Devanbhavaytanen te deva bhavayantu vah,
Parasparam bhavayantah shreyah paramvapsythah;
Meaning : With this do ye nourish the gods, and may the gods nourish you; thus nourishing one another, ye shall attain to the highest good.
Implied meaning : One of the Dharma Siddhantas (tenets of Vedic Sanatan Dharma) is the adopting the spirit of mutual well-being, aim for the state, the loftiest one and that of supreme bliss. God Shree Krushna is expounding one such principle of Dharma here. Varnashram vyavastha (system of classes for doing different kinds of service) and relations between Guru-Shishya (Master-disciple) are based on the same Dharma Siddhanta. One must utilise whichever special ability, or talent one possesses and acquiring an expertise in it, must work for the well-being of the society and the society in turn too, will think about the individual’s welfare, this principle was the basic foundation of the Dharma Siddhanta. Guru should guide the disciple for the latter’s spiritual progress and the disciple must take on the responsibility of the Guru and His mission and His Ashrama. Similarly the king must protect the society from evildoers, must shoulder the responsibilities of efficient administration of the State and the people must follow him and offer a fraction as a tax to the king for his livelihood. The Gruhasthashram ( the institution of Householder ) where the husband provided security to the wife for an entire lifetime and shouldered all the responsibilities pertaining to her and the wife dispensed the duties of being a ideal housewife and helped her husband in acquiring Dharma, Artha (money), Kaam (desire) and Moksha (liberation) also functioned on the same principle of mutual wellbeing . Thus, the society as a whole imbued with the theory of mutual well-being, used to make progress toward supreme well-being. With the passage of time, the importance of Dharma kept receding and selfish, personal interests replaced mutual well-being and as the society kept becoming Nidharmi, disquiet kept spreading to Vyashti (individual) and Samashti (societal) levels at the same rate.
Similarly, for running the cosmos, it was divided into different parts and entrusted to various Shaktis (energies) that we see as divine form, so that we maintain a lofty spiritual emotion and no obstacles are encountered in the preservation of nature and running the universe. For instance, for air there is God Varuna, for light, there is Sun God, the responsibility for rain rests with God Indra and while performing a Yadnya (sacrificial deed) making a sacrificial offering for them is the duty of every being so that they remain happy and contented. This signifies that once a divine status which they deserve is given to all the elements responsible for running this universe, we cannot bring harm unto them; however, the devilish industrial revolution within a span of 200 years, has altered the equations of running the universe. Today, we can see the ecological imbalance and the ozone layer stands depleted, the air has been polluted, while some places are grappling with a flood, the society is afflicted by a drought and the rivers that were a symbol of purity, that used to provide water to us like a mother have today been reduced to a drain. All this has happened because we have become Nidharmi (not abide Dharma) and selfish; and this in a way is a symbol of the fury of the deities and the reason for their becoming offended; hence, through proper Dharmaacharan, thinking about the well-being of animate and inanimate world, targeting one’s supreme well-being is the prime Dharma of every human being. Tanuja Thakur
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