Jain Center Essex Fells NJ 1993 04 Ten Years Celebration

Author(s): Jain Center Essex Fells NJ
Publisher: USA Jain Center New Jersey

Page 47

Joth Anniversary Celebration
THE NECESSITY OF DHARMA IN LIFE
Dharma is more essential in life than happiness. In fact, we get happiness only from Dharma.
सुखं धर्मात् दुःखं पापात् (happiness accrues from Dharma and Sorrow accrues from Sin). This is an eternal truth. Dharma brings us happiness in the other world. Not only that; Dharma bestows happiness upon us even in this life which we are living at present. It happens so in this manner. Happiness relates to our experience within ourselves. It does not lie in outward objects. We may have heaps and heaps of the objects that can bring us happiness, but if our minds are being agitated by some anguish, can we really be happy? Thoughtless people believe that happiness lies in wealth; or in the things that they eat and drink; or in honor and prestige or in power and grandeur. But if we observe the world a little carefully we find that countless people in this world are happy though, they do not have wealth and grandeur and that countless people are unhappy and miserable though they have enough or excessive wealth. If happiness lay in wealth and worldly grandeur, our happiness should have increased in proportion to the increase in our wealth and worldly splendor. If happiness was an attribute of the things that we eat and drink, then our happiness should have increased in proportion to the increase in the things that we eat and drink. But our actual experience is different from this. We may experience a kind of happiness when we eat one or two pieces of sweet but if we consume too much we grow sick and feel like vomiting, and we experience unhappiness. The pleasure that one gets from one wife decreases if one has many wives. How can we say that there is happiness in these things? Can this be called happiness? Let us think of it from another point of view. The same object may give happiness at one time and may cause unhappiness at another time. Then is there happiness or unhappiness in the objects definitely? Can we say that there is happiness definitely in some objects and that there is sorrow definitely in some objects? It is correct to say so? No, we cannot say so. Happiness is not a quality present in outward objects. It is a quality of the soul. It is a quality of character. We experience happiness when our minds are totally free from all worries; when our minds are totally free from all fears and when we are totally free from all internal agitations and agonies. We can experience happiness-real happiness, only when our minds and hearts and our inner selves are totally free from all agitations and when they are experiencing peace absorbed in a contemplation on the soul. Dharma gives this kind of happiness. It brings about such a state of mind in us that when we are very hungry, we experience the greatest kind of happiness if we eat only dry bread. In the same manner, Dharmatmas (those who live according to Dharma) experience great happiness of the kind that great sadhus and sages experience even in the ordinary situations in Samsar. Apart from this, Dharma brings us such a lot of merit that we get health, progress, prosperity and the substances necessary for Dharma in this life; and we get later such blessed states as the state of human life or the state of heavenly existence. If we need happiness in this life and in the other world; then we have to adore Dharma. It has been said:
व्यसनशतगतानां क्लेशरोगातुराणां । मरणमयहतानां दुखशोकादितानां । जगतिबहुविधानां व्याकुलानजनानां ।
शरणमशराणानां निप्यमेकोहिधर्म: ॥ A SUMMARY: Dharma, is the only refuge in Samsar for those who are agitated by hundreds of agonies; for those who are agitated by sorrows and diseases; for those who are agitated by the fear of death; for those who are agonized by anguish; for various agitations, and for those who are without a refuge. Dharma is necessary in life even for this reason. The jiva desires others to treat him properly; and he does not like to be illtreated by others. He does not like ignoble treatment from others. For instance, everyone desires that others should not cause violence to him; that others should treat him with kindness, amity and magnanimity; that others should not lie to him; others should not steal his possessions, and others should not look at his wife with lusty eyes etc. Others also have the same desires. From this it is evident that in life, what is necessary is not sinful action but actions that accord with Dharma. Therefore, Dharma is essential in life.