There are different applications of Dharma. When you are in connection with the essential nature of all that is, you have an association with Dharma. When you have this connectedness, you feel your interwoven relationship with the entire universe, with all living beings. You feel that you are a part of a network of life. When you connect with your essential nature, you connect with the divinity within you, and the divinity in all beings. Seeing that unity of life, the cosmic source of everything that is, when living in a body-mind, taking in information through the senses and expressing through the organs of expression, you live in this material world, in this body. Your consciousness, which is unbound awareness, connected to the whole of being and the essence of all life, enters form, and in that form, you have choices. You can set your intention to direct your energy to know the infinite and to serve that divinity in all that you do, in all the forms in this world, or you can live to fulfill certain needs of your own.
When you dedicate yourself to God, and to service to God, to Guru, to Self, then you become an instrument of divine love in this world. To do this, there are certain principles that need to be applied, and the foremost is self-surrender. When you surrender to divine will, “Thy will, not mine,” and you let the intention of the supreme work through you, that intention of yours to allow the divinity to express through you for the welfare of all beings, that intention firmly established allows you to open yourself and become a vehicle, an instrument of divine love. It allows you to become complete, to let go of your individual agendas; even though you play out your ordinary life—your desires, your needs—this overarching intention of surrendering to the divine will, the divine intent, and allowing that to work through you, over time begins to change your life. This intention sets you upon the path of Dharma. So, when you connect with the infinite, you follow the path of Dharma. But when you set this intention in the world, the intention is to live a life dedicated to Dharma, to be one with the whole, to love all beings.
When your heart and mind are directed towards the inner source of being, all that you do comes in alignment, and the inner self and the outer self become one. Then your life is a dedication. What you should do, should not do, becomes less significant than your surrender, and your listening. It is through this that the way is known. And if you ever have questions, ask yourself, “What would I want done to me if I were in the position of that being? How would I want to be treated? What would help me the most?” Sometimes love is firm. It is not always simply acquiescing. But when love becomes the intention and the goal, then life changes. Dharma comes into play. So you do not simply live for the fulfillment of ordinary desires, but you live for Dharma.