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A story about Kabīrdās comes to mind, which illuminates the principle of dharma. Kabīrdās and his disciple were walking when the master saw a scorpion had fallen into the water. Scorpions cannot live in water, so Kabīrdās tried to save it. He reached for it, but as he tried to lift it out, the scorpion stung him. The sting of a scorpion is intensely painful. As a result, he dropped it back into the water. He tried again to save it, and again he was stung. The scorpion fell back, and this pattern repeated. The master kept trying to save the scorpion, but the scorpion would not allow it. The disciple finally asked, "Master, why are you doing that? You try to save the scorpion, but you see how it pays you back—always giving you pain. Why don't you stop?" Kabīrdās gave a profoundly scientific answer: "You see, it is the nature of a scorpion to sting. It is the dharma of a scorpion. But I am human. It is my dharma to save him; therefore, I don't give up." So, one should not take such events personally. He still tried to fulfill his human dharma to save a suffering creature. Let's make it concrete. In summer, when a mosquito lands on you and bites—acting like a small scorpion—what is our usual reaction? Let us think about that. What is the dharma of a mosquito? What is its nature? To do exactly that. So, when we kill it, we are not following our dharma. We could find another way to handle it. Dharma and karma are very closely related. Now, let us come to the simple question: What is our dharma? This simple question does not have one simple answer. It has several answers, which I would say exist on three different levels. The first level is: what is valid for all of us? What makes us all the same? We are all human. So, that is the first and perhaps most interesting question. Afterwards, we can go into more detail, where it becomes different for different groups. So, let us think: what is our dharma? We must reflect on the principle of dharma as explained earlier. We have to understand the nature of something. Consider the eye and the ear, the cow and the lion. So now, what is the nature specific to humans? We want to find out not something general, but something specific to us as humans. What dharma do we have that we would not have in the form of a cow, a lion, or any other animal? Remember, we cannot voluntarily just decide something; we have to find it out in a scientific way. Let's brainstorm. What is specific about us as humans? What do we have that animals, for example, don't have? What could be specific for our dharma? We have intellect, which in yoga we call Buddhi. And the highest form of Buddhi is Viveka. We have already three very important points. We have free will, and through this, we have responsibility. Remember, the principle of karma and dharma is valid only for us humans. We have the buddhi, the intellect. As Swāmījī used to say, the intellect can be trained and developed limitlessly, and through this we can develop vivekā. Based on this, what could we now say is our dharma? What to do with our life? What to achieve? What can we achieve with these qualities that animals cannot because they do not have them? We can do something with our karma. We are doing karmas all the time. Can we get realization? That's a little too quick. I want us to really develop this understanding together. Let's take a step back and look at our daily life. So many things we do, spending a lot of time, energy, and money. What are you busy with? Working, eating, preparing for that, going shopping, cooking, family, and sleeping six to eight hours a day. That is the reality of our life, practically everyone's life. Now, let's look at a bird. A bird is also eating, sleeping, procreating—having children and family, caring for them, and actually also working, though not so well paid. Think of how they fly up and down to find food for their children, how busy they are building a nest. If it falls down, they immediately start building the next one. So they are working, having family, eating, drinking, sleeping. And if someone tries to attack their children, they fight to defend them. We can clearly say: as long as we do only this kind of activity, we are not yet expressing specific human qualities. This is one sentence. From Swāmījī, which you might have heard often: "Khāna, pīna, bhogana, paśubhiḥ samānaḥ." You remember that? Khāna is eating, pīna is drinking, bhogana means enjoying—especially also sex—and "paśu" means animal. So, in eating, drinking, and enjoying, the animals are also very good. That means as long as we reduce our life to these aspects, we are not actually living a human life. Of course, there is nothing wrong with these activities; they are a necessary part of our life. But as long as we reduce our life to that, we have actually missed the special point of a human life. You can say we miss the chance of human life. This is what we have as a teaching in many of our bhajans: "Ceta, ceta, apajīva, ajñānī, avasara, javarī, avasara, javarī." Awake, awake, awake! Your chance is passing away. It's not so much the time; it is the chance of a human life. The Guru explains this to us. The Guru explains the principle of what? What is our dharma? So now, we can already exclude certain things. These types of activities we just spoke of are okay, but not yet typical of a human. In reality, many people actually reduce their life to these activities. This is easy to understand when we think of the cycle of reincarnation. There are 8.4 million forms of different incarnations, but only one of them is human. So for millions of times, we have practiced these activities—as a bird, as a fish, as a cow, as whatever. And now we get a human body and say, "Oh, let's go on." We don't realize that now we have the big chance, like in a lottery you play and play, and one day you win and you don't look properly and throw it away. So that is now the point of Dharma: to understand the greatness of human life, to follow the human Dharma, and to realize what this Dharma would be. As we said, we can approach it with free will and intellect. How do we spend our life? Understand. Yes, we want to understand. This is generally right, but a little too unconcrete. We decide, through our words and our deeds, whether we will create on earth like heaven or hell. One thing we are doing just now: we are thinking about our life. We are thinking, actually, about the purpose of our life, the value of our life. I don't think cows or fishes are able to do that—to come to think, "Why am I here?" or, as Swāmījī used to say, "From where did I come? Where do I go? And what am I actually doing here?" This is where our spiritual path starts. This is where Swāmījī always tries to awaken us and to remind us. This is the Brahma aspect of the Guru: to awaken us spiritually. Awake, awake! Think about your life, about the purpose of your life. So here we are, one little step further: to think about life, about what is possible in human life to achieve. So now, next: what can we achieve? What can we do? It depends on the conditions in which we are born. No, we are speaking now about the general dharma of all humans, independent of concrete conditions. We will come to that later. We have many different dharmas, but now we are speaking about the one general dharma valid for all of us. To take life in your hands. Yes, very good, but still a little general. To know who we are. That is an interesting point, a real step forward. That is actually the question of yoga, the question of meditation. Do animals have the desire to find out who they are? Do they ever have this question? I don't think they are able to have such a question. So now, when we have the question, we don't have yet the answer. That means now we actually become a seeker. That's already a big step forward. We have a question mark in our life: Why am I here? What's the purpose? What's the aim of my life? And who am I actually? Now, what is the next step when you become a seeker? You all have gone that way. What was next? To simplify life through limiting your needs? "I don't need this, I don't need that"? I also did this before I came to Swāmījī. But practically, you have a question but no answer yet, and you are searching. So what's next? To try all the possibilities which are attracting us until we find the right one. Exactly. As a seeker, we start to maybe read different books, go to different events and lectures, and see what is offered. So now we are searching for guidance, and then somewhere we feel we find it. We connect, follow this teaching, and then, as a later step, we become a disciple. We practice; we do sādhanā. There are funny books about cats doing āsanas, but this is rather the other way around: we observe animals doing some postures and then name our āsanas accordingly. But in reality, animals are not doing sādhanā. They behave, act, and move according to their dharma, their nature. So now we are going on the spiritual path, becoming disciples, and doing sādhanā. The most essential form of sādhanā is meditation and mantra. All this is already typical human. Can any animal or plant do yoga sādhanā? It is not known to me. This is all only possible based on free will and intellect. We can make such life decisions and then really go in a certain direction, and also work on ourselves. Sādhanā is always like a mirror; we have to look at ourselves. How does Swāmījī call meditation? Self-inquiry meditation. So I want to know the truth about myself, first of all about my qualities, and then finally we come to that question: who am I? And what is the guideline for our spiritual path? When we are serious enough, following a master, and have good karmas, then we can achieve that aim. Can you follow so far? This is really typical human dharma because only as a human can we achieve that. The question of dharma is: what is specific for that which we are analyzing? Now we speak about what is specific for humans. Only as a human can you go on the spiritual path and actually realize. That is what you said before, but now I hope it's a little more logically understandable. It also becomes clear why the spiritual path is not just a hobby of some specific people. You may have many different hobbies; they are basically just to spend your time. But the spiritual path, yoga, is much more than that. It is exactly that which is according to our dharma; this is the essence. This is the essence of our human life. Or, the other way round, when we don't do that, when we neglect it, when we forget it, then we miss the chance of human life. Is this understandable and acceptable? So now, if we want to put it in one word: what is the dharma of humans? Spiritual path, yes? That's the path, but now the aim of the path. Yes. And in Sanskrit? Mokṣa. Or bhukti. So now we have got to the point. The simple question, "What is my dharma as a human?" has a simple answer: mokṣa. Though, a little more. Swāmījī, and especially Holī Gurujī, emphasize actually a second point. Think of the introduction to Līlā Amṛta, which Holī Gurujī wrote. There he mentions Mokṣa, but he speaks about two principles, like two dharmas. Who remembers? The second is Seva. Seva means to serve. Seva is the practical form of bhakti. If you say to someone, "I love you," but you don't care practically for that person, they ask, "Where is your love? I need your help, and you don't help me. I'm ill, I'm hungry, you don't care for me." Therefore, the practical form of Guru Bhakti is Guru Seva. That Seva, in the wide sense—as said in the golden teachings of Mahāprabhujī—to serve God's creation is actually to serve God. That means to see in everyone God's creation and to serve consciously. That means now all these qualities which we usually say are human qualities. What could we say are these typical human qualities when we say, "That's a very good human person"? To make Seva a little more concrete: human qualities are kindness, compassion, understanding, love, forgiveness. Not specific enough? So, all these typical human qualities. Swāmījī sometimes says a human should be a protector, not a destroyer. I remember Swāmījī said in a very nice way when I got my mantra, like a life principle for his disciples: "Maybe when someone cries, you cannot help him, but at least you should not be the reason for his tears." So to develop these human qualities is what we call, together, practically, seva. Now, Holī Gurujī and Swāmījī often quote and compare these two, Mokṣa and Seva. What he says, comparing Mokṣa and Seva, is that Seva and helping is more important than prayer. Holī Gurujī simply says God himself was weighing Mokṣa and Seva, and he found seva heavier. So, he decided for Seva. How to understand it concretely? In Brahmaloka, you are liberated. You are free—no karmas, no reincarnation, no need to come back to this world. But there are incarnations, avatars. Why do they come? To help, to serve. Exactly. God, Viṣṇu, Mokṣa, and Śiva. He is in Mokṣa; He is liberated. But as Swāmījī said, "I heard the call of your soul, and that's why I came." So these human qualities—compassion, love—this is actually what makes God incarnate. So God somehow renounces His mokṣa to come here into this trouble with us, to do sevā. So when God incarnates, that means actually a sevak incarnates. Someone comes to do seva. We should never forget that when we speak about Guru Sevā. When we work a lot for the Guru, we easily again identify with this: "How great I am in doing Seva." And we forget that actually the Guru came to do Seva to us. The Guru is here for only one motivation: to do Seva. He is not here because of karma. So, to bring it to a short formula, you can say the dharma of human life, which is common for all humans, is mokṣa and sevā. Can we agree on that? Good. Now we come to what you said about different conditions. So now we come to the second level: the different roles we play in our daily life in society. Basically, these are now a result of our karma. Already, that we are born as a human is also a result of our karma. We should never forget that it is a huge positive karma that we have the chance to be here as a human. Therefore, this first point we found is the most important: never to forget that only as a human, and now I am a human, I have the chance for mokṣa and sevā. But now, according to our karma, we are born in different conditions, and later in our life we also make decisions, and these again create a certain dharma. So you can say our dharma is now a result of our karma. When we follow our dharma, we create good karma. When we don't follow our dharma, neglect it, or do a wrong dharma, we create negative karma. This is quite endless; we could discuss this for days because there are so many different roles we play. First of all, we are born as a man or a woman. Then we go through different stages in life—we are young, older, then old. These are old karmas, which we definitely cannot influence directly now. But then come dharmas also which we decide, for example, if you marry or don't marry. The dharma of a married person is definitely different from, let's say, my dharma. Then you have to do something to earn your bread, so you decide on a certain profession. You might choose to work as a doctor, a teacher, a librarian, or a thief. So you have different dharma. I don't know what a thief's dharma is. You make many practical decisions in your life, and through this you actually accept certain dharmas. Let's look at just a few of them. Of course, we could also speak about concrete dharma—for example, in yoga and daily life, as a teacher or whatever. You have a certain dharma in a certain constellation, also in the family situation: the dharma of the parents, the dharma of the children, the dharma of brother and sister towards each other, the different generations. This is a quite endless topic, and we are all now actually in many of these groups, so we have not just one dharma but many group dharmas. Then comes a very important point called Dharma Saṅkaṭ, that means Dharma conflicts. It can happen that you have a certain Dharma according to one group to which you belong, but an opposite Dharma according to another group. This is what the Indian ambassador emphasized: the principles I mentioned earlier give a little guideline on how to decide in such conflicts. Let's take a practical example. You are married, you have a family, you need to work. But you don't find a job. The only job offered to you is maybe in a shop for pornography or in a butcher's shop. So now what to do? It's a very practical dharmic saṅkaṭ. Do you refuse this, but your family is hungry? Or you work, but this is actually no good karma? This is now the daily life situation we often are in. Sometimes subtle decisions: is this better, or is this better? What is really my dharma? Often then, one can also say only... What is my inner motivation? As we said with the karma, the inner motivation why we act is also very important. Maybe you decide to work in a shop which is not good because in the moment this is the only thing possible, and as soon as possible you will change. Or, for example, I know when you work in restaurants, most of you have to always serve meat. It's a typical dharma-saṅkaṭ which I know many of Swāmījī's disciples had. And then Swāmījī sometimes gives the advice, "Try to open your own restaurant if you are able to do that, a vegetarian restaurant, and then you somehow can get out of this dharma saṅkaṭ." Now, let us decide about which concrete group dharmas we are going to speak for a moment. I guess on one point which is very essential and important for all of us: the different dharma of men and women. This is, of course, a topic of many discussions in society, so it's somehow also a political or socio-political point. In political discussions, you often don't know how to approach that, to judge what is right and wrong. So now, let us maybe think a little: what is the dharma of a woman? Now we have to think, as we did before, what is specific for a woman, what is specific for a man. We try to find out not something common for both, but what is specific. So you could say also, what is the nature of a woman? To be a mother and educate children. I guess we can agree on that. It is quite rare that men have children. Let us just stop. This is definitely a point, and very essential. Here are many mothers. What does it mean to be a mother? Already, what does it mean to become a mother? How is it when you are pregnant? What does it do with you? How does it change your life when you notice you become a mother? Who would like to say something? There is like a bigger duty coming up, a bigger responsibility. How do you feel? Connected with this child, which is in your womb—it's connected. It's actually part of you, part of your body. It's inside, so in that moment, it is still you. There is something moving and developing, which means, practically, from a yoga point of view... There is not yet a difference between you and the child; it is one and the same aura, so it's actually part of you. And what is your inner feeling toward it? I was astonished that the first thing mentioned was duty. This is maybe a little bit the fear; some duty comes. But definitely, it's a part of you. Naturally, the love is there. And after the birth, it is out of your body, but it does not change, actually, in this moment. So from one came two. And does it really change? The love is there. Part 2: ### The Dharma of a Woman and the Tool of Dharma Because it was part of you, and now it is beside you, but it’s still changed. Nothing really changed. I was in a special training before I became a Swami. I suppose it was so I could truly understand the benefits of the householder life before making a final decision to become a sannyāsin. I was in a special situation: I knew a girl for whom I somehow cared a little. She had some serious, chronic physical problems, and also some mental problems. Then she became pregnant by her friend. I remember her official therapist said, "You cannot even care for yourself. How will you care for a child?" He openly suggested she have an abortion. She was confused and came to me. I said, "Ah, this is wonderful. This is most probably exactly what you need to develop and to heal." Obviously, my input was stronger, because she decided to have the child. But because of her nature, and because her partnership was a little fragile, what happened? Just maybe two months before the birth, the friend simply disappeared. So now imagine her situation, pregnant, shortly before the birth. She came to me and asked if I could be present during the birth. I was, and it was a great experience for me. There was a situation, maybe two or three days after the birth, which I will never forget. She said to me in a very natural, you could say naive way: "You know, I read so many books to prepare myself, and I spoke with so many mothers. But one thing nobody told me: that you must love your child." And it came so spontaneously. It was really like in my heart, you know. She said, "When the child cries, you forget everything. You just run and care." That is the nature of a mother: just run and care, love in practice, seva in practice. That does something with you when you really accept it. And did you really live this dharma? I can give another practical example. I was an only child, but one of my early girlfriends was the 11th of 13 children. That’s another story; actually, one of the grandchildren also grew up there. A mother bringing up 14 children—can you imagine what that does to you? That was a simple woman; she didn’t even speak proper German, but she was such a cloud of love. Such a personality, just through doing that. Honestly, at times I loved her more than my own mother. So this is so strong, the dharma of a woman. And Swāmījī speaks so often about that. Whenever he speaks about mother, he speaks about love. Whenever he speaks about love, he speaks about the mother. So, this is obviously the typical nature, the typical dharma of a woman. Of course, men should also develop that, but it’s a little more difficult from the outside. You don’t have this direct approach. It depends very much on how much a father opens to that. But for a mother, it is really like naturally, automatically, you can say. So this is what I think about the dharma of woman. Oh, but I would say to Swāmī, she also thinks. Now I ask the women, is this acceptable for you? So dharma also means karma. That means the question is, how far do you live this practically? Now we come to a political question. In Germany, for example, just this week they passed a new law about the status of women in companies, that there must be a chance for women to make a career in big companies. This is now the point of emancipation. In modern society, emancipation has become a big point. We also want to make a career. First, of course, we want to earn the same money, which is mostly not the case. We want to make a career; we also want to work and earn money and have a status like a man. On one hand, this is of course understandable. Definitely, if men and women do the same work, they should get the same money. But we are here not for a political discussion; we are here for a dharma discussion. Let us think for a moment from the point of dharma. What do you think about this when you think from the point of dharma? A woman can’t fulfill her dharma when she pursues a career. Concretely, which dharma can she not do? When she has a child and the child is a few months old, she will have to go to some job to make a career, not to lose the job. Simply, the relation between mother and child is so intimate. If she wants to make her career, she cannot care for the child. Or, simply to say, she cannot give love to the children. Many try to combine it, but somehow it doesn’t work. Swāmījī spoke about this point very clearly. He said the situation in modern society is that the children have no proper guidance, that in reality the children are brought up in the street by the influence of society, from the friends. And in the last years even that changed. Now, the internet is the main educator of the young generation. They all sit on their computer and chat with each other, and so on, and that is now the education. And what they see there is what everyone sees: all the brutal things and all the sex things. I remember, it comes to my mind. They wanted to make a study in some country, I think in Denmark or somewhere, on how the consumption of pornography influences young people. They wanted two groups: young people who had already watched pornography and another group which had not watched pornography. This study was not possible because they didn’t find anyone for the second group. That means it is already a common phenomenon. The internet now influences all the young people. So when Swāmījī spoke about this point clearly, he says this situation is actually a fault of the women, that they don’t give to society what they should give: the love. So, if we understand equality or emancipation in the sense that women should do what men are doing, then actually the typical dharma of women is neglected. So we could say, in the political sense, it’s a conservative status. But in the true sense, to conserve, to preserve that which should not be lost. I don’t want to provoke anyone who has maybe a politically different opinion. I just want to show you how, when we understand the principle of Dharma deeply, it can really give us a practical guide in our daily life. For example, in a concrete family situation, you may feel you need more money. The question is, should the wife also go and work? One way would be to reduce your needs so you don’t need so much money. The other way would be to have more income, that the wife also goes for work. This kind of thought may give you an orientation. So Dharma is basically meant as a tool which you can use to analyze your different life situations and to make wise decisions for your own life. However you decide, it will be your karma. And according to that, the karmic fruit will come back to you and your family. Sita, you wanted something? "I just wanted to say that also with the children, women used to work with children in the fields, and now society doesn’t allow them to work in the fields. She could also be creative in society and with children. I think that she would divide this, either work or children, but like they said. I was now five years with the child, and I can tell you, it’s very isolating and very boring. There should be, maybe, not work the woman in the same quantity of time as a man, but if you are not satisfied, you cannot give it to him." This is a concrete example. I was with my child for five years, and there are certain feelings of isolation and boredom. I don’t think that woman is here just to be a mother. Yes, it’s the main role and the main dharma of a woman, but it’s not the only one. It depends also on the age of the child and on your concrete life situation. You see, in India, for example, you still have the integrated big family with different generations. Then, naturally, the grandparents would often also take care of the child. Again, a completely different situation. But in our modern society, mostly young people move out early, and the generations are split. You could, for example, think of the old generation. What is their dharma? In our modern society, mostly they are seen as useless, as a burden, just from the financial point—they cost money. So they are put in old-age homes, and these are mostly for profit, so they are not even properly cared for. But if we think of an old person, a person who has gone through many stages in life and collected many life experiences, what would be the special dharma, the special nature of such a person? To give this experience to the younger generation. This can be such a great inspiration. Basically, we all go through different phases in our life, and now someone comes and says, "Oh, I have experiences. I will tell you about my life and my experiences." It can be such a great inspiration. But if we allow them to do that, if we are open to allow them to live their dharma... And on the other hand, what is our dharma to old people? To take care of them. First of all, the thankfulness that they were caring for us, that they were bringing us up. And then, practically paying back. Seva, mokṣa, and seva. In this way, the generations can live together in a very harmonious way, very fruitful for both sides. And then, for example, the mother also can have a little bit of a different role, because she is taking care in another way, very harmoniously. So it is something, basically... I don’t want to give you any dogmas, just to give you a tool in hand which you can use yourself. It depends on your concrete decisions also. For example, if you decide to marry and have a family, or if you decide not to, like a sannyāsī. And we should be careful to judge, like one is better or one is worse, or one is higher and one is lower. It’s just different. I will tell a small story which comes from Swāmījī. A disciple asked the master about the difference between householder dharma and sannyāsī dharma. The master didn’t give an answer. He said, "Let us go for a journey." So they went on a journey, and they came to another country. Just then, the king had passed away. They were searching for the new king, and in this country there was a rule that the decision was made by an elephant. It was fixed on a certain day when the king would be chosen. Everyone who was interested in becoming the new king could come, and then they gave a flower garland to the elephant and let the elephant free. The elephant could go wherever he wanted, and to whom the elephant would give the flower mālā, he would be the chosen new king. This happened, and they were just observing the scene. There were many beautiful young men in the best dress, and they hoped, but the elephant ignored them. Though there were so many people, he walked through all the people and gave no one the mālā. But then, a little outside, also observing, there was a young sādhu. The elephant was attracted by the sādhu, went to him, and gave him the flower mālā. So now, what is the situation? Everyone was looking forward to getting the mālā, but no one got it, except the sādhu. So what happened? The sādhu was shocked, threw the mālā on the ground, and ran away. And the reaction of the other people? "He’s crazy! He’s crazy!" They were all looking so much forward, and he got it, he doesn’t want it. But now, let us think about that. Was it right or wrong, what the sādhu did? None of this. No, it was very clear: he followed his dharma. Because as a sādhu, as a sannyāsin, you have renounced any kind of worldly attachment. You have renounced: no family, no money, no fame, no influential position. So now, as a king, he would accept all of that. If he would accept that, he would not be anymore a sādhu. So the guru explained to the disciple, "You see, that’s an example. He correctly followed his dharma as a sannyāsī." And then they went further into a forest. They were resting under one tree, and a little distance away was another tree. There was a family of birds living there. After some time came two men who had obviously had a long, long travel. They were completely exhausted, and they obviously had not eaten for a long time. They were very, very hungry, and they couldn’t walk any further. They just lay down, or actually fell down, under the tree where the birds were, and they made a small fire to warm themselves a little. Now the birds were observing the men who had come to their tree, to their home. And the bird father says to the family, "We have guests." You know, in India, a guest is called a tithi. Tithi is a date. A tītī is someone who is coming without date, without appointment. "So we have guests, we have to care for them, and they are completely exhausted. They urgently need food; we need to offer them food. And these are humans. If we bring them a worm, that’s nothing for them, but we have nothing to offer." And with this... The bird father just dropped himself in the fire and offered himself in the fire. So the man took it and ate a little from this bird. But, of course, one bird for two men is nothing. So the mother actually followed her husband and also sacrificed her life in the fire for this man. And finally, the bird children also did the same. So the whole bird family actually sacrificed their life just to fulfill their dharma as householders. This is what the guru told the disciple. "You see, here you see householders fulfilling their dharma in a perfect way." As it is said, you should see in a guest God, so it is Seva. That’s the duty of a householder. This is, of course, a symbolical story, but it explains a little the different dharma of a sannyāsin and householder. And at the same time, it makes clear that the householder dharma is not at all easier than the dharma of a sannyāsin. It’s just different. So it is up to us to choose a certain dharma. It means to make certain life decisions. But once we have chosen, then we should follow that path and not suddenly jump out and try something else. That means a sannyāsī is someone who suddenly leaves the family life because he becomes a seeker and wants only that. But this is only possible when he can go out of the situation without creating karma. But when you are married, you have a family, you have children, then you cannot just run away. Now you have to fulfill your dharma till the end. That means concretely, at least until the children are grown up and not anymore dependent on you. If you just say, "Oh, I search for God," and abandon your family, then you create a strong negative karma. And that’s now a concrete point of yoga in daily life. Something to go on the spiritual path means to leave everything behind? Yoga in daily life means clearly, no. That life which you have created, your life situation—stay in that. Don’t run away from that, but try to transform it through the yoga. Make the yoga an integral part of your daily life. So when we said Mokṣa and Seva are the highest dharma for everyone, it does not mean that you have to become a sannyāsin for that. You can transform your daily householder life in the same way. For example, in Sikhism, they don’t have any sannyāsīs. Everyone should marry according to their teacher. Let’s maybe take another example for the end about different professions. When you decide, for example, to be a medical doctor, or you decide to be a teacher in the school. So what is the dharma of a teacher? To teach. Very simple: to teach. But now the question is, what is your motivation? Why do you become a teacher? The right attitude for a teacher would be, how to say, you love to share what you know with others. It should be an enthusiasm in teaching, sharing, and guiding others. The question is, is this really the motivation of every teacher? Or maybe because it’s quite well paid? Or if it’s not well paid, then also little motivation? Or maybe a lot of holidays? A practical example from India: in many government schools, it is known that the rate of absenteeism is higher among the teachers than among the students. It means they are not very motivated, and their teaching often is also not very inspiring. As a result of that, tuition—that means that the children get help in the afternoon from paid teachers—is a very big business. And funny enough, these teachers who give tuition in the afternoon are sometimes the same teachers who teach in the morning in the school. And suddenly, they are very good. Because now they get more payment, and they are more motivated, and now they know how to teach. That, for example, is an indication that the dharma of a teacher is not really perfectly fulfilled. Or what is the dharma of a medical doctor? Yes, nothing else, but it’s very well paid. Especially dentists. Now many do it actually for that purpose. It’s like, "I make a career." And now someone is ill at midnight. And already there is a conflict. So, you know, dharma is a tool which can help us to analyze and to make decisions in many concrete life situations. I just wanted to give you this tool in hand, so that you properly understand it and you can properly use it. So you can go with this in a scientific way and try to understand and analyze, not in a political or personally motivated way. In the end, when you understand the principle of Dharma in the right way, it helps you to do the right karma. I will stop here because this is like endless. You are so many in different groups, which we cannot speak all, like in the working place, with your neighbours, and so many. And sometimes there are conflicts between, according to one group and according to another group. You would have conflicting dharmas. So then you must try to find out how you can do it in the best way. These many, many social groups to which we belong are like the second level of dharma. Now, the third level is I as an individual. Because even if you are all 35 years old and all married and all have children and many, many same things, but still you are a unique individual, which is no second one in this world like you. We all are a bundle of many, many karmas coming together, and no one else has exactly the same bundle. And this is now the third level of dharma, which is called svadharma, my individual, personal dharma. How to find out that? There are no general answers anymore, no groups anymore. You are unique. How can we approach this point? Exactly. This is exactly the point. Now we have to inquire very seriously about ourselves. You can look at your life. Often in our childhood, something does not develop yet. You have certain tendencies: what is interesting for you, what you can do well, what you like to do. Sometimes your hobbies, which you have for some time and then you forget, can be an indication. The question is simply, what can I contribute to this society? What are my special abilities? What maybe I can do, what no one else can do like me? And sometimes we suppress it. For example, the family has a company, and they expect that you take over. And you do, but actually, you’re not at all interested in that. And deep in your heart, you would like to be a painter. Or you are a painter, and later you realize you would actually like to care for people. And this can sometimes be dramatic changes if you really find what deep in your heart is your inner call. But when you follow that, maybe suddenly it’s like something is blossoming. So this is a very important point also, but very individual, of course. And when Swāmījī, for example, gives a duty to a disciple... Someone can paint very nicely, and you say, "Maybe you like to paint a picture of Mahāprabhujī." So with our different abilities, we can contribute to society and to our groups in different ways. Sometimes it may be like our profession; sometimes it may be like our hobby, depending on our concrete life situation. But that is something really important for everyone to try to find out: what is the one unique thing which I can contribute to this society? I, I. No, that is really individual, so we cannot discuss it in general because you have to find out yourself. I remember in one book about the aborigines in Australia, it was interesting. The different people in this tribe had different names, and the names were like an indication of their dharma. The name already said what they are actually doing and what they are good at, what their special ability is. So one was, for example, like the healer. One was the one who was always finding the tracks of the animals. And one lady, she had the name the listener. That means her ability was simply to be inwardly open, so that others could talk to her. And she listened. Maybe that is your dharma. Often we need someone to whom we can simply talk, and if there is someone who is open for that, who wholeheartedly opens himself to listen, that’s all what he needs. That must not be something big. It must not be something respected or paid, but maybe something very specific. This was now the three different levels of dharma. So, the one dharma which we all have together as humans, which we summarized as mokṣa and sevā. And the second dharma, which is many, many different according to the groups to which we belong—on this point, we have many dharmas, which can sometimes also be in dharma conflict. And on the third level, our very, very individual dharma. Now I give the tool in your hands. Use it or lose it, as far as you want to say. Any questions? Then let us finish by singing the OM together.