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  • Recorded on: 6 Aug 2002
  • Language: English
  • Length: 0h 03m

Tapa, Dama and Karma

The foundation of spiritual knowledge is tapa, dharma, and karma. Tapa means to endure and accept life's conditions. Dharma is to control the ego and temptations, and to perform right action. This foundation supports the house of your realization. Protect your spiritual prosperity by protecting your dharma, even through difficulties. Dharma means your obligations: to family, society, and nature. This is your personal duty. Fulfilling this human responsibility is crucial. Following dharma is not easy, such as giving up ingrained habits like eating meat. Knowing it is a sin and renouncing it is tapasyā; it is dharma; it is to not do that karma. That is your own dharma.

"Dharma is to control: to control our ego, control our temptations, and control everything, and to do the right karma."

"Protect your dharma, even if you have to go through certain difficulties."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

The basis upon which Brahmavidyā is founded is called tapa, dharma, and karma. Tapa means tapasyā: to endure, to accept the conditions of life, and to go through them. Dharma is to control: to control our ego, control our temptations, and control everything, and to do the right karma. Upon this, Brahmavidyā is based. This foundation will support you in building the house of your realization upon it. Therefore, sādhakās should protect their spiritual prosperity. Protect your dharma, even if you have to go through certain difficulties. Dharma means your obligations and duties: towards your parents, your children, your partners, your colleagues, human society, as well as towards nature and the environment. That is our svadharma, our own dharma. This means, as a human, what is our responsibility towards the world, and how far we fulfill it—that is very important. In order to follow this dharma, sometimes it is not easy, like not eating certain things, especially when people are used to it. Here I mean especially meat. So, when you come to know that eating meat is a sin and now you have to give it up, that is not easy. That is tapasyā; that is dharma, and it is to not do that karma. And that's it. So that is our svadharma, the dharma of our self.

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:

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