The divine meaning of Dharam is to follow the divine wisdom direct from God, and not the man-made divisions of religion. The eternal essence (Sat Tat) of the word Dharam is a set of rules, regulations and divine laws for us to remain under the:-
· unlimited kingdom of the Almighty,
· the kingdom of Eternal Truth,
· the kingdom of spirituality, and
· the kingdom of Divinity.
These divine laws have been here from the beginning. They are here now. And they will remain here forever. Anybody who follows these laws of Eternity will be able to enjoy this kingdom of Akal Purakh. They will be able to enjoy the eternal blessings and the real eternal Dharam, the real religion. These divine laws are very clearly and well defined in GurBani. They were exercised by the Guru Sahibs, Sants and Bhagats and promoted to be used by the masses. They were compiled in the form of a “Constitution of Eternity’s Kingdom” in Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
The whole of GurBani is the definition and very detailed description of these divine laws. For ease of understanding and without getting into the details of the entire GurBani, we have written down some of these divine laws as formulated and kept in the Mansarovar – unlimited sea of Divine Light – Puran Param Jyot Puran Param Parkash. These divine gifts are available to everyone around the entire creation. They are same for all of us. They never change. They will remain intact forever, and they are listed below:-
· Full and complete belief, trust, faith, Shardha and Preet (devotion with unconditional love) and commitment in and to the Gur, Guru and GurBani.
· Full and complete surrender to the Gur and Guru, “Tunn, Munn Dhann Sabh Tera”; “Tunn, Munn Dhann Sabh Saup Guru Ko”. The Guru is great and very kind, if we give 10% of our time and earnings to the Guru and follow His words, He will pay for the remaining 90% from His own pocket.
· Giving 10% of our time to the Guru. Spend this time in Amrit Vela (early hours) to do Naam Simran, “Prabh Kaa Simran Sabh Tey Oochaa.” This is the highest service of the Almighty and this is the only means of cleaning us up from inside and keep us like that and eventually take us beyond the three aspects of Maya. This is the only way we can win over our mind. Win over the five thieves and desires and win over Maya completely.
· Always pray for GurParsaad. Nothing can be done by us. Everything that happens is in Hukam. The will of God prevails no matter what happens. Only by having GurParsaad can we live under the Will of God without any issues. The GurParsaad will bring Naam inside us. It will take us to Jivan Mukti – salvation.
· Always see, speak, hear, deliver and serve the Truth. This is the highest service to Almighty.
· Exercise utmost humbleness in our communication with others. Consider our self the lowest of the lowest, “Aapas ko jo janey neecha so hi ganye sabh tey oocha.” Consider everybody else as being above us. Concentrate on self-reformation. Don’t point fingers at others. Keep the finger firmly pointed at our own self. Humbleness is the only weapon to kill our Haumai. Utmost humbleness and humility – Gareebi Ves Hirda. Utmost Nimrata (humilty) inside is the key to the kingdom of Akal Purakh – Dargah of Akal Purakh.
· Delete “me, mine and my” from our conversations and communications. Always keep in mind that our existence is due to the life element inside us. And this is due to the Eternal Jyot inside us. There is God inside us. Always keep this Eternal Jyot element which is the Sat Tat and the Param Tat above us. Use “we, ours and us” in our communications by keeping this divine element recognized all of the time inside us.
· Accept our sins and bad deeds. Open confession in the Sangat is the way to wash our sins and clean us up from inside. To make us truthful and take us closer to the Creator.
· Do not involve our self in any kind of negative criticism, gossip and jealousy.
· Do not hurt anybody’s Hirda. Unconditional love for all His creations will determine how much we love Him. There is no place for hatred for anybody in the Mansarovar – Amrit Sagar Nirgun Saroop. Unconditional love with devotion and sacrifice is the language of Almighty. Only love, sacrifice and service with devotion can bring us closer to the Almighty.
· Don’t crave for anything. Thank the Almighty for everything He has given us and keeps on giving us. Remain contented in whatever we have and whatever we are getting. Desires are the root cause of all of the problems.
· Exercise forgiveness in our day to day communications with others. This is the way to control our anger. Wherever there is forgiveness there is God. Forgiveness is a divine quality and brings kindness inside us. Together these divine qualities make our heart very vital. We have no hatred or animosity with anyone. This makes us single vision – Ik Drisht. We become Nirvair which is one of the most vital qualities of Divinity. Forgiveness makes us anger free. Anger and ego are complementary to each other. Anger comes due to ego and ego brings in anger. So both of these mental sicknesses become our slaves, they no longer hurt us.
· When we give 10% (Dasvandh) of our earnings to charity, we eventually become free of greed. The feeling of greed which then prompted untrue deeds starts to diminish. Our heart becomes kind, loving and self-sacrificing. We serving the poor and needy. This eventually relieves us of the deep mental sickness of greed.
· Consider our family and friends, our parents and children as a Sangat and serve them with the same feeling and in the same way we serve the Gur Sangat. Love them and respect them the same way we do in Gur Sangat. This removes Moh from within us and converts it to the real deep, divine love with compassion, full of sharing, selflessness and sacrifice in our Hirda.
· Other than our wife, respect every women as either our sister, mother or daughter. Other than our husband, respect every male as either brother, father and son. This removea the feeling of Kaam from within. This is a deep mental sickness and is cured by exercising this rule.
· Delete the past, don’t think about the future and seize the current moment. Be truthful in this current moment. Engage our self in truthful and only truthful deeds in each moment. Once our current moment is truthful our future will be truthful. Eventually this will erase all of the negative effects of the past from our Karni. Truthful deeds are the key to shape our own destiny. To shape our own future. When our present is truthful our future will eventually come very rewarding.
· Practice GurBani in our daily life. Whatever little bit we understand, please bring that eternal essence inside our self right away by practicing it in our daily life. GurBani is an eternal prescription for all of our problems and mental and physical ailments. By doing Naam Ki Kamai and practicing GurBani we eliminate all of these sicknesses from our mind, soul and body. This make them absolutely clean of the scum of Maya. Watch our daily deeds in light of GurBani and keep on reforming it forever. There is no end to the divine qualities. By practising them we bring these priceless jewels of Divinity within us. This reforms us completely from inside and out. Eventually we become a Puran Sachyara (completely Truthful one) and the Sachyaar (True One) comes inside our Hirda forever.
· Involve our self in Seva with devotion and love. Do selfless service for the benefit of others. Serve the poor and needy. Serve the orphans. Serve the sick. Serve our own family with love and devotion.
Always remember that the highest service to the Almighty is Naam Simran. And all of the above points when exercised with Naam Simran bring tremendous rewards and results and make our life:-
· sublime,
· full of eternal enjoyment,
· full of happiness,
· full of eternal blessings, and
· eventually our spiritual dreams come true.
We then become a Sant Hirda. We become Jivan Mukt and achieve our objective of this life by being one with Almighty and this is the real Dharam. This can only happen with the grace, GurParsaad, of Dhan Dhan Paar Braham Parmeshwar.
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