Dharma 20th August 1999 (Auroville) - Dharma 207

SWABHVA

Now comes the deepest concept of Swadharma, and that is connected with Swabhava. This is the last point I want to make nothing more: Swadharma is Dharma which flows from oneself. What is oneself − is one's becoming. You are constantly becoming, growing, isn't it? Everyone is growing. Now, what is `growing"? What is the source of growing? We are all growing because there is source in us, which is in us like a reservoir of water − which is there in us. In each one of us, there is this reservoir, without the reservoir we would never be able to grow. So remember that each one of us has a reservoir. That reservoir is your real Self, your true being, not the outer being; outer being is not your reservoir, there is an inner being, or inmost being, which is your reservoir. Now that reservoir has a very special way of 'flow'. It flows, but it has its own special way of flowing, its own rhythm of flowing. You will mark it. Every individual, you will see has a reservoir and out of that something is flowing, and if you observe very correctly, you will find that this flow has its own rhythm. To discover the real rhythm of everyone requires your knowledge of the becoming of his Self; that is called Swabhava. Swabhava is two words swa and bhava. Bhava is becoming, Swa is self. Self which is becoming, Self which is shaping. This shaping has a rhythm and the law of rhythm. This law of rhythm is Dharma. This is the final definition of Dharma that I am giving you. Dharma is the law of the rhythm of becoming, the way in which each one is becoming. That rhythm is Swadharma coming from Swabhava.

So the deepest truth of our being is this: discover your real reservoir. You cannot have Dharma, you cannot reach Satya, you cannot reach Brihat, you cannot reach Rita, you cannot reach Certainty, you cannot reach Immortality, you cannot reach Permanence, you cannot reach these ten characteristics of Dharma, unless you start from here, you start from yourself, from your reservoir. Usually this reservoir is not even seen. We do not even know that there is a reservoir. So our first task is to find our reservoir, it is a huge and vast reservoir.

As Mother herself has said, you know Mother has said the characteristics of becoming a true Aurovilian: "A true Aurovilian has to realise that there is in him a being, or a reservoir, which is vast and free and quiet and all knowing". This is all a reservoir; it is in us, already within in us. What we are supposed to do in the world is nothing else but to discover it and to allow it to flow. So we are all in the process of becoming. Now this becoming, is Swabhava, we are constantly becoming, that which is the reservoir is flowing, but you cannot truly become in the right way unless you find out the real flow and the rhythm of the flow. This idea of the rhythm is very important. You will find, take sulphur for example and burn it, it will burn immediately. Take a piece of cotton and burn it; it will burn immediately, but take a piece of pebble and burn it; heat will not touch it at all. Similarly, you take a piece of wood, if it is dry wood, it will burn immediately, if it is wet wood it will not burn immediately. Now this is called the rhythm, whether something is fast or slow, and the mode of it. The way in which sulphur will burn will be different from the way in which cotton will burn; will be different from the way in which the wood will burn. Each movement has its own mode. This rhythm, this mode is what is called `law'. The word 'law' you must have heard very often. Basically the meaning of law is very simple: regularity of the speed, rhythm, and the manner in which it acts is law. Everything falls from top to the bottom; it is the law which is called gravitation. Gravitation is a law because it forces everything from top to bottom, that is a law, it is a rhythm, but it is not a law everywhere. You go beyond a certain point, you can walk in space, you will not fall, and gravitation works only up to a certain point, but not beyond it. So laws are not absolutely absolute, it is not as if everywhere it is the same thing.

Therefore I told you the Dharma is a limited concept, never be rigid about it. You have to reach a point where you reach maximum of your Dharma. You draw out from your nature, the rhythms of your being, find out whether if you are slow or you are fast. Find out, everybody can find out. In this matter I am slow; in that matter I am very fast. In the things in which you are fast, move fast, in the things in which you are slow, do not worry, even if the competitors are moving fast do not worry, you are slow, accept you are slow, your rhythm is different. Once you have started this kind of movement you will find your own individuality, your own personality, what you are, you will shine out. You know Mother has said that, "Each one of us is like an unpolished, an unchiseled diamond", each one of us. We are all diamonds, but unchiseled. If you chisel the diamond, it shines out brightly, isn't it? Similarly, we are like diamonds, but unchiseled, we do not know how to chisel them. The right way of chiseling is to know our Swabhava and our Swadharma, and if you do it properly, ultimately your shining will come out. When you will shine out, you will find that you will be like the rays of sunlight, straight, everything will be straight. That is the mark of your shining out. What I told you at the beginning: Rita is the shining out of the sunlight from where all the rays are spread out all straight, no crookedness.