Dharma Is Not Common for Everyone
When Sri Rama and Lakshmana went with Sage Viswamitra to protect his yaga from rakshasas, and the rakshasas came — rakshasas such as Maricha — the Lord asked them:
Why are you troubling these people?
They are harmless tapaswis.
They only act in the welfare of everyone, and survive only on fruits.
Why are you harming them?
Maaricha said:
अद्मो द्विजान् देवयजीन् निहन्मः
कुर्मः पुरं प्रेतनराधिवासम्
धर्मो ह्ययं दाशरथे ! निजो नो नैवाऽध्यकारिष्महि वेदवृत्ते
'This is our dharma — eating noble people, killing those who worship devas, and converting their places into ghost lands.
This is our dharma.'
But the Lord didn’t disagree with him. He didn’t say it is adharma.
धर्मोऽस्ति सत्यं तव राक्षसाऽयमन्यो व्यतिऽस्ते तु ममाऽपि धर्मः
ब्रह्मद्विषस्ते प्रणिहन्मि येन राजन्यवृत्तिर्धृतकार्मुकेषु
He said, 'True, I know that is your dharma — धर्मोऽस्ति सत्यं तव — I know that is your dharma.
But as a Kshatriya, I have my own dharma also — which is to kill you, to kill the brahmadveshis such as you, and protect the noble.'
In the Yama-Yami Samvada, Yami wanted to have physical union with her own brother Yama.
She justified this by saying that the rakshasa called Nirruti unites with his own sister every day.
Yama said — that is rakshasa dharma, not the dharma of devas and manushyas.
This is papa for devas and manushyas.
Similarly, if you see — after Vastu Purusha was subdued by the devas, he asked Brahma:
'What will I eat? What will be my food?'
Brahma said — whoever doesn’t pay respects to you at the beginning of a yaga or when they build a house — they and their belongings will be your food.
Isn’t this himsa?
Is it adharma for a lion to kill and eat a deer?
One bigger question — if the Lord agrees that what Maricha did was rakshasa dharma,
Then how can you say that what Ravana did was adharma?
Ravana was only half rakshasa. His mother was rakshasa.
His father was a rishi.
He had learned shastras.
He had access to Lord Shiva.
He became evil out of his own choice.
That’s why what he did was called adharma.
A lion killing a deer for food is not adharma.
If a lion and a deer live as friends in a maharshi’s ashrama, then it is transformation.
There is a maharshi called Apastamba.
He was once observing tapas under water and got caught in the net cast by fishermen.
When they saw what was there in the net, they became scared — the sage should not curse them.
They went rushing to the king. The king came with his retinue.
The sage said, 'I am so sad for these fish who are getting caught and killed by these fishermen every day.
They don’t realize that it is adharma because nobody has told them. Nobody has taught them.
Those who are supposed to teach them — they are immersed in their own selfish agenda — either to go to Swarga or get moksha.
How will these poor people know that what they are doing is wrong?
But what will they do for survival if they don’t catch fish?
They don’t know anything else.'
The sage told the king,
'I have been caught in their net, so I am now their property.
You buy me from them by paying appropriate value,
So that with that money they can live the rest of their lives, and their generations down the line, without doing himsa.'
See, it is a question of choice.
The fishermen got an option now — to live without harming the fish.
So, dharma is about choice —
Which path to choose when you have options available —
Which is always available to man, and only to man.
When he chooses the right path, he progresses.
When he chooses the wrong path, he falls.
And what is the simplest rule — even if you don’t know dharma shastra, you need not know dharma shastra:
आत्मनः प्रतिकूलानि परेषां न समाचरेत्
Whatever is unfavourable to you, whatever troubles you, worries you, makes you sad, unhappy, or stressed —
Don’t do that to others.
Follow this simple rule.
You will never do adharma in your life.
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