During my stay in Puttaparthi in June 2004, two afternoon darshan sessions were completely dedicated to dharma consisting of a speech by the Vice Chancellor of the Higher Institute of Learning and a beautiful presentation by Swami's university students. I want to share the message to YA's everywhere.

Dharma is defined as 'right action, truth in action, righteousness, morality, virtue, duty, the dictates of God, code of conduct' in the Dharma Vahini.

The Vice Chancellor began his speech mentioning that Swami has recently reiterated the importance of imbibing dharma in the daily lives of all his devotees, especially the youth. The main points of his speech were that religion and spirituality without dharma are worthless and even useless. Every simple movement, gesture, word, and action of Swami is an act of dharma. In fact, there is absolutely no difference between Swami and dharma. Sri Sathya Sai Baba is dharma. Dharmic conduct must become so natural that it occurs without thought or reason. Therefore, dharma must be so deeply rooted in our spirit that dharmic conduct in thought, word, and deed is automatic.

The presentation of the students began with the relation of dharma to unity of thought, word, and deed. However, unity of these three is not enough. Thought, word, and deed become dharmic only when they are unified and purified. The students gave an example that if a thief had unity of thought, word, and deed with regards to robbing a house it would definitely not be dharmic since it lacks purity. The second part of the presentation dealt with more abstract topics yet was extremely applicable to daily living. Two types of dharma were described, Atma Dharma and Purusha Dharma. For anyone unfamiliar with the definition of Atma, it is the real Self, one's divinity, or the spark of God within each of us (from Dharma Vahini). Atma Dharma is defined as our Atmic duty or divine duty (from Dharma Vahini). In other words, Atma Dharma is conduct that seeks the divine and is therefore divine conduct itself. Atmic Dharma or divine conduct would include any conduct that consists of one of the five principles (truth, love, peace, righteousness, and non-violence) at its core. Purusha Dharma is simply the dharma of man which can include professional responsibilities, family responsibilities, responsibilities to society, nation, etc. Each individual will have several Purusha Dharmas. Atma Dharma is the same for everyone while Purusha Dharma is different for each person. The most important point of the students’ presentation was that Purusha Dharma must be constantly conducted with Atma Dharma in mind. Or, in other words, Atma Dharma should pervade Purusha Dharma.

A beautiful analogy given by Swami is that Atma Dharma is the milk while the Purusha Dharmas are the dairy products created from that milk. The students gave a very relevent practical example of Atma Dharma pervading one's Purusha Dharma. Two different doctors, one with Atma Dharma in mind and the other without, treat a rich patient. The rich patient comes with symptoms that are painful and disturbing but not serious and his condition can be treated simply and inexpensively. The doctor without Atma Dharma in mind takes advantage of the rich patient's ignorance and wealth by conducting and prescribing expensive procedures and medications. In contrast, the doctor with Atma Dharma in mind does not take advantage of the rich patient and conducts the appropriate medical procedures without regard to the cost of the procedure and the patient's wealth. As we can clearly see from this example, following Atma Dharma does not always lead to material/worldly advantage over Purusha Dharma. However, Swami has promised that if we follow the dharmic path, we will be protected by God for God is dharma. Swami has also promised that if we follow the dharmic path (our Purusha Dharma is constantly in the direction of Atma Dharma), God may not always give us what you want, but He will always give us what we need.

In other words, although Atma Dharma might not always grant us at a materialistic/wordly advantage over other paths, it will give us things of much greater value: peace of mind and a place in Bhagavan's heart.