To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

72 / TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS
that the dharma of another is full of peril, and even if it is
not the most excellent path, he is admonished to fulfill the
dharma that belongs to the self (sva-dharma).* In this way
he shall be following his own path, and doing that for which
he was born into this world.
Orientalists have translated dharma variously — duty,
truth, law, religion, piety — but all those words are only
an approach, they do not convey the richness of thought
imbodied in the Sanskrit term. Dharma, from the verb
dhṛi, ‘‘to bear, to carry, to sustain,’’ implies that each of us
came into incarnation bearing a destiny that is ours, sustaining
the truth of our inner being as we fulfill our outward
duties to the best of our ability. We have first to recognize
our destiny as being within, not outside of ourselves. We
don’t have to go to Tibet, America, Thailand, or Africa to
find it. We are our destiny, our karma, our individual
dharma.
There is so much awry in human relationships all over
the world that it may take many ages to set things right; no
doubt we’ve tallied up quite a karmic score against us that
must be balanced. But we should not overlook the other
side of the ledger, the nobler entries made in this life and in
lives gone by. Could it not be that the intensity of global
and individual su¤ering and confusion of values is due as
much to a karmic awakening, a stimulus from our higher
selves, as it is to karmic debts still unpaid?
Surely we were meant to live our lives as a wholeness and
not be continually fractured by anguish or despair. Sorrow
*Bhagavad-Gītā 3:35 (W. Q. Judge recension, p. 21).