ECOTRAIN : Your Service to the Earth & your own Soul Purpose

The 4 Dharmas or How we need to respect the Earth and our ancestors to fulfill our personal Soul Purpose.

Discovering your Soul Purpose…Knowing why you came here and what you are supposed to do to experience fulfillment and joy… This is a really important part of all self development, spiritual healing and consciousness exploration, all over the world, in all traditions.

As children, and I saw my son asking it so many times, we wonder why we came here for. And once we understand it’s about Service (Seva in Sanskrit), we wonder what service we can offer to the world that would as well make us happy, wealthy and joyful.

I am living in India since more than 16 years, and I studied many different schools of Vedic Knowledge and Wisdom. It took me a long time before I could realize that one of the key to the fulfillment our soul purpose is hidden there, waiting for the right ears to listen.

This is about Dharma. A Buddhist, Vedic, Zen word that means so many things that for many people it is hard to describe. Literally it means ‘essence’, as well as purpose, duty. Jeffrey Armstrong ( a famous western scholar of vedic Science) translates it as ‘the essential nature of something, which, if that essential nature is taken away, that thing is no longer itself.’. I’m not here to give you a sanskrit course about the meaning of Dharma but to resume what can be helpful for us, to manifest the Highest Idea of ourselves, to fulfill this Higher Purpose that we feel in our hearts.

There are 4 main Dharmas for a human being. But before explaining them, let me share a vedic vision of consciousness and individuality.

Vedic Science describes consciousness as an ocean, infinite and all pervading, that was never born and that will never cease to be. Each of us, as a sentient being is a drop of this ocean. We usually perceive ourselves as a single drop, with our five sense and this sense of individuality based on separation is called the False ego (Ahamkara). But our essence is the same, it s water, or consciousness. A drop is the Ocean, like in a fractal hologram where every part holds the whole picture in it.
So what we call self realization is this process that a drop will expand its consciousness to become the Ocean. And cease to act as a separate individuality. Self realization is not the last step of spiritual development, but it is part of the last Dharma, Sanathana dharma, the Eternal Dharma, which is all about transcendence.
Many spiritual schools are transcendent and focus on self realization.

But in the old Vedas, some of the oldest teachings of this reality, it is said that to fulfill your Eternal Dharma, you need first to acknowledge and take care about the 3 other Dharmas.

So the first Dharma is about : THE RESPECT OF THE EARTH !

Our relationship with the planet Earth, with Pachamama, with Gaia Consciousness is our first duty, responsibility and the first compulsory step to accessing our eternity.
This connection with Earth influences, relates to, and reflects our relation with Shakti, the feminine power, energy that animates all Creation. Our way to relate to the Earth is the same way we relate to women (for men), to our own feminity (for women), to our blood mother, to Life, to health, to our body, to our sexuality, to our power, to our ability to manifest.
This includes as well the Devas or the Intelligences of Nature.

We can see today in the world, why there is so many struggles. Why we cannot commit together to achieve a Higher Idea of who we are. It’s because our relationship with Gaia is not harmonious. We do not, collectively, respect and acknowledge the Earth as a part of us. We feel separated from it. We exploit it.

In the Vedas, in Yoga, it is essential that we first respect the Earth, Bhumi Mata in Sanskrit, everyday, by offering prayer, by taking care of it, by cleaning the mess we did (before leaving/dying), by taking care of the playground where we can all learn our lessons and grow, until we can realize we are the Ocean.

How much do we honor Pachamama, the consciousness of the Earth in our daily life ? How much do we include the Earth in our prayers, in our deeds and thoughts ?
How much we feel one with it ?
I believe that in many modern new age spiritual traditions, we forget about this part. But the Vedas are the vessel of the most ancient wisdom, that our ancestors collected, heard from the stars and transmitted generations to generations.

SO IT IS ESSENTIAL TO RECONNECT TO THE EARTH, TO FEEL THAT WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF PACHAMAMA, TO ACCESS OUR OTHER DHARMAS !

The second Dharma is towards our ancestors and elders. It s about honoring the previous players of this cosmic game, the previous dreamers of Collective Dream, our forefathers that created all the comfort, technology and support we can enjoy today. It s about clearing their karma as well, healing our genetic memories, forgiving what they could not forgive, resetting the bloodline to Pure Love. And of course, it’s about taking care of our parents, when they grow old. Our living elders can help us to go through rites of passage (from childhood to adulthood for example) as they embody the wisdom of the cycles of Life and nature.

In many traditions today, we honor the ancestors everyday. In South America, in Asia, in Africa, it is part of the daily routine. In the west, it s only a national holiday, once a year, and many families don’t even speak about their ancestors with the children. It’s like we take everything for granted. Like if nobody was there before to create our reality.

SO HONORING OUR ANCESTORS IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF RECONNECTING WITH ONENESS CONSCIOUSNESS!

The third Dharma is our personal Dharma, our soul mission, purpose, our Soul’s true desire. How to be true to ourselves, in the manifestation of our service.
It’s about family, serving the society, bringing our uniqueness into co creation to manifest something new, to enrich and uplift the quality of the Collective Dream we call Reality.

This Dharma is the one everyone cares about. But according to ancient yogis and rishis, it’s only available in its whole aspect if first we respect the two previous Dharmas, the one towards the Earth and the one towards our ancestors.
Only after serving society, after taking care of our families, and parents, after honoring the Earth in a healing and uniting way, we can expand in our eternal Dharma, our transcendental call for Oneness.

This is where shamanic societies can teach us and remind us of the path towards completion, towards Self realization. Because they do honor the Earth and the ancestors all the time. And if this habit survived until today, it’s because it works, it brings something useful. Otherwise this practice would have disappeared.
Today we can observe, and get involved in many activities reconnecting us to the spirit of the Earth, Pachamama.
Organic farming, permaculture, eco building, renewable energies, biodynamic farming, drumming circles, rainbow gathering, rituals and offering for the Earth, sacred dance, and so many more…This shows a global tendency to fulfill our first Dharma, to honor the Earth.

I feel that soon new practices, modern and revisited will surface that will allow us to create spaces to honor our ancestors.
The new generations will expand their Dharmas, will create new ways to experience them, to grow with them and to fulfill them. It doesn’t have to be the same way ancient traditions do. It will be new, adjusted to our new lifestyles, it will be creative, unique and transmittable.

After reading this post, take a minute to consider how much you involve the Consciousness of the Earth in your daily life. Go outside, find a beautiful flower, a tree, a rock..And offer your love, your gratitude towards Nature, towards this Divine Mother, that offers us everyday beauty and Food, Water and Fire, Air and Soil, to sustain our bodies and hearts. Feel the love…Feel that we are all Children of the Earth. Feel that this Mother is the only one that will remain, forever. And Love Her…Honor Her.. Respect Her.

The next time you light a fire, a candle, or look at the stars, offer a prayer of gratitude to your ancestors. Without them you would not be here. Without them, there wouldn’t be internet, and we could not share our thoughts, across the world in instants like now.
Feel the love you have for them, acknowledge them, offer them gratitude, music, a smile, an opened Heart. And invite them to transmute whatever they have to transmute, through you, ask them to inspire you, to guide you.

My personal experience is that these practices, these moments of sacred interaction, change Life. It changes the operative system of consciousness. It supports us to feel part of the One, part of the Ocean, part of the Infinite Love. And this state of Love and feeling supported will allow you to find out how you can serve, how you can help, what’s the meaning of your life, what’s your soul purpose.

Your Higher Purpose will become obvious, you will attract it, you will enjoy it, you will grow with it, you will become it, and then eventually, if you feel the Call, you’ll transcend it, to access your own Eternity, which is your fourth Dharma.