Know Your Heritage - 03

An important concept in our heritage is the concept of dharma. Much misunderstood concept is also this dharma. Dharma is essentially meaning 'the sustaining'. What sustains what, what is sustained by what, how is it sustained, just physically or externally, or also internally and intrinsically are the various aspects connected with this dharma. In nature and society we see that the structures are a series of supports and supported. Something rests on something else. A thing exists only in relationship with various things. If the mutual relationships are healthy then the whole structure and functioning are healthy. 

In inanimate things what constitutes an object exists purely for the object to be whole and functioning. Suppose we have a chair, what constitutes a chair exists in that form of chair purely to enable the chair to be whole and functioning. If a part fails in this status of being a subsidiary to the object 'chair', then that part loses its reason to exist in that form. Either we repair it and bring it into the overall usage or we remove it, so that that part no more belongs to chair. In living things it is not that simple. The parts assume more and more individual status in addition to being subsidiaries to something else which comprises them. And the principle of sustaining is also more complicated in that it has become more organic and intrinsic. In bio-things the roots assume much importance. In animals the principle of life and feelings become more visible and the principle of sustaining is again more nuanced. 

In the world of human beings, the principle of sustaining is more anchored in the mind, even though physical and biological aspects are also there. Hence the concept of dharma, which is nothing but the principle of sustaining, centres around the education of the mind. The mind to function fully as mind needs to be educated. In human scale of living nothing is automatic. Education assumes prime importance. A human baby born doesn't become automatically a citizen. It needs education. So dharma makes it necessary that each and every child should be educated. When dharma is misunderstood as convenient human assumptions, confusion sets in. 

Srirangam Mohanarangan

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