Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah: To Uphold To Sustain To Integrate Part 2/3

Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah: To Uphold To Sustain To Integrate Part 2/3

By Pujya Swami Prakashanandaji (Feature address delivered at Varsha Pratipada Sansad, 2025)

SATYAM EVE JAYATE

It is little wonder why this line from the Mundaka Upanishad has become so hugely popular. Truth is the foundation for all dharma. The Vidura Niti of the Mahabharata says Satyena Rakshyate Dharmah—dharma is protected by truth! Lallu-deo can become the upholder of dharma only by first imbibing the eternal values of dharma and then following through with them—that is, practicing them in day-to-day life. Dr. Vedavit Manick made a nice statement in this regard. He was saying to the effect that it is not clear to many that to work the full eight hours for which one is being paid is connected to dharma. This is because the gap between the conviction and the practice has become so wide that we cannot see the other shore. If I hire a worker to work for me for eight hours, then I expect him to work for eight hours. If I have this expectation this means that I understand the principle of truth and fairness. But the gap of untruth persists because I get paid for eight hours and only work three hours. On top of that I think I have beaten the system. I think I have done well—paapa moola abhimana says Tulasidas ji. The fact is I am contributing to the disintegration of society. Let me do the math and some analysis with you. Dharmasya tattvam nihitayam guhaayaam—the intricacies of dharma is very subtle, the Mahabharata says.

I used to work in a government department. This is a real story. We got paid for eight hours of work. I am telling. Nobody in that department did more than two hours-worth of work, if so much. Once I tried to work the full eight hours when everyone had already gone home. The supervisor scolded me and told me to go home too—maybe because I was making everyone look bad.

But see the math. We work two hours per day in a forty-year career in the civil service. It means I worked only ten years but got paid for forty years. Who is going to pay back the thirty years of salary I received without working? I cheated 1.5 million taxpayers and I feel I have beaten the system. Bhagavan does not create slavery we create slavery by dishonesty. Why is slavery increasing on the earth? I have to be born somewhere on this earth as one of the present 50 million slaves and repay every cent I took dishonestly. It is estimated that in 200 years the Europeans brought only about 12 million slaves to this part of the world. Today, in our technologically advances world, the number of slaves stands at 50 million and growing. This is not a defense of slavery. It is identifying one of the causes. Another obvious cause of course is greed, another act of adharma. They cause disintegration of society. They have their roots in untruth and greed—adharma, both on the part of the victim and on the part of the perpetrators! Only dharma—in this case honesty—can fix this…to be continued…

 (Pujya Swami Prakashanandaji is a direct disciple of world renowned Swami Chinmayanandaji. He is the Head of Chinmaya Mission Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana with responsibility for the Chinmaya Mission’s works across the Caribbean and Latin America)