The Bhagavad Gita on Living Your Dharma

“It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity.” ~ Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita Dharma. It comes from the Sanskrit dhri, which means “to support, hold up or bear.” The word means many things, but according to Eknath Easwaran, dharma “implies support from within: the essence of a thing, its virtue, that which makes it what it is.” On a larger scale, dharma means “the essential order of things, an integrity and harmony in the universe and the affairs of life that cannot be disturbed without courting chaos. Thus it means rightness, justice, goodness, purpose rather than chance.” There’s also a (highly) personal application of dharma. In essence, we all have our own “dharma” or purpose and reason for being alive. As Krishna states in the Gita, following someone else’s dharma is dangerous. If you live your life trying to impress others and not fulfilling what you’re here to do, you’ll feel the pain. So... how about you? Are you living your dharma? Or struggling to fulfill someone else’s ideas about who you should be and what you should do?! In his great book, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” (see Notes), Deepak Chopra dedicates a chapter to his 7th Law: The Law of Dharma. In that chapter, he has a bunch of great questions to help us discover and live our dharma. One of my favorites: “If you had all the money and all the time in the world, what would you do?!!?” So… if you had all the money and all the time in the world, what would you do? * journal time! * :)