof Anantharaman has worked as Managing Director of

several multinational companies in Africa, Asia,

Europe, USA and also as Chairman and Chief Executive

Officer of a Transnational Business conglomerate based

in Switzerland. He has served as an adjunct professor

in several business schools including the Harvard

Business School and is currently an honorary faculty

member in the School of Business Management at

Puttaparthi.

 

“I alone know the agony of teaching you each step of

the dance,” said Swami once. What a confession by the

Dance Master of the Universe! And how amazingly

appropriate! He has to maintain balance and order in

the Cosmos when the “gravitational pull of a single

electron randomly shifting position can affect even

the outcome of a billiard game on earth!” Dharma –

Duty with Reasoning

Action is at the very heart of the Universe. The

Universe itself came into existence because of action

and it cannot be sustained without this action chain.

But what is Right Action? There is no word that can

convey the depth, amplitude and vibrancy contained in

the word ‘Dharma’. Swami explains the concept of Right

Action from the root words of Dharma “dharini and

dhru”- as the vesture that binds the whole world. He

explains the concept of Dharma, shorn of all that is

esoteric and erudite, through a simple fable.

When Dasaratha was running after Rama’s chariot, which

bore him to the forest, he was crying out in anguish -

“Stop, Stop! I command you to stop.” The charioteer

Sumantra did not know what to do. Rama told him:

“Don’t stop. If Dasaratha chides you later, tell him

that you did not hear.” Sumantra was in a fix.

How could he tell a lie? Rama explained to him: “The

order to stop the chariot came from Dasaratha, the

grief-stricken father. The order to take me to the

forest had come from Dasaratha, the king. You have no

Dharma to listen to the ravings of a man grieving for

his son. But you have an absolute obligation to listen

to the command of your king.”

Sumantra therefore had an obligation to use reason in

determining his Paradharma . Swami explains: “The word

Dharma does not even mean duty. In duty there is no

freedom. In reason there is freedom. Dharma is an

obligation that imposes both duty and reason.”

For Swami, Dharma is not mere adherence to rules, but

an extension of his oft-repeated concept of unity of

thought, word and deed – Trikarana suddhi.

He says, “It is good to be born in a church, but it is

not good to die in it. Grow and rescue yourself from

limits and regulations, the doctrines that prevent

your freedom of thought, the ceremonial rules that

restrict. Reach the stage where churches do not

matter, where all roads end, from where all roads

begin.”

 

The Bhagavad Gita is a gospel whose message is

timeless. In words that belong to Eternity, Incarnate

God speaks to man; His friend. In Gita Vahini, the

Eternal Charioteer speaks again on Dharma. Sai Himself

interprets in Kaliyuga, what He uttered in

Dwaparayuga. For has Swami Himself not declared, “I am

Vasudeva!”

Swami makes two profound modifications to generally

accepted interpretations of Gita. Firstly, He says

that when Krishna was speaking about Swadharma

(individual duty), He was basically referring to

Atmadharma (duty of the self).

“Again looking at your own duty as well (Swadharma),

you should not waver; for there is nothing more

welcome to a Kshatriya (member of a warrior clan) than

a righteous war.” (Gita 2.31)

Right Action and Right Conduct in Individual Dharma

Every creature is bound by its own respective

individual Dharma. And what is right action for one

may not be right action for another. The story of King

Sibi brings out this point dramatically:

A pigeon chased by an eagle seeks refuge with King

Sibi, an ancestor of Rama. When warned not to harm the

pigeon, the eagle says, “The pigeon is my prey. To

hunt and kill it is my Dharma. It may be your Dharma

to protect those who seek refuge in you. But in that

process why are you interfering with my Dharma?”

And the story goes that Sibi offered an equivalent

weight of the flesh of his own body to adjudicate the

matter.

Bhagavan’s Prescription for Moral Dilemmas

Swami points out that while following Paradharma, one

should not violate Atmadharma, nor do anything which

is against the nature of Atma. And He gives simple

prescriptions for the daily conduct of Dharma.

 

“What is Dharma? Let me summarize it. First, treat

your parents with love, reverence and fortitude.

Second, act as you speak, speak as you feel and do not

play false to your conscience. Third, be calm and

levelheaded and maintain equipoise. And finally listen

to the voice within!”

In another significant departure, Swami refutes the

point that working for reward is immoral. But Swami

offers an improved recipe:

“Perform action as an offering to God without

hankering for reward and without any sense of

individual doership.”

This was another reaffirmation of Krishna, who said:

“Therefore surrendering action to Me, thy thoughts

concentrated on Me, the Absolute and the Self of all,

freed from selfishness and without anticipation of any

reward, with your mind in a perfectly calm mood, begin

thou to fight.” (Gita 3.30)

And how far is this Yoga of action practicable? And

what happens when there is a moral dilemma. Sai

Krishna provides the answer:

“ Fix your mind on Me. Be devoted to Me. Sacrifice to

Me. Prostrate before Me. So shall you come to Me. This

is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.” (Gita

18.65)

Transform Work into Worship

When we see Divinity installed everywhere, as the

indweller in every being, Karmayoga becomes

Bhaktiyoga, work becomes worship. Swami says that the

emphasis of such an offering should be Love.

As the Sufi poet Khalil Gibran said: “Work is Love

made visible. And if you cannot work with Love, but

only with distaste, it is better that you should leave

your work and sit at the gate of the temple, and take

alms from those who work with joy. For if you bake

bread with indifference, you make bitter bread that

feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the

crushing of grapes, your grudge distills a poison in

the wine. And if you sing though as angels and love

not your singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voice

of the day and the voices of the night.”

 

Sri Rabindranath Tagore

As part of this pavithrakarma, Swami brings in the

concept of Service. “Hands that help are holier than

lips that pray.” In fact, He echoes the words of the

bard of Shanti Niketan (Sri Rabindranath Tagore), who

wrote over six decades ago, in language of unsurpassed

beauty:

“Leave this chanting, singing and rolling of beads,

Whom dost thou worship in the lonely dark corner of

the temple with its doors all shut,

Come out of thy meditation and leave aside the flowers

and incense,

Your God is out there in the tattered clothes of he,

Who toils by the sweat of his brow.” (Tagore)

As an international corporate citizen, I have worked

in several continents with varying culture and

environment. Several times I have experienced moral

dilemmas. But whenever doubts assailed me and anguish

stole a march, whenever I had conflict on what should

be the right action, I always recollected the story of

Dasaratha and found immediate clarity.

Several times I have also experienced moral dilemmas.

But whenever I surrendered to Swami, all action and

the fruits thereof; confusion, doubt and dismay

vanished like the mist before the morning sun.

Turning Action into Sacrifice, Surrender and Love

Let me recount just one incident. This happened six

years ago. As a group Chief Executive, I headed a

cluster of operations in the United States belonging

to our parent company, a Swiss conglomerate. One of

these companies was going through extremely trying

times. There was an economic recession. We sorely

needed an infusion of capital, which was hard to come

by. The company’s bankers were themselves in the

middle of a restructuring process and had indicated

that they would not extend the loan when it came for

renewal in September that year.

During a board meeting in August, the directors took

stock of the situation. While appreciating all action

taken by the company, they saw no other option except

to suspend the operations. I asked for time, a four

week period, in which to try out some alternative

plans. I was concerned at the loss of employment and

livelihood for the staff and workmen of the company,

most of whom had put in long years of service and knew

no other trade. There were several employees, each

with his entire family working for the company - these

would be devastated. The Board agreed to my request

and decreed that if no acceptable alternative plans

were found, the operations should be closed down on a

Friday; four weeks hence.

It was the longest four-week period of my life. I

began each day with an intense prayer to Swami. I felt

that it was my Dharma to ensure that I take any and

all actions that would prevent a closure and loss of

jobs. I met with several bankers and financiers to

whom I made presentations about the Company’s

financing needs. I approached competitors interested

in consolidation and possible acquisition of our

Company. It was work round the clock. I tried, as

Tennyson said: “To lose myself in action lest I wither

in despair”. Nothing seemed to succeed. There seemed

to be no other option except to let the employees go.

All too soon the penultimate Thursday, the day before

the expiry of the time limit given by the board was on

me. As a last resort, I decided to meet a competitor

to try and work out a possible sale of the company. As

the long day wore on, it seemed clear that even that

would not work. The buyer would not agree to a vital

condition that I insisted - not to shift the

operations and jeopardize employment.

As I drove back home totally dejected, I recollected

the words of Shelley:

“I was in the shadows of a starless night in which I

moved alone

And pale anguish kept a heavy gate.”

En-route I passed my workplace. I cast a long

lingering look behind. It had started raining; and in

the dim haze, I fancied that I saw the several

families that would be jobless by the next day. As I

retired that night I wondered what next after

Result-less Action. And whatever happened to Krishna’s

pledge in chapter18 “pratijane priyoasi mey ” (This is

my pledge to you for you are dear to Me).

With great effort I betook myself to work next morning

to do the inevitable. As I reached the outskirts of

the plant, I found the traffic blocked and a large

group of people assembled. All around, as far as eyes

could see, there was a sheet of water. Our factory was

situated in a low-lying area. Due to the heavy rain

the previous night, the river nearby had risen and

inundated the area. There was four feet of water in

and around our premises. The newspapers next day

reported that this was a rare occurrence; the last

reported flood in the area had occurred 80 years

earlier and since then the river embankment had been

strengthened. The actuarial calculations of the

insurance companies had rated the probability of the

region getting flooded as one in a million! The city

and county geological officials were completely

baffled!

It was another two days before water receded and we

could get into the premises. We waddled in ankle deep

water. When I entered my office, the photograph of

Swami, which adorned my desk, stood calm and serene

amidst the ravages of the deluge. It almost seemed to

mock at me and repeat the words in chapter 18: “For

those who prostrate before Me, solemn is My promise.”

To cut a long story short, we did not have to suspend

the operations the next day. The federal government

declared the area a disaster area and FEMA (Federal

Emergency Management) poured in funds for

rehabilitation. We also benefited from a substantial

insurance claim - for some strange illogical reason,

which I still cannot fathom, I had earlier overruled

my controller and instructed him to take a flood

coverage, an unusual practice at that time and in that

area.

Further, we did not have to repay the term loan to our

bank that September; as part of a public relations

gesture the bank forgave the loan! Suddenly, we had

the needed capital for implementing our plans. The

livelihood of the families of the employees, my sole

concern in the whole effort, was protected.

Action, Sacrifice, Surrender and Love - How well this

cycle works! Announcing His Divinity, Swami wrote to

His brother in May 1947:

“No one can comprehend My glory, wherever he is and

whatever his method of enquiry and however long his

attempt!” Generations to come will scarcely believe

that such a one as this, in flesh and blood, ever

walked on this earth. And it is indeed our privilege

that we are contemporaries of this Avatar. The only

tribute we can offer is to lay down our lives as

flowers at His Lotus Feet!

Jai Sai Ram!

 

http://media. radiosai. org/Journals/ Vol_05/01APR07/

04-divine. htm

 

 

 

 

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