Podcast details
Dharma & Karma
The Creator endowed humans with intellect to understand good, bad, and others' suffering. Humans are protectors, bound by karma—action and its return—and dharma, one's essential duty. Dharma is the inherent function of all things, like heat for fire or sight for eyes. It also defines relational duties within a family. Dharma is often translated as religion, which has two meanings. First, it is realizing one's relation to God as His children, the essence from which all creatures originate. Without this realization, one suffers in darkness. Second, religion means to follow, preserve, and protect ethical principles in society: to serve, help, love, and be kind. These principles are the principles of yoga, the oldest tradition. Any religion containing such principles originates from yoga, as love that unites is bhakti. Thus, the human duty is to be kind, good, and protective. Those who neglect dharma create bad karma and face its consequences.
"To realize your relation is the religion. Unless you realize your relation, you will be suffering; you will be in darkness."
"Religion means to follow, to preserve, and to protect ethical and moral principles in human society: to serve, to help, to love, to be kind, to be good."
Filming location: USA
This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.
The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:
- Yoga in Daily Life - The System
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2000. ISBN 978-3-85052-000-3 - The Hidden Power in Humans - Chakras and Kundalini
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2004. ISBN 978-3-85052-197-0 - Lila Amrit - The Divine Life of Sri Mahaprabhuji
Paramhans Swami Madhavananda. Int. Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship, Vienna, 1998. ISBN 3-85052-104-4
