TV Channel

Part 1: The Mind, Dharma, and Karma: A Discourse The result comes from karma, not from dharma. Dharma is only a sort of support; it gives you the support to do the right thing. This is the right thing to do. But what you actually do could be different from that. And the results will come from what you actually do. Believe me, the whole universe is mathematical. If you can predict the sunrise and sun rays millions of years from today, if you can predict a solar eclipse billions of years hence, it’s all mathematics. Then why do you think that our actions are not mathematics? Our actions are equally mathematical. They are all like when you search a website on the internet; all your records are recorded somewhere. Siddha Purījī, Siddha Purījī... Siddha Purījī, the third person will say, "No, no, I’ll take this revenge later, at a good time. Let me see, let the good opportunity come, I’ll take revenge." The result could be different, you know. Action is the same, but the result could be different. Somebody may slap you immediately. Somebody may slap you after two years at an opportune time. Somebody may completely ignore you and go away. So, the result is very different. Human actions invite results, but they could be very, very different. So I think here I will end today, because both dharma and karma are chapters which we can discuss again, particularly karma. Because karma is also the root of birth and rebirth. It’s all related. And it’s mathematically true. Why it is true, we can discuss some other time. But thank you very much for your attention. I’m really grateful for your time. And Swamījī, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Thank you. Every action has a reaction, positive or negative. So you see, the action of all of us, we accept it very much. Thank you. Thank you, Your Excellency. Very nicely explained, three things: mind, karma, and karma. These three stand very close, and it’s a lifelong work to do this. Not only to understand, but to continue. So it means His Excellency kept the chapter open, so it is certain that He will come again. To fill the text, the webcast will be tomorrow morning at 10:30. Wish you all the best, dear brothers and sisters around the world. You heard a beautiful explanation, a talk by the Ambassador of India to Hungary, His Excellency Gaurī Śaṅkar Gupta, on how to understand the mind and what the mind is. As I always used to say, who are you to judge someone? And that’s the excellence made very clear. Again, we can judge only ourselves. Without understanding others, our judgment can be a wrong action, wrong karma. And when you judge someone wrong, then your actions will also have a wrong reaction. So be careful to judge someone. If one is drinking alcohol, don’t say, "Oh, terrible, he is drinking alcohol." Don’t tell them to drink alcohol, don’t say this, but ask, "Why do you drink? What is your problem?" So everyone has their weakness, so who are... We can judge, if you understand, we can judge, we can help, that is our dharma. Dharma dharyate dharma, what you accept according to his excellency, and action, reaction. So thank you. You have time to overthink. You may write your thoughts or questions; they will be answered next time. You can write, you can email it to Krishnanand, he will collect, and next time your questions will be answered. Thank you for listening. Blessings to all of you, the blessings of our beloved Satguru Dev, Bhagavān Dīp Nārāyaṇ Mahāprabhujī, Devpurījī, and Gurujī. This evening we have with us a great personality, His Excellency, the Ambassador of India to Hungary, Śrī Gaurī Śaṅkar Gupta jī. Many of you may remember, about three months ago, he was here after coming back from Kumbha Melā, if you remember. His Excellency is coming from Rajasthan. Do you know where Rajasthan is? Where? In India, no? That’s right. Have you been in Rajasthan? His Excellency has been writing many poems. The Indian language is printed in different languages. Someone said to me that Indians are born as philosophers. No wonder, because the ancient wisdom, culture, and thoughts are what make everyone in India like a philosopher. I’m not talking about present time. But even in this situation, there are great personalities like His Excellency, and me as well, and Krishnanand has been asking him, requesting him, if he could spend his valuable time to come and be with us this evening. This ten-day, or fourth night, seminar or retreat is dedicated, Your Excellency, to a successful life. How to solve personal problems, how to solve worldly problems, how to be successful while following our duties and fulfilling our obligations. So the obligation and work together, it has some particular expression or name in Sanskrit that His Excellency will tell you. So this evening we are happy and honored to have His Excellency among us. Today, the floor is here, but before that, we shall welcome him with flowers. Thank you. Can you bring this? Yes. Mālā! Oh, very good. So, Indian way. Very good. You too. So, our Śaṅkarjī, Your Excellency, feel free to speak. Don’t look at the watch. We are beyond time, above time, and the floor is yours. Welcome. Respected Swamījī, it is always an honor and privilege to be here with him, to take his blessings, and to speak a few words to exchange some ideas with all of you. But this is all possible because of the blessings of Swāmījī. I am honored by your invitation to be here once again, and I would be happy to be here more often, as far as time permits. And I am grateful to all of you that you have spared your time to listen to me this evening. So I greet all of you from the bottom of my heart, and I also extend greetings on the recently concluded 64th Independence Day of India, which we celebrated on the 15th of August, which coincided with the birthday of Swamījī. Last time when I was here, we spoke a little bit about discovering ourselves, and I said, "Let’s find out who I am." Each one of us started thinking about oneself: who am I? Am I a body in flesh and blood, or is it something beyond that? And we talked about the body, we talked about how the senses control our body, then we talked about how the senses are controlled by the mind, and how the mind is so volatile that it flies and takes you away like waves in the ocean. So today I will try to deal with two different issues. One, the functioning of the mind and how it affects our life on a day-to-day basis. How can we be happier if we can observe our mind and try to regulate it? And then a little bit on the subject of Dharma, as we call it in English. Now let us talk about the mind. As I spoke last time, the more visible things are less powerful, and the subtle, as they become more and more subtle and smaller, they become more powerful. Like the senses are more powerful than the body; the body is useless without the senses. But the mind, which is not even visible, is more powerful than the senses, and it controls each one of your senses. If you are listening to me, not because of your ears, but because your mind is with your ear. If you can see me, it’s not because of your eyes, but because your mind is with your eyes. So the functioning of each sense is controlled by the mind constantly, every second, every moment, every millisecond. Mind is a very volatile thing. It moves fastest in the world. In a second, you can go from VIP to Budapest, to Vienna, to New York, to Washington, to Australia, to India, to Jaipur, God knows where, or to the moon. It flies. It’s like waves in the ocean, very difficult to control. If you can control the mind, it is called meditation. You keep thinking, and keep your mind still even for half a minute; it’s an achievement. It’s very, very difficult to control the mind. Now, mind is volatile, but mind is also the source of all pleasure, all pain we get in life. All innovations, all thought, everything which happens in this universe is because of your mind. The seed of the action is sown in the mind. For example, you think of Swamījī, and your mind thinks of spirituality; then it feels that we should go to the āśram of Swamījī. Then you plan, okay, when we can go, how we can go, what is the way out. The entire action takes place from the thought of the mind. The action follows the mind. Similarly, in the mind, sometimes you feel, "Oh, I am very, you know, poor. I may not have anything to eat tomorrow. My children are suffering. People are trying to create problems for me," and you start feeling very unhappy without any proper reason. Just a thought process in the mind can make you very unhappy. It happens with every one of us. We are all humans. You think sometimes a process of thoughts comes in your mind, and you start feeling miserable in yourself. Then a thought process comes, and you feel happy. Another process comes: you look at the beautiful flowers, you look at the brighter side of life, you look at the sunlight, you look at beautiful people, beautiful things, wonderful children, and you feel happy. Nothing changes on the surface. The earth, the planet, the people are the same. But we are happy or unhappy only because of the thought process in our mind. I hope I am able to explain my views. So the thought process in the mind is the source. It’s not only, as I told you, controlling the senses and the body, but also the source of entire pain and pleasure we get in life. By keeping the mind in a better state, we can be happy all the time. It’s a thinking, it’s a process of thinking and regulating the mind to be happy in life. Then, anything, any innovation in life—if, for example, today we have an aircraft which can take you from one place to another in a few hours. Think about 50 years ago or 70 years ago when there were no aircraft. Then the human mind saw the bird flying. And he says, "Why can’t we also fly, or something can be made like this so that we can fly?" The thought process came in the mind, which ultimately led to thinking and action on the ground that led to the invention of an aircraft. Similarly, all inventions in this world, whether it is television, a cell phone, or a computer, they all start here to begin with. The mind is the root of all innovation, of all the new things in this universe, in this world. Nothing starts without the mind, so the mind is extremely powerful. It controls all of you; it controls all your pleasures, all your pains. It controls all the innovations and all your actions which happen. And that is why in Indian philosophy there have been a lot of exercises to regulate the mind. Yoga, prāṇāyāma, and meditation are all designed to cool your mind. Your anger starts in the mind. Your greed starts in the mind. Kāma, krodha, mada, lobha, moha. These five great evils, that is, sexual desire, not always great evils, but weaknesses we can say, sexual desire, anger, mada is arrogance, lobha is greed, moha is attachment. They all start from here. And in order to slightly loosen that grip of these weaknesses, you have to regulate the mind. So the mind is extremely powerful, but it is not visible, as I explained to you. The doctors might say they can tear apart your body, they can do all the dissections, but they will never find the mind because it does not physically exist. It exists in what you call subtle form. It exists like this whole thing. The air between you and me is all subtle form of existence, and it’s very powerful in different ways. So the mind exists in that form, and the mind—the existence of the mind—cannot be proved scientifically. It can only be realized by us through meditation, through internal thinking. Now, mind is very powerful, but it has limitations, and we must realize those limitations, and then I will come to the conclusion regarding this point. Now, mind is very powerful, as I told you, but there are many limitations of the mind. First of all, my mind knows everything about me, but it doesn’t know anything about you, or about him, or about him. What he is thinking, I cannot. I can only guess. My mind doesn’t know. Everything that I am thinking, my mind knows. I cannot hide anything from the mind. But at the same time, I cannot understand somebody else’s mind with my mind. My mind is not powerful enough to understand somebody else’s mind and thought process. This is a very important limitation of the mind. Another important limitation of the mind is the evolution of the mind. The mind of a child is not the same as the mind of an adult. My mind today is not the same as the mind after twenty years. The mind changes; it grows, you know, it changes with time, which is not the case for the soul. The soul is constantly the same, but the mind changes. So mind evolves, or, you know, it changes. I won’t say evolves, but it changes. So that is a limitation. A child’s thinking process will be very different from the thinking process of an adult. Or the same person will think differently 20 years ago and 20 years hence. If we go back to our own ideas from 20 years ago, to what we were thinking, then you will realize, "Oh, maybe I was thinking wrong at that time." You yourself learn in the process, so the mind also learns. The mind is not what you can call something which can be described as permanent and all-knowing. It learns. It learns with experience. It learns with time. It learns with age. So these are the limitations of the mind. Because of these limitations, there are some conclusions which we must draw. Because of the power of the mind and also because of its limitations. Now, because of the limitations of the mind, we should not pass judgment on others. We are not competent enough to judge others. Because I am not, I do not know why X or Y or Z is behaving in a particular fashion. If somebody is greedy, if somebody is not taking care of his children, or somebody is not taking care of his parents, I cannot pass judgment as to why. It is he who has to decide, not me. Because what is going on in his mind, why he has been behaving like this, he is the person who knows, not me. Therefore, I believe that we are not competent enough to pass judgment on others. But at the same time, we are absolutely competent to pass judgment on ourselves. For searching spirituality, or you have come here to relax, or you have come here to, you know, just to meet your friends around, we don’t know. Only you know. So your mind is the greatest instrument for your own judgment, but not for judgment on others. That would, if we can conduct like this, help tremendously in the development of humanity. Because we must realize that we are not competent enough to judge others. We are very competent to judge ourselves. This is one lesson we should learn from the power and limitations of the mind. The second lesson, which is the lesson to reduce the volatility of the mind. Mind is very volatile, as I mentioned. It’s like a strong wind which creates waves in the ocean. The mind is like a strong wind which creates waves in the body. Into our body, for all kinds of things. You want to, for example, sometimes you’ll get a desire, okay, let me go out and travel to the most beautiful places in the world. Sometimes you’ll get, "Why can’t I become the richest person in the world?" Whatever the means are, let me become the richest in the world. I do this, I do that, I become rich. Sometimes you feel, okay, why not, you know, I should become famous in the world. Even if I have to do something, you know, fake or something totally wrong, I try to do it. The mind keeps telling you all kinds of things, wrong and right. Now, in order to regulate that volatility of the mind so that it doesn’t keep disturbing you all the time, you have to do meditation. You have to do some exercise to cool your mind. This is possible through prāṇāyāma, through yoga, through spiritual thinking. Because, as I mentioned to you last time, our senses are looking outside, all of them. They don’t look inward. To control the mind, you have to look inward. So you have to direct your senses inside yourself, not outside. We all the time listen to what is happening outside; we don’t listen inside. We see what is happening outside, we don’t see inside. We smell what is going out; we don’t smell inside. So we have to direct the senses inside to control and cool the mind, so that our thinking process is better. I think these two lessons are very important for a very healthy and very happy life. Not passing judgment on others, but passing judgment on yourself and then learning from that. The motives inside should be clear. That only you can judge, not anybody else. If somebody has killed somebody, I don’t know why he has killed. Maybe he has some reason to kill, but he knows what the reason is. He precisely knows everything. He cannot hide anything from his own mind. So the judgment is on yourself, not on others. And to regulate the mind, some exercise, whether it’s meditation, whether it’s prāṇāyāma, yoga, spiritual thinking, and directing the senses inwards as much as possible. I think these are very, very important lessons for inner peace, for reducing the agitation in the mind in the form of anger, in the form of anxiety, in the form of greed. Part 2: The Nature of Dharma and Karma Reducing desires to a reasonable level and then feeling absolutely calm and cool, like Swāmījī, is one point. I thought I would speak briefly today because last time I reached up to a point and we couldn’t complete that. So, this is one thing. If you have any observations, I’ll be very happy to listen to you and answer. Then I will go on to the subject of dharma and karma. Okay, so then I go ahead. You made it so clear, so there is nothing left to ask. Now, what is dharma? You all call it dharma. The actual Sanskrit word is dharma. So, I can call it Dharma. Is it okay? Yeah, okay. Now, Dharma is what? The first thing you must realize: Dharma is not religion. It has nothing to do with religion. It has been translated as religion in English, but it has nothing to do with religion. Religion, as understood in the world, is a structural thing where you have the Pope at the top, and then you have cardinals, and you have a church, and they tell you exactly what is to be done. There is a book like the Bible which reveals all the truths, and you follow it as the book is interpreted by the Pope and Cardinals, and they tell you what to do and you follow that. The same applies, for example, to the Quran. They feel everything is in the Quran, and then somebody interprets it and tells you what to do. Now, that is not Dharma. Dharma is not anything to do with that. Dharma is not religion in that sense of the word. That is the first thing we should know. What is dharma? It is a Sanskrit word which comes from a root called dhṛ. Dhṛ is the root of the word dharma. Now, that root also gives another word called dhartī. Dhartī is the earth on which we all live. Now, dhartī does what? What does dhartī do? It holds us. We all live on this. It holds us. Dhartī holds us. Similarly, dharma should hold us. That is what the root says, and that is what the actual meaning is. What holds you is the dharma. Now, dharma is a little complex issue. In fact, if you look at the teaching of Kṛṣṇa and the Bhagavad Gītā, this is all about dharma. He keeps telling Arjuna, "What is your dharma in this situation? What you should be doing, what you should not be doing." So dharma is a little—let me explain—it appears very easy, but it’s a whole philosophy in itself. Now, as I told you, dharma means what holds you; it means you should feel comfortable with that idea when you think of dharma. Just to give you an example: somebody’s parents are seriously ill. The person is living a little bit away. Now he has been told that, "Okay, your parents are sick." Now he doesn’t know what to do because maybe... He doesn’t want to leave the job immediately and run all the way there. Maybe he doesn’t care for his parents, maybe something else. Now he has to decide what he should do in that situation. It is regulated by dharma, dhṛ, root dhṛ. What makes him comfortable, he should take that decision. Now, that is one interpretation of dharma, that what makes you feel comfortable. But there are certain limitations and conditions because we all live in society. We all have to conduct ourselves as per the rules of society also. Dharma is every moment in life you face this question of dharma. What is a duty? Dharma, in that sense, you can say, is an ethical and righteous action in a particular situation. That this is the just and right action in this particular situation. If you are a disciple, what is your dharma as a disciple? What is your right action as a disciple, or duty as a disciple? If Swāmījī is the Guru here, even for the Guru, what is his dharma? That Guru also has a dharma to follow. So as a Guru, he has to tell what is my dharma. A businessman has his dharma, how he conducts himself in business, his dharma. A Prime Minister of a country is also governed by dharma. What is his dharma as Prime Minister? What should he do and what should he not do? A father and a son, they are also covered by dharma. What is the... So, you see, dharma is in every action of your daily life; it is governed by dharma. And you face this situation every moment in your life. What is the right thing to do in this particular situation? What is not the right thing to do in this situation? That is Dharma. The right thing is the Dharma, and what is not right is called Adharma. Now the question is, how do you define what is right and what is wrong in a situation? That’s a very, very difficult question. I give you one example. There was a grandfather and a grandson. They were traveling from one village to another in the desert of Rajasthan. From Swāmījī’s village to my village, or something like that. They had a camel with them. Both of them sat down on the camel and started traveling. They traveled about two to three kilometers and reached a small village. There were some people on the sidewalk. They said, "Look at these cruel people. They have no pity for this camel. Both of them are enjoying the ride on the camel. And this whole son, the camel, is suffering." So the grandfather said, "Yes, I think they are right." So he got down, he says, "You know, the grandson is young, let him ride the camel." And he started walking with the camel, while the grandson was riding. They went another few kilometers, and another group of people met them. Then they said, "Look at this cruel young boy, he has no pity for his grandfather. The old man is walking in the hot sun, and he is enjoying the camel ride." The young boy said, "Yeah, they are right. I can walk. My grandfather should have the camel ride." So he got down, and the grandfather sat down on the camel. After a few more kilometers, they reached it. Another group of people say, "Look at this old man. In any case, he is going to die. He should allow his grandson to ride the camel. Why is he so cruel? He has no pity for his grandson." Then they thought, "What should we do?" So both of them got down from the camel and started walking with the camel. Another group of people, you see, look at these foolish people. They don’t know how to use the camel. They are going on this horse and walking with the camel. So the moral of the story is, what is right and what is wrong? You tell me what is right in this and what is wrong. How do you decide what is right, what is wrong? I give you another example. There is where you are stranded somewhere in Delhi, for example, in a desert or in some mountain, when there is no food available, no water available, you only have... One glass of water or one bottle of water is available. You and your father, or you and your wife with you. Now only one of you can survive with that water. The situation is so desperate. Now, who will take? Now you will tell your father, "You take." Your father will say, "You take." Now, what is right? Who should take? Who should not take? What is right? What is wrong? You don’t know. In daily life, I tell you another very practical example. In European beaches, for example, it’s very common that people go, and ladies go in bikinis, no problem. It’s fine. You do the same thing in India or in one of the Islamic countries. People will say, "What is this?" You see, the question of right and wrong is extremely difficult to decide. That is where the dharma comes into the picture. Dharma is the voice inside you. It is not any scripture. It is not any revelation from anybody. It’s inside you. This voice comes from inside you, that in this situation, this is the right thing for me to do. And that inner voice comes from several factors. One factor is your saṃskāra, how you have been born and brought up, how you have evolved in your childhood. That is one factor. The second factor is your experience in life since you were born until today. What have been your experiences in life? How do you react to things? You react to your experience. You go to a particular prayer place, and you listen to somebody. He says, "Oh, this person doesn’t know what he is speaking." Then, obviously, you will decide not to go there again. It’s an experience which tells you, don’t go again. You go to a doctor for a treatment, and he doesn’t treat you properly; you say, "I don’t go to him again." Someone else treats you very well, then you go to him again. So the experience is another factor which decides your voice for dharma, what is your dharma. First is saṃskāra, second is your experience since your childhood till today. And then third is the purity of your mind and thoughts. You see, when you have a mirror, if it has a lot of dust on it, you can’t see your face clearly. But if it is clean, you can see your face very clearly. So, the clarity comes from the clarity of the heart, and that is an exercise which comes through practice, you see. So these three important factors: the first is your saṃskāra, second your experiences in life, third your clarity of heart. Now clarity of your heart comes from spiritual thoughts; they give you clarity of your heart. Your thinking inside makes you clear. So spiritual thoughts matter in this matter. If you are in the company of dacoits, your thought process is very different. You are always thinking of dacoity. If you are in the company of drunkards, you are always thinking of a bar and the drinking process. Your thought process is very different. So if you are in a pure atmosphere, your thought process is different. So, these factors, in fact, affect your thinking process towards dharma. What is your dharma? Now, as I told you, the dharma is not even in the Gītā. In the Bhagavad Gītā, Kṛṣṇa doesn’t say that this is your dharma. He simply says, what holds you comfortable, what makes you comfortable, is your dharma. The dharma is not written anywhere. You have to search it here for the action you are doing, what you should do, what is the right thing for you to do. So that is your dharma. And each individual is a different universe in himself. You are different, I am different, she is different, he is different. How can he and I be the same? It’s impossible. Because the way a person is born, the way he has been brought up by his parents, and the way he has experienced his life since his birth is entirely unique compared to my life, which is entirely different. So that is a different universe. I am a different universe in that sense. And therefore, our thought process cannot be identical. It can be similar in certain ways, but it cannot be identical. Like some people, the first time I went to Tibet, I saw people eating raw meat. For a Buddhist, eating raw meat was something which I couldn’t believe. And then I looked for the reasons why I am doing this. Then I realized that Tibet is at 14,000 feet altitude. At that altitude, no vegetation can grow because there is very little oxygen. And without oxygen, you can’t even cook properly. So what do you do? If you have to survive, if you have to survive, you eat whatever is available there. So the yaks are the only animals available there, and they are the source of their life. Now things have changed because of communication, because of electricity, refrigeration; the technology has changed. But if you think about 40–50 years ago, when there was nothing, how do you do that? It’s not possible. So their thinking process, what is dharma for them, whether eating meat is dharma or not, his process, his answer will be different from my answer. So the dharma is one thing which you have to decide on your own, keeping certain factors in mind. Now, those factors I will come to, the factors which affect our thinking, I have told you these three major factors, but there are societal factors. There are factors which are called deśa and kāla. Deśa is the place, and kāla is the time. Time and place are very important factors in deciding what is your dharma and what is not your dharma. Dharma means, basically, now we have come to a sort of conclusion on the definition of dharma. It is very difficult to define dharma. But the basic thought process, dharma is the right thing in a particular situation. What is the right thing to do? What is your duty? What is the just thing to do? What is the good thing to do in a situation? That is dharma, and those situations could be millions in everybody’s life. It could be the relationship between father and mother. It could be a relationship between son and daughter, brother and brother, sister and sister, patient and doctor. Mahāprabhudīp Karatā Mahāprabhu Dīp Karatā Mahāprabhudīp Karatā. But then there are also factors of the customs of the society, the traditions of a society, the customs and traditions of a country, and the law governing the country. Now you may like to do something in Hungary which is against the laws of the country. You might say, "It is my dharma, I will do it." No. Because you have to follow the societal system. You have to follow the laws of the society. If they are not correct in your view, you fight against the lodge. You have them changed, but you just cannot violate the lodge. Similarly, society evolves. They have developed certain customs and traditions. How some people are, for example, have a tradition that you come and you test the feet of the elder people. Like this is the tradition in India. Now, that may not be the tradition in Europe, for example. So it is not that you have to follow the same tradition; you have to follow the tradition of the place where you are. You can change your tradition if you think it is the right thing to do, but you can also follow the tradition of your place. So the place, each country, each place has its own specific customs, laws, requirements, rules, and traditions, which affect what you should do and what you should not do. For example, in India, you come to somebody’s home, and they will feel honored that you sit down, eat something with them, and drink something with them. In some countries, it is not considered a tradition. It is considered, in fact, some people don’t even offer this. It is not even a thought process in them because it is not a tradition. So I am not saying it is wrong or right. It is neither wrong nor right. It is the tradition of the country. So I think these things affect the thinking process, and these things play a role in deciding what is right and what is not right to do in a particular situation. I think this subject is really very vast, as I told you, Krishna dedicated the entire Bhagavad Gītā to explain to Arjuna what his dharma is in this war, and why he should fight this war. So, there are many, many factors which come into play in this issue. So let me just conclude on dharma, basically. Then I will say a few words on karma. Dharma is basically the right action, the duties, the just action, the correct action, or the good action by any individual in a given situation. These actions could differ depending on the person’s experience, depending on his saṃskāra, how he has been brought up, depending on the place where he is living, depending on the time in which he is living. But the thinking process should give you an idea of what is right for me to do in this situation. We must look for that answer when we are in a dilemma. When we are not able to decide, we should search for that answer. That will make us better human beings. It will make us more ethical in our approach. It will make us more moral in our approach. And this plays an important role in the evolution of society. And dharma is in everybody. Each one of us has dharma here. It is not written in the books. It is not revealed by anybody. It is the one which we have to search for ourselves. And each individual has his own dharma in that sense. But within the limitations, as I told you, of the place, of the law, of the society, within that limitation. These play an important role in deciding what is right and what is wrong. What is your duty to your parents? What is your duty to your doctor? What is your duty to your guru? What is the duty of a businessman? Like Mahatma Gandhi told, the businessman should behave like a trustee. He should earn money, but he should earn money in a just manner, not by cheating others. Now, that is his dharma, that he should not cheat. He is there to earn money, but not by cheating. So that is the role of dharma in this process. It is an ethical force which governs our actions ultimately. Because dharma is more like a thought process of what is right to do. Now, karma is the action to which I am coming. Now, once you decide what is your dharma or what you should do in a particular situation, then you actually act. Dharma is a mental exercise. Karma is actual exercise. Then you act. Okay, this is my duty to my guru. And then you start acting. What do you do? Now, what you do is actual karma. What you do or what you do not do, what you do not do is also karma. If you decide to keep quiet and indifferent, that is also karma. You can never remain without karma. Karma is even if you decide to sleep, that’s also karma. If you decide to sit here, that is also karma. So karma is always taking place. It’s not that you move your hands or you talk to somebody.