In the inaugural episode of the Ask Sri Vishwanath Vedanta show, Shri Vishwanath answers a viewer’s question about the nature of Dharma and its practice. He begins by citing Shankaracharya’s dictum “Ramo Vigrodharma,” explaining that Rama exemplifies Dharma and should be studied to understand it, contrasting Rama’s humble embodiment of divinity with Krishna’s overt divine proclamation. Vishwanath defines Dharma as the path that yields fulfillment, while its opposite, Adharma, leads to suffering, emphasizing that true fulfillment can only be attained through Dharma. He illustrates this with a forest narrative where Lakshmana seeks permission to build a house, encounters a dancing Shiva (Nataraja), and receives divine approval, highlighting the importance of controlling the senses and palate. The speaker then shifts to practical guidance, urging listeners to “listen” rather than merely “understand” scriptures, training the intellect to attune to the inner divine voice (the Atman or chit) that is common to Krishna, Rama, and all spiritual teachings. He stresses that listening activates this inner voice, leading to genuine spiritual growth beyond intellectual accumulation. Finally, he directs the audience to www.magicofgod.com for free Vedanta lessons and promises future episodes.
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Hey, this is Shri Vishwanath here and welcome to episode number one of the Ask Sri Vishnath Vedanta show. I'm very excited. Today is Ram Naomi, Ram's birthday and I want to kick start this show. So the first question comes from Steven from Texas. He asked, what is Dharma and why should we practice it? So here's the stuff. Shankaracharya says, Ramo Vigrodharma, what that means is if you want to study Dharma, study Ram. He is the character. So if you study Ram, you're studying Dharma. Now this is very interesting. So Krishna, when he was born, he was born in jail. Right from the birth he showed his parents their previous births and he said, I am God. All through his life Ram was exact opposite. He never said he was God, but he practiced. He lived like God the whole of his life. So Ramo Vigrodharma, if you want to study Dharma, study Ram. Now what is Dharma? So Puri Shankaracharya, he gives a beautiful. He says, everyone, we all want fulfillment. So when you practice Dharma, the fruit of Dharma is fulfillment and the fruit of Adharma is suffering. Got it? The fruit of Dharma is fulfillment. So if you want fulfillment, the only way you can get it is to practice Dharma. You can do all the tricks but you will not get fulfillment. You may get happiness, but it will diminish. If you want fulfillment, you have to practice Dharma. And the fruit of a Dharma is suffering. Which is why people get everything. And still in the end they feel bad because they don't realize they don't practice Dharma. So I'll tell you a simple story here of Ram. Why he's considered why you should study him. And so Indiramayan, Ram was dispatched to the forest. And so Ram goes with his brother Lakshmana and Sita to the forest. In the forest Lakshman starts building a house for Ram and Sita. And so Ram says, well, hold on, wait, you can't do that. It will take permission from the owner of this place. Lakshman says, permission from whom? I mean this is a forest. Ram said, no, there is a person. There is someone who owns this. You know, you walk further and you will find that person. So Lakshman goes, he listens to Ram. This is the first lesson. He listens. Whatever Ram says, he listens. So he goes and he searches. He doesn't get any. He doesn't meet any person. But then he sees a temple. And in that temple it's a Shiva temple. So it's a deity, Shiva. And from that idol, the Shiva deity comes and starts dancing before him for a couple of minutes. And then the deity goes back to the idol. And so Lakshman sees that. And then he comes back and he tells Ram, well, I didn't see any person. There's no person. There's no one who's in charge of this place. But I did go to a temple. And in that temple I saw this Shiva deity dancing. And. And so Ram looked at Lakshman and said, well, now you can start building the house. You've got the permission. And Lakshman said, wow. He said, that dance of Shiva was. It's called the Natraj Dance. And the significance of that is, if your senses and palate is in control, you can stay in any place. See, if your senses and palate is in control, you can stay in any place. The reason why people get into trouble is this palate. This no one has control over the speech, which is what comes when you practice Dharma. Your senses and your palate is in control. You know, you can be in any place and no one will trouble you. So here's the first tip of practicing Dharma, which Krishna says, stop understanding, start listening. So this is the most powerful tip you can. So let's say you're reading Bhagavad Gita or any scripture, whatever that matter. The moment you start reading, you say, I want to understand. You want to understand the meaning. No, don't do that. It's the first. You start listening. What is listening? Krishna says, there was never a time when you and I were not born. You know them, not, I know them all. So if you have to understand, it's. You can't understand. You are not going to know what you are in your earlier lifetime and all that stuff. What is listening. You're training your intellect to listen to the teachings of the Vedanta, teachings of Krishna, teachings of Rama, teachings of whatever God scripture you follow. Listen. Why? Because when Krishna says, I am the Atman resident in the inner sense of all being, the I, that letter I, that's called the voice of God. So whether Krishna speaks, Ram speaks, Jesus speaks, or whoever speaks, they are speaking the voice of God, which is called chit. And that same voice is in you. So there's only one voice. There's only one voice of Dharma, the voice of Krishna, the voice of Ram, the voice in you, the voice in me. Now you're listening to the voice of God because I'm saying exactly what Krishna said, what Ram said. So if you listen, if you listen and you stop understanding because if you listen, what is happening is you're listening to your voice, to your voice of God, because when you listen, your voice of God gets activated. That's the first and very powerful tip you can take away because people spend decades and decades, oh, I did that. I studied this, I did that course, I did this thing and all that stuff. But they do all that stuff, but all they get is their intellectual knowledge goes up. We don't want to feed the intellect. We want to train the intellectual to listen to the voice of God, to the teachings of Krishna, teachings of Rama, teachings of whatever scripture you follow. Listen, just train the intellect to follow that. And so if you want more of that, you can visit www.magicofgod.com and you can get five free lessons, the highest teachings of Vedanta. And I'll be back again tomorrow. Thank you and God. Bl.
