29

Irreligiosity

(adharma)

The player who lands in sudharma discovers his true role in the game and acts out his part without regard to the outcome of his actions. He knows that as long as he listens to the voice of his own inner nature he need fear nothing.

Faith in accordance with the laws of nature is sudharma. Blind faith, which disregards the cosmic principles, leads to adharma. Adharmas are those actions which are contrary to the individual’s dharma. Adharmas lead him away from his true course and back into first chakra delusion, which is the essence of blind faith.

Adharma is working contrary to the laws of existence. At sunrise everything on the planet changes. Winds, atmospheric pressures, and temperatures change. The tempo of life increases. Sleeping at this time is acting contrary to the laws of the planet. Thus it is adharma. Looting the earth for natural resources, which are then employed without concern for their negative effects on the environment and the future needs of the planet, is adharma against the earth. Similarly, there are adharmas related to one’s own physiology. To hold tension and not release it is adharma. But to release it by adopting unfair means is greater adharma.

Adharma does not exist by itself. It is a negation of the law of dharma, an action contrary to the true inner nature. Denying one’s own self is adharma. Self-rejection and self-praise are both adharmas. To understand one’s position in the game is sndharma. All else is adharma.

Adharma is best understood as an imbalance in the gunas, the three primary cosmic forces responsible for all manifestation. When either sattva (conscious energy), tamas (inertia), or rajas (motion) predominates, adharma takes birth. Self-destruction is the greatest adharma. It is a snake that takes one back to delusion, back to the start of the game.

The danger of getting caught by adharma is greatest in the fourth chakra, the fourth row of the game. In the first three chakras energy was devoted to the physical, celestial, and astral planes. Now, in the fourth chakra, the player attains a degree of balance and begins to understand the importance of apt religion. While he seeks his own role in the game it is possible that he might ignore the existing dharmas and attempt to start his own way, ignoring planetary laws and the laws of existence. Here faith is the key.

Faith is the essence of fourth chakra: faith, devotion, bhakti. This faith can lead the player—if he acts in harmony with his true nature, sudharma—to the plane of austerity. But if it is not in tune with his innermost vibrations, it can draw him back to delusion. This is adharma. Acting on faith alone is liable to create irrcligiosity. Faith alone, without a grounding in the laws of existence, is blind faith. And blind faith is the most frequent cause of energy loss in this plane. Faith in accordance with the laws of existence is sudharma, but faith alone is adharma.