Talks Excerpt 490. Swamiji wraps up insights on the 5 Maha Yajnas.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
[The Maha Yajnas continued]. For previous posts on the topic, click here for 488 and 489.
Now take all five Maha Yajnas and see the completeness of the householder’s life. This service to the different deities is projected as karma yoga in the Bhagavad Gita.
What we have learned is that we must observe the five Maha Yajnas in conjunction with dharma [righteous duty and living]. We have to serve the gods in conjunction with dharma. My dharma and your dharma will differ from second to second. Then there is a general dharma and a universal dharma. As a teacher in class your duty is one thing; as a husband at home it will be another; and as a friend it will be another. So dharma has to be known from all sides. Our scriptures, like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, spell this out for us completely.
The four disciplines of righteous life are dharma, artha, kama, moksha.
When a householder practices dharma, which is performing righteous deeds, he gets artha, which means wealth. Whether this artha implies money, knowledge, physical health or strength, it leads to kama. Kama means ‘getting pleasure’ in performing our duties righteously. Wealth earned righteously encourages you to be dharmic. One who gets pleasure in performing duties righteously attains liberation or moksha. You are sure to attain moksha if you lead a dharmic life.
One has to perform all these disciplines to get the last one, namely, moksha or liberation.
In Hinduism the whole quality or life-style of a sadhaka is so geared, so oriented, that it ultimately leads to liberation. Life is not to be led haphazardly. One should not indulge in animal-like behaviour. Our actions (thoughts, words, and deeds) must be well thought out and specifically directed to attain a chosen goal called moksha. Righteous duty gives us a certain moral standing and this encompasses truth.
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These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.