Vedic Dharma is the universal dharma of all mankind. It is a rational, social and spiritual way of full living for one and all without exception and without discrimination. According to the Vedas, we have our rights and privileges on the one hand and duties and obligations on the other. Indeed, rights and privileges and duties and obligations are simultaneous and indivisible as two sides of the same coin. The Vedic term for both these together is BhŒga (share in an integrated state of rights and duties).
All of us are children of immortality; our roots go deep to eternity; our reach is unto infinity. This is our privilege, everone’s privilege. We must reach from earth to God, this is our right as well as our duty and ultimate aim. And we must act in order to achieve our aim in conscious, intelligent and programmed manner. All our acts and non-acts are our karma, and we must reap the fruits of our karma.
In Vedic Dharma, everyone is his/her own saviour under the watchful eye and protective care of God. No one else can carry our burdens, no one else can suffer for our sins, each one must reap what one sows in life. In this way everyone is alone, personally accountable to God, answerable for the gift of human life that He has given us. Yet, no one is all alone. No one is an island, and even the island is linked to the sea because without the surrounding sea, it would not be an island. Each one of us is linked: We are linked to nature. The earth supports us. The water keeps life flowing. The air sustains our breath. The fire maintains our heat of life. The space gives us room to exist. We are linked to our parents, our teachers, our community and indeed the whole humanity. We are linked to animals and birds too since they give us love and maintain the balance of nature. We are linked to God because He gives us life, knowledge and everything. Thus, linked as we are in this way, we should live and act as part of the whole system as individuals and as the human community together. We receive the means of our life and support from the system, so we must do something for the system. It is indeed a living, breathing, intelligent, self-organising and sovereign system. Each individual too is a living, breathing, intelligent and self-organising unit of the system, but none is either sovereign or wholly independent. One is free to act but within the limitations of one’s position and the laws of life. We owe our life and support to the system, so we are obliged to do something lor the system. That something is yajÛa, and that yajÛa is our obligation, says Swami Dayananda.