SATYA & DHARMA
THE ETERNAL EVERGREEN FOUNDATION
OF KALYAAN IN THIS UNIVERSE
"What is the nature of satya
(Truth)?"
satya
is the statement that
expresses tattvaM
which is true state or condition of anything
under examination
or real nature of aatmaa or material world both of which are brhmah
and is
nirdosh
meaning is
faultless and defect less.
satya
is that
which when spoken is
not contradictory to dharma.
satya
is that
which is spoken by those
who are solely devoted to dharma.
satya is that statement
which is spoken after
taking into account
the place and time
by good persons
and
which causes no offence
to good persons.
satya is
non-injurious to
all creatures.
satya
is that
which is non-violence.
satya
is that
which bestows
all desires.
satya
is that
which is ancillary to
dharmik acts.
satya
is that
which when spoken is
not contradictory to dharma.
satya
is that
which is spoken by those
who are solely devoted to dharma.
dharma
is that
which provides kalyaan
(benevolence and welfare)
to all the worlds.
(worlds of devo, humans, asuraao,
all animate and inanimate things)
dharma
is the
icchaa (will) of the person
who has vivek and vignaan
to know the difference between
dharma and adharma.
(vivek is power of distinguishing
between physical world and aatmaa (soul)
and vignaan is knowledge - these two are
powers of buddhi (intellect)
to know what is right and wrong)
That which is antagonistic to
all kalyaan
( benevolence and welfare)
is known as asatya.
satya
is that
which is opposed to
all
adharmik and asatya karma.
puraano
are part of ved. There are 18
major puraano and 108 total puraan in existence in this kali-yug.
puraano simplifies the knowledge contained in ved through
describing the history and science of creation and created through the narration
of major events that has already happened in the current kalpa of
4.32 billion years of which about 2.16 billion years has already
elapsed.
The above teaches us of eternal and evergreen dharma
on which humanity's well-being rests on. But dharma's foundation
is satya (Truth). And satya
cannot exist without dharma. We always seem to use the
word satya or truth often without realizing the
fundamental meaning. This slok defines some of the basics by
which one can determine what satya is. The slok also shows
the mutual relationship of dependence between satya and dharma.
satya and dharma cannot exist without each
other.
dharma is the foundation of our well-being
and sustenance of continuation of life. And therefore dharma is protected and kept
established by vishnu-dev who is
the manifestation of the sattva gun of
prakruti out of which the entire universe and everything in it are
created. This can be interpreted in another way that sattva
shakti of brhmah
in the naam (name) and ruup
(form) of vishnu-dev protects and upholds dharma in
this universe.
vishnu-dev has taken 9
major and numerous minor avtaar
to protect dharma. vishnu-dev is the manifested
form of sattva-gun of 3-guni
mahaa-maayaa. mahaa-maayaa is the manifested form
of the fundamental shakti of our creator brhmah.
mahaa-maayaa through her 3-guno creates, sustains and
re-absorbs all creations into herself in each creation cycle of 4.32
billion years.
Therefore it
is one's dharma to be satya
or truthful if one wishes to live by dharma and uphold dharma
in one's life. This is why the mandate
of Prajapati
Vishva Aashram Foundation (PVAF) which
is being currently constitutionalized will be binding all managment,
volunteers, donors and receipents of donations to dharma based on
satya and satya based on dharma.
As satya is non-injurious to all creatures
as per the above slok, the mandate of PVAF based on satya and
dharma can only bring prosperity and happiness to all at
PVAF.
The PVAF mandate has education as its base and means to
remove poverty with the help of dharma. And this PVAF mandate is prayed to be realized with two
of the four supports of dharma which is
daan (charity gifts) and dayaa
(compassion) flowing from the hearts of all prajaapatio and
all humans who have the fortune to share their blessing of fortune with
their fellow beings.
This PVAF mandate is also prayed to be supported by the
other two supports of dharma which is tapasya
(penance) by humanity and realization of satya
(Truth) that the fellow beings who are suffering poverty are truly
another manifestation of brhmah-self like
themselves. This satya means that by helping the poor to
break out of poverty one is performing sevaa
(service) to please and propitiate brhmah-self.
The question about satya in the above
presentation was asked by king bhagiirath
who was the 14th great-grandfather of shree raam
of ramaayaN. The answer to
the question was provided by bhRugu-muni
when king bhagiirath was informed by
dharma-raaj (yam-dev
or god of death) that it was dharma of king bhagiirath
to release his 3rd great grandfather's 100 brothers from narak
(hell) by immersing their ashes in the waters of gangaa-nadi
(river ganges). At that time gangaa-nadi
was only flowing in svarga (heaven).
That meant king bhagiirath had to bring gangaa-nadi's
flow from svarga to pruthvi
which was not a mortal task. pruthvi in ved means domains
of mortal living beings. Therefore king bhagiirath decided to
perform tapasya (penance and
mediation on a dev) to propitiate brhmah
and ask for a boon for gangaa-nadi to flow onto pruthvi.
king bhagiirath gave his kingdom to his sons to rule and went to himaalayaa
to do tapasya. On his way to himaalayaa he
paid a visit to bhRgu-muni's aashram and asked for an
explanation of satya, dharma, paap and
punya.
bhRgu-muni is the mind born son of brahmaa-dev
and is one of the first seven mind born sons of brahmaa-dev who
are collectively called sapta-rushi (seven
rushio). These sapta-rushi are the fathers of all prajaapatio who
creates all animate and inanimate creations in the universe at the
beginning of each kalpa and manvantra.
A kalpa is 4.32 billion year cycle of creation followed by 4.32
billion of re-absorption into brahmaa-dev. A manvantra is
a time division which is equal to 1/14 of a kalpa meaning there
are fourteen manvantra in each kalpa. Each manvantra
has it own ruler called manu.
This slok confirms what shree krishna, in the
naam (name) and
ruup (form) of brhmah teaches us in
bhagvad gitaa in Chapter 3 titled
karma-yog: "
that one should perfrom karma according to the rules of dharma
and should be based on satya or the karma-phal would be paap (sin)."
paap's
fruits which one must recieve are very painful and could lead one to
commit more paap. The cylce of paap becomes very difficult
to break once one gets into it.....so be dharmik and avoid
anything adharmik.......
(The slok on satya and dharma are extracted from naarad
puraan, 1.16:19-29: Translated and annotated by Dr. G.V. Tagore, 1980 -
Reprint: 1995. The extracted slok has been compiled with sanskrit words
and its sanskrit glossary and supplemented with the ved study
that has been presented on this web site by champaklal daajibhaai
mistry. The words in italics are sanskrit words whose glossary
could be found in the SANSKRIT GLOSSARY
on this Prajaapati Vishva Aashram Foundation
web site.)
September 21, 2002.)
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