By Gary Kraftsow

We all have certain fundamental responsibilities and obligations to fulfill in life. As parents, we have a responsibility to our children. As adult children, we have a responsibility to our elderly parents. As husbands and wives, we have a responsibility to our mates. As social beings, we have responsibilities to our employers, employees, society, and government. As students, we have responsibilities to our teachers . And, as teachers, we have responsibilities to our students.

These responsibilities must be fulfilled—they constitute a personal dharma from which there is no honorable escape. They are the basic requirements that give our lives the order and cohesion that hold us together and that support us on our journey through time. To see the truth in this we need only observe how rapidly our lives begin to fall apart once we become unable, or unwilling, to fulfill our basic personal responsibilities.

Beyond these personal responsibilities, there is also an ultimate dharma—a responsibility to that which we all share in common, to a univesal common good. This is described variously according to different traditions, the common thread being the fulfillment of our highest potential as human beings. The ancients suggested that the first step toward fulfilling this ultimate aim lies in the fulfillment of our personal responsibilities. All too often we use our ideas of the spiritual realm as an escape from the real situations of our lives that face us day to day. And thus they taught “dharma rakṣati rakṣata,” which loosely translated means “as we take care of our responsibilities, we will be taken care of.”

Excerpt from: Yoga for Transformation: Ancient Teachings and Practices for Healing the Body, Mind,and Heart by Gary Kraftsow.

Gary Kraftsow, the leading proponent of viniyoga therapy in the US, has been a pioneer in the transmission of yoga for health, healing, and personal transformation for 30 years. After studying in India with T.K.V. Desikachar and his father T. Krishnamacharya, Gary received a special diploma from Viniyoga International in Paris. In 1999 he founded the American Viniyoga Institute where he is currently director and senior teacher of the Institute’s teacher and therapist trainings.

To learn more about Gary Kraftsow, check out his courses here at Pranamaya.