The first three steps ultimately lead to the final goal of liberation, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

This is the sequence for a human life. All human beings are supposed to make progress towards moksha (liberation) — the real goal of human life. This gets started by taking the first three steps: Doing all acts by the body, mind and words according to dharma; earning one’s living (artha) according to dharma; and enjoying one’s life with the help of the earned artha according to dharma.

When one does all of the above, he or she develops a desire for liberation. There is no possibility of even seriously thinking about liberation unless one has gone through these three steps. Because the way this world had been created, one will not have any attraction for moksha till he or she has enjoyed this world and realised its impermanence. This is like a child wanting a toy. The child will not be peaceful till he gets it, and then what happensIJ He plays with it for some time and discards it; he has realised that the toy cannot give him pleasure permanently.

 Before I go any further, I must explain whatdharma is because everything we do in this regard must be according to dharma only. Essentially, dharma is what God expects us to do. This will include doing duties according to time, place and circumstances; purity; equality; justice, which includes impartiality, what is justified, is proper, and is lawful; good character; and moral values, which motivate one to be good, for doing good deeds.

Dharma should not be confused with doing rituals, as is happening these days. Practically, everyone has begun to believe that the particular rituals he or she does is his dharma and that is called religion. It is no wonder that the world is so divided because we have moved so far away from the essence of dharma, and are justifying fighting one another in the name of dharma (read religion).

Fighting one another is a serious problem but not knowing what dharma actually is more serious because on the personal level we may be doing all the three preliminary acts required for gaining liberation wrongly. We don’t live our lives according to dharma; many do not earn their living according to dharma; and some of us do not enjoy our lives according to dharma. A common man cannot be blamed too much for the state of affairs because our so-called leaders don’t set good examples. Either they are ignorant of dharma or ignore it for selfish reasons.

This is bad enough but when those pretending to be spiritual make false promises of granting material and spiritual boons, get donations for their lavish lifestyle, and use their disciples/followers for personal service, the common man cannot be blamed too much. Fortunately, there are some genuine ones also, which give hope. But they have to be identified. We should not be gullible to be exploited in the name of dharma (religion), because it hurts in two ways. One, we get deviated from the path of dharma, not knowing what it actually is, and two, we get exploited both money-wise and effort-wise.

Those who mislead us are liable for punishment but that does not help our cause. Therefore, let us remember that we do acts with body, mind and words. Our deeds should be as per dharma; our thoughts should not be against dharma, and we should not speak what is against the tenets of dharma. We should earn our living honestly and without exploiting others. Both the choice of the career/profession and the means employed should be bona fide. All the enjoyment, and there must be enjoyment; must not be againstdharma. An example: Watching television is fine but when we use the television or any electronic media for watching sexually explicit contents, we step into adharma.

lastly, I must clarify that some people like Shankaracharya or Vivekananda don’t go through the third step of enjoying material life. This is because they have already done so in their previous lives and realised the impermanence of the material world; they have taken the present birth to seek liberation and progress on that path. That is the reason Shankaracharya spoke about brahma satya jagat mithya.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com