The concept of dharma is extremely important in not only hinduism but many other cultures. You get good karma (which is what decides your fate for your samsara) by living your dharma which is different depending on which caste you are born in. I find all of this fascinating. So many people (including me) use the term karma very lightly without knowing the full extent of its importance to hindus. A person’s karma is the most important thing in their world and they cannot get good karma without fulfilling their dharma.
Pattanaik talks about the never ending cycles 0f life that hindu’s believe in and the difference between Alexander and the gymnosophist and how differently they viewed their lives. Alexander believed he had one life to live so he needed to live it extravagantly while the gymnosophist was fulfilling his dharma for this life. Pattanaik also talks about today’s indians and how everything is “maybe” (which I find hilarious!). Everything is maybe because they aren’t as caught up in how fast everything “needs” to be in our american culture because we are used to instant decision making and results. Modern day Indians aren’t as concerned about that because they are all just living out their dharma and being good people so that they can have good karma for the next life.
Dharma has different strengths in each age of a Maha Yuga. As each stage progresses and there is more evil in the world, the role of dharma decreases and becomes more and more unsteady and has less of a role in people’s lives. The less you follow your dharma, the worse your karma is going to be.
In the Ramayana, Rama has so much respect and love for his father and his stepmother that he doesn’t even question them ( more his stepmother Kaikeyi) when he is told that he is not only no longer going to be king but he is also to be exiled for 14 years (chapter 3). Rama is just fulfilling his dharma and doing what he is told because his parents told him so (great kid right?!).
Hum 115: World Mythology 
Pattanaik made me fall in love with Indian culture and their stress free way of doing things. I think we should all take a page out of their book. Plus I’ve always been a bit of a fan of Ganesha and his story defining “MY world” vs. “THE world” really spoke to how we should alter our perspectives at times.
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You are definitely not alone when using the word Karma so flippantly. When we put it into context next to all of the other steps and reasons why it is done, our usual definition doesn’t seem to hold up. I found the TED Talk to be great. This was a very fast 18 minutes, I could watch him for hours. He was charming and he didn’t seem to preach down to you. You could see the passion and love in everything he did and said. The differences in cultures was fascinating, the maybe compared to the American materialist, I want it now lifestyle. You can see how our cultures are only moving further and further apart with our technology moving quicker and needing information yesterday.
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