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"Sacrifice ajnana and ahamkara at the altar of Jnana, and install Dharma therein"; this is the message of the Veda. Every single unselfish act, which prepares the ground for the merging of the Soul with the Over-Soul, which broadens the vision towards the basic Brahmam immanent everywhere, is a Dharmic act. Each such act is a tiny stream that swells the river of holiness rushing towards the sea of Brahmajnana. Your acts and activities are all rituals in the worship of the Paramathma that pervades the Universe. Whatever is done in an attitude of dedication and surrender is a component of the Dharma, which leads to Realisation. The strategy of the Bharathiya way of life is directed towards the sanctification of every moment and every word, thought and deed, into a step towards the realisation.

You have to understand ancient Dharmakarmas by entering into their symbolic meaning. The spiritual field has many a technical term, with its own special connotation. These have to be clearly understood, so that you can grasp correctly the teaching of the Sastras. Let us take an example: People used to celebrate Yajnas in ancient times; and they sacrificed Pasus or animals in these Yajnas. But, the animal is only a symbol. It was not the dumb creature that had to be cut to pieces. The animal leads a life of sacrifice, without man completing its career at the sacrificial pole! The animal that has to be disemboweled and offered is different; in the spiritual vocabulary, animal means "the body-consciousness", "the I-consciousness"; and it is this that has to be slaughtered. The Lord is known as Pasupathi or Govinda; Pasupathi means the Lord of all Jivas, Pasu meaning Jiva; Govinda means the Guardian of Cows or Jivas, "Go" meaning Jiva. The tending of cows is a symbolic leela of Krishna to indicate His Mission of tending Jivas.

The Sastras have profound inner meanings. The aim of Dharma is to make the Jiva give up the attachment to external nature and the illusion that it causes and to make it realise its Reality or rather, un-realise what it has now taken as real, so that it may stand revealed in its genuine identity. Next