Consequences: Standing with Adharma is also Adharma

It has been a day of deep thoughts. Here is how it began… and here is how I am ending the day.

I had finished doing my breathing exercises. My body and mind were completely aligned. The breeze was caressing my face, like the wife of a soldier would when meeting him after months. I felt loved. The sunshine on my back was warm and soothing. Every inch of me felt aligned with the Universe. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, I was pulsating with the energy of the entire Universe. Years and years of yoga had been paying off with how I was feeling – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

It wasn’t always so. At so many points, yoga felt like an ordeal. Sometimes monotonous. Sometimes unnecessary. Sometimes too simple to have any profound impact. But I kept waking up early and doing it. Whether I felt like it or not. Whether my mind made a hundred excuses, or my body simply didn’t want to. I got up. I did it. And the consequence? I had chosen to do yoga for so long that it seemed to be choosing me. People often told me they didn’t feel I had just delivered a baby a year and a half ago! They said I didn’t look my age. The suppleness I felt, the equilibrium, the spiritual exhilaration… it was all a consequence of keeping up with the simple practice of yoga, regularly.

Consequences of what we do are not seen immediately

Consequences. Because most of them are not immediate, we wonder if they exist. But they do. Thoughts of these consequences continued to follow me even as I was having my lunch. I realized that when you keep eating food that isn’t good for your health, you may not immediately feel the consequences of it. However, the junk is slowly and steadily working its way into your liver and heart arteries as deposits. Slowly and steadily, it’s making way to age you, to tire you, to deplete you of the essential energy to have a good life. Thankfully, the opposite is also true.

Consequences. Newton’s Third Law of Motion says, “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.” And it is true – everything we do, continuously or repeatedly, will have an impact. It’s just that sometimes we see the effects much later, and hence we lose the path.

It was a day filled with incredible success at work, and I was feeling chuffed. Again, here I realized, so many consequences that I saw were actually choices made continuously several years ago. The decision to give my best to what I do – a choice, which was now reaping benefits. The decision to do what I love, and never work for money alone – a choice, which had given me the consequence of finding sustained passion, and therefore success.

And then, don’t consequences also reflect in relationships?

If you ever see a beautiful relationship where there is mutual love, respect, and trust – where laughter flows, and expressions are abundant, know this. It hasn’t been achieved in a day. It is a constant effort from both sides to invest in the relationship, which has had that consequence. When you see a relationship that looks messed up, you also know what has led to it as well.

Consequences. It is all around us.

And then came this startling realization.

We often think that it is our thoughts, words, or actions alone that will give us consequences. Some of us are mindful of how we lead our lives, but many aren’t. However, the truth is that we are all interconnected, and we are not just responsible for our own actions, but also for our inactions when we see something wrong happening in the world too.

Consequences. They are all around us. Let’s ensure we experience many more positive ones, individually and collectively – by taking small, right steps in every direction we can. 

Will you do something about adharma?

As I sipped on my evening chai, watching my beautiful plants dance around, here is what I realized. Global warming seems to be a worrisome reality, but most of us feel that as long as it doesn’t really concern us, why should we do anything about it? Here is the startling Truth: standing with the wrong also makes you wrong. As the Bhagavad Gita says, “Standing with adharma is also  adharma!” Little wonder that every warrior who supported Duryodhana, including the great teachers and sages, all perished.

What do I do about this? I act in my circle of influence. While I may not know how to directly reduce global warming, I am parenting a hundred plants on my balcony – my way of combating a massive issue.

If even a hundred people reading this piece decide to parent eleven plants each – that is a significant shift achieved. Will you stand with adharma, or do something about it?

And then came the news. Social media was buzzing, Whatsapp groups flooded and I felt I was hit by a rock.

Reading about the terrorist attack on tourists in Kashmir chilled me to the bone. It made me question everything that I hold as God and faith. Humanity and religion. I am still numbed by the images, especially of a young bride sitting beside her deceased husband six days after their marriage. The silent scream speaks louder than anything and was haunting me so much that I felt I could not stomach dinner.

I can go on and on arguing with people on right and wrong, on who Kashmir belongs to, spread more hatred, create tremors – or, in my circle of influence, I can reach more youngsters and ensure they become more compassionate, more mindful, more sensitized. I was so restless that I did not know how I would sleep – but the realizations continued.

Act within your circle of influence

Every moment we have a choice. And every choice we make has a consequence. There is also a collective consequence, and unless each of us acts within our circle of influence, we are all, through our inaction, standing against what is wrong.

Standing with adharma is also adharma!

Consequences. They are all around us. Let’s ensure we experience a lot more positive ones, individually and collectively – by taking small right steps, in every direction that we can. Be it our health, our wealth, our relationships, and even the larger issues, which we believe are beyond us. 

I decided to become even more aggressive about reaching the youth and doing what I could to help them understand their inner world. A cynic may ask, “Do you think this will solve the problems in the world?” The truthful answer is, I don’t know. But this much I do know: I am sleeping feeling a lot more peaceful – miles and miles to go towards creating the world we wish for our children to laugh and live in. As my guru Mahatria says, “For now, take the next right action, and make sure your next action is right.” With a spark in my heart, I finally call it a night with the dream that we awaken into the country (and world) that poet Rabindranath Tagore dreamt for us:

“Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high…

… into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awaken!”

A consequence I am willing to strive towards. You?!