धर्म एव हतो हन्ति धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः
तस्- माद्धर्मो न हन्तव्यः मानो धर्मो हतोवधीत्
Dharma destroys those who try to destroy it and Dharma protects those who protect it. Dharma cannot be destroyed by anyone and surely Dharma doesn’t destroy anyone.
When some political leaders claim that we haven’t attacked anyone, then the Dharmic question to be asked to them is, Why?
It is the law of the universe that in order to be recognized as a Dharmic person, one needs to abide by Dharmic laws at all times. Just being meek and humble isn’t and should not be the Quality of a Dharmic Leader. The definition of meek and humble changes according to the occupation and role one plays in the society. Country becomes powerful only when the leadership takes decisive action. It is important to understand what adharma in politics is.
Adharma (अधर्म) is:
- Tolerating unwarranted Insults
- Tolerating injustices
- Tolerating attacks
- Tolerating attacks on women and children
- Tolerating constant attacks on country by enemy states
Whenever there is adharma (अधर्म) it is the duty of Dharmic people to oppose.
Generally most Hindus and Buddhists follow dharma coming from Vedic literatures. Many other cultures such as Sikh, Jain also follow Dharma. Dharma doesn’t translate into religion as is commonly said. Religion means mostly abrahamic philosophy. There is a core difference between dharma and religion. Religion means to follow abrahamic concepts whereas Dharma means following logic and reasoning. Religion means a blind belief whereas Dharma means a logical & reasonable thought. Religion tells a human how to act whereas Dharma keeps a human free recognizing an innate human intellect.
In short, Dharma makes a person free from dogmas.
Why do most Hindus say that we have always loved peace and we never attacked anyone else? Well the last thousand years of history has shown that India has been attacked viciously and it has lost a lot of land. All those lost lands have become practically lawless or adharmic. Their people aspire to join India back. The best dharmic activity for dharmic politicians is to win back those lands and make their people happy. The supporters of adharma justify this myth, “That fear has creeped into the minds of academicians and people who were dependent on the mercy of those invaders.” The people who supported those invaders treaded this myth to continue to subjugate the minds of the rest of Hindus. Because the dharma community hasn’t fought to protect its principles, the adharmic philosophies of abrahamic faiths have crept in.
When Dharmic (धार्मिक) people don’t protect their identity at all levels, then adharma creeps in.
What needs to be done to stop taking pride in this apparent weakness? Every single politician must be told by their voters that they should not repeat – “we have not attacked anyone”. They should not peddle the weakness as strength. The Chola dynasty ruled for six hundred years conquering most of ASEAN today. Before 1919, Afghanistan & Pakistan were always shown as part of Bharat along with Burma. Taking an example of Cricket even, when India changed their technique to attacking game, all success came to them. The 2020 Indo-Chiina and Balakot strikes also have shown that attack is the best course of action for India against rogue adharmic states like Pakistan and China. Taking bollywood by storm, proactively destroying the agents of adharma in the media are the steps in the right direction. This is dharma in action.
The biggest adharma (अधर्म) is to tolerate adharma (अधर्म).
Dharmic people tolerate the urge of their senses. They do not tolerate enemies or mischievous people. The statecraft has a different implementation of Dharma. The enemies of a state are treated with a different aspect of Dharma. Loktantra (लोकतंत्र) is an ancient aspect of Dharma and varnashrama (वर्णाश्रम). For those who do not believe in Dharma and Varnashrama, that concept of loktantra doesn’t apply to them. It is also a fact that allegiance to Dharma creates an Arya or the civilized one. The codes of Dharma are explained well in Ramayana, Mahabharat, Veda, Puran and Upanishad. Anyone can learn from them and begin to follow them in their own lives.
As Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had said, “जीवन सार्थक करि कर पर उपकार” – All practitioners of Dharma must perfect their lives by following it daily and then help others who want to learn and follow it.
Just accepting one incorrect definition of Dharma is not an intelligent choice even though it may be popularly misfed through media, mythologist scholars & academicians.
Disclaimer: The views mentioned are personal to the author
