Dharmam is absolute ...and eternal

The native Americans did get wiped out. But when I was wondering aloud how such a culture with such superior values could succumb to the brute force of such an inferior culture of the white man , a native American friend of long ago told me, 'but in a sense they did not get wiped out ... after centuries the ideas are moving from me, of this land, to you of that land...'. Maybe. Maybe it is these ideas that, when the time is right, will blow into the hearts of people.
'Unto each his own' my old school classmate said. i wondered. very much. My village people would never say or think that. they have a dharmam, a sanatana dharmam - where a very large goodness and morality is defined very precisely. Paapam and punyam are defined. and are universal and eternal. It is not 'to each his own' at all. They all try to live by the dharmam as they accept it. and if they do not, they accept that they are failing it.

Yesterday this old school classmate called up after 30 years. he has been abroad for so many years. he had done well for himself and got the equivalent of Padma Shri there.
i could only feel sad for someone who has had to stay so far away from the beauty of this country - and not have had the oppurtunity to work for the country, with the country. after a certian age, titles are just some bits of paper. i told him as much.

i remembered a school poem
'paida kar is desh jaathi ne tujhko paala posa
kiya hua nij hith kaa usne tujh par badaa bharosaa
urrin hona hi paratham sat kartavya tumhaara
uske baad de sakthe ho vasudha ko, sheesh svajeevan saara'