musings 61

Dharmam is actually a broad set of rules and practices.. based on fairness, goodness, benefit of all and such lofty goals.

But in every social transaction, the same incident is likely to bring about advantage to some, and disadvantage to others..

Rarely do we have transactions where every party is benefited equally.

Dharma principles actually aim at persuading even those who are at a disadvantage to accept decisions because they are fair and justified..

The affected party will never accept it without complaint.

There are exceptions like Socrates, who drank poison voluntarily and embraced death, without rebellion even when he was convinced and others too were convinced that he was right..

The same thing happened with Jesus..

Dharmaputra and Rama faced the same situation..

But Socrates, Rama, Dharmaputra and Jesus were exceptions..

That means dharma can be embraced voluntarily only by exceptional persons..

We are just ordinary human beings..

If one follows dharma, he will face disadvantages, and he will be ridiculed and he may even be killed..

So it is a difficult choice..

Some just pretend that they follow dharma and manage to create a smoke screen too to that effect,

But behind the curtains, it is all fraud..

Such" dharmishtaas" survive and thrive too..