What Is Common Dharma?

"The Man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself." - Sri Ramakrishna

- Madhusudhanan S

In today's world many people talk about manners and Lethics. We all are forgetting our roots and moving towards westernisation is what many of us will say. But, how many of us are following Dharma? In this world there is no religion which asks us to live according to our whims and fancies. Every religion in the world asks you to follow the path of Dharma - righteousness.

The word dharma is derived from Sanskrit word "Dhri" which means to support, to sustain, to hold, virtue etc...Dharma has several meanings in different religions as well as languages. But, the common definition is the same righteousness.

There are many dharmas in each religion. But there are few common Dharmas for all and they are i) Control of mind, ii) Ahimsa, iii) Truthfulness, iv) Fault Finding, v) Krodha or Anger, vi) Shama or Forgiveness and vii) Love.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa once said, "That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true Knowledge, all else is only a negation of Knowledge. "So purity of mind and heart is also a dharma which a man has to adhere to.

The book called "Hindu Dharma" which is based on the discourse of Pujyasri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati Swami (also known as Kanchi Mahaperiyava in South India) has a separate chapter on Dharmasastra. He lists out almost 14 Dharma's common for all (Out of the seven listed above six are present in that list).

In this article let us try to know/ understand about only one dharma and that's more important - control of mind.

Control of Mind