Good Dharma makes for a good life

To live by dharma means to make choices and actions that will benefit your life, your families lives and the universe too in the future.  Making choices that are according to dharma can keep bad and chaos at bay.

Viswamithra was a righteous man whom everyone looked up to.  He made a choice to change the world by stopping the creatures that were disturbing the holy ground.(p. 7)  Because he was older, needed some younger protectors and I think he wanted to mentor young men.  Viswamithra asked King Vasishtha to let his son, Rama to travel with him to slay the creature.   Viswamithra’s request seems to be a way he can give back to the people by teaching Rama everything he knew to carry on his legacy for the future.  Dharma means to act in a good way so that you have a good future.  If you have bad dharma or make bad decisions those  decisions could come back in your future to hurt you.

I liked the Wedding chapter.  Sita sees a young man from her balcony and love hits her.  But the man doesn’t stop to meet her.  Sita is lonely and distressed.  She has had many gentleman callers but none approved by her dad.  Sita’s dad questioned his decision to make Shiva’s bow the answer to the suitor tale.  If a man could string Shiva’s bow then he was worthy to marry Sita.  I think Sita’s dad thought that maybe the bow quiz was be dharma for Sita.  Her future could be doomed because the quiz was unattainable by any man.  That is until Rama came along.  Rama happened to be the man Sita saw from the balcony.  Rama was able to string the bow with ease.  Sita’s dad was convinced that it was the right thing to do to ensure Sita’s future with a good man.  Rama and Sita were married and returned to Rama’s home town.

It seems that the people of this time was always thinking of the future.  They lived for the future.  They did things like fight demons to protect the future of the land or the people.  Rama’s dad soon realized that he was not physically able to be king anymore.  He knew that his choice to pass the leadership on to Rama would ensure that the kingdom would continue to grow with good people living with dharma.    The dharma code to take care of your people and family is what made living in Dasaratha’s kingdom so good.  He set a good example.