Life is fleeting: everything is born, lives and dies. How human dharma differs from the dharma of all living beings, and the four qualities of Bhágavata dharma: expansion, flow, service and union with the supreme Consciousness.
The life of most butterflies lasts only from a few hours to a few weeks. In that short time a butterfly manages to eat, mate, lay its eggs and die. Life is fleeting: everything is born, lives and dies.
To be born, to continue the line and to die is jaeva dharma, the dharma of living beings. All living beings, including humans, live by its law. Dharma means quality, characteristic property. For example, the The inherent nature of a thing; for a human being, the longing for the Infinite and the effort to reach it. of fire is to burn, the dharma of water is to dissolve. It is the quality by which we tell a stool from fire or water. Human beings are endowed with special qualities.
The jaeva dharma of all living beings is four instincts: food, sleep, and the instincts of self-preservation and reproduction. Human beings differ from all other living beings not by their intellect, which many animals also have. What distinguishes a human being is their Bhágavata dharma, divine dharma. In its highest expression a person merges with God. To be truly human is to follow human dharma. Moral principles are exclusively human qualities; they must be cultivated and protected at any cost, because by violating the laws of nature people leave the path of dharma. When a person goes against their conscience, against the principles of yama and niyama, they gradually lose their "humanity." It dies, because the person follows only their animal instincts. This state is lower than the life of an animal, since all animals follow their nature, their dharma, and live in harmony with it. They are as nature created them. But a human being is created to follow their Bhágavata dharma.
Four qualities of human dharma
1. The longing for expansion (vistára). This is everyone's inner wish to broaden their perception of the world and become better. The true wish of all beings is to progress, to evolve.
People have many temptations in life that can throw them back in evolution. All animals move along the path of progress, because they have no free will; they are entirely guided by the laws of nature. But a human being is capable of going against the laws of nature. That is why it is very important for each of us to do something that will keep us constantly moving along the path of evolution. If you think about the great and the infinite, your mind will expand. "The supreme Consciousness is the great Entity that makes others great." If a person strives to know the Great, they themselves become great. If the mind is busy with trifles and thinks about trifles, that mind will degenerate rather than evolve.
2. Being in the flow (rasa): tasting divinity. How should this be understood? You feel love, you are in love with love, with inspiration. This flow is within you; it is the most precious thing you have. You need to live in harmony with this flow and not fall out of it, or else the sweetness of existence is lost. Spiritual discipline helps with this. Why keep rules? To make the ego, the mind, which is like a crazed monkey drunk on wine, move in this flow. When the mind is calm, that is, when its extroverted tendencies are under the control of deeper layers of the mind, a person feels inspired and moves in the cosmic flow, immersed in love and bliss. This is called rasa.
3. The longing to serve (sevá). When you are in the divine flow, you feel a wish to do something noble and good. And this is another human inclination: to serve, to do something for others selflessly. This wish develops and grows stronger over years of meditation.
4. The longing for union with the supreme Consciousness (Brahma). This is the wish to become one with all of creation, to stop being a separate being. If you look at yourself as a microcosm, you are a microcosm. But by changing your angle of view, you can see that you are the Macrocosm, and everything that exists is one Entity, one Mind. In a human being there is a deep longing to know the true essence of life, not to imagine it in theory but truly to know it, to live it. And this longing is the dharma of a human being; it does not depend on worshipping any religion, on education, skin color, sex or intellect. It is a fundamental characteristic of the human being. People, like butterflies, are subject to the natural cycle of life: they are born, continue their line and die. But in their lives there is something more besides: something that makes human life special and fills it with bliss.
Remember that life is fleeting. Today you have the opportunity to do spiritual practice. You don't know what will happen to you tomorrow: whether you will have inspiration and health. But today you have everything. Use this chance, use it every day of your life, follow Bhágavata dharma.