7 Steps to an Ayurvedic Lifestyle. Step 2 - Find your Dharma and Perform it with Love.

It is the dharma of the sun to shine.

In Ayurveda, there are four goals of life.  One of those goals is dharma.  Dharma means service, your contribution to the world, your reason for being.

When you are living your dharma, you are able to express yourself fully and completely.  Your life force or prana is stronger.  You become more energized and you have a greater capacity to enjoy life.  When you are not living your dharma, things seem more difficult.  Your physical health is more likely to suffer and your well-being is diminished.  In other words, when you are aligned with your dharma, everything flourishes.  When you are not, you feel stuck.

There are many translations of the Sanskrit word dharma.  It is translated as religion, path, natural law, righteousness, duty, truth, virtue, correct action, and personal ethics. 

Dharma includes your spiritual purpose, a higher purpose beyond your desires.  This is the purpose that you are assigned by the Universe.  It is the purpose that matches your unique gifts and abilities.  It is a gift to know one’s dharma.  In order to know and live one’s dharma, all that is necessary is that you surrender and serve.  Following one’s dharma takes great courage and faith.  Don’t let self-doubt sabotage you.

Success has many measuring sticks.  Most measure it based on money and power.  Few measure it based on service and accomplishment.  Surrendering to your dharma assures a balanced success based on all parameters.  The Universe supports those who align with its intention. 

Harmonious fulfillment of dharma is a gentle loving process built upon consistent hard work and devotion to higher principles.  As human beings, we easily fall back into the dark shadow of the ego.

Dharma is “the way”.   It is what is naturally right.  It aligns mind, body, and soul in harmony with nature. 

In Ayurveda, dharma is to serve, to give of yourself with love.  Simply, dharma means to be your complete self.  In the ancient Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said to Arjuna, “It is better to strive in one’s own dharma imperfectly than to succeed in the dharma of another”.  In other words, it is better to be true to your own self imperfectly than to try to emulate someone else perfectly. 

Ayurveda believes that living one’s dharma is essential for happiness.  Dharma comes from the Sanskrit root meaning “to be established” and has to do with being fully established in the truth of who you are—living each moment in fulfillment of your inherent nature and individual aptitude.

Dharma is the way, the natural law.  It is the dharma of the sun to shine.  To follow your dharma is to follow the cosmic flow.  Following your dharma is following what you ought to be, what you are meant to be.

If you want to find your true purpose, you must first empty your mind of all the false purposes you have been taught.  Surrender your ego and open yourself to the Universe and your Dharma will be revealed to you.  Follow it with love and service.