Chapter 5: Understanding Your Mighty Purpose
Rod Stryker’s Four Desires (4D) Virtual Book Club

“First, become clear what your duty or purpose is in life. Second, learn to love it.”
Swami Rama, Rod Stryker’s grandteacher

I find this quote by Swami Rama really embodies the essence of what a Dharma Code is. These two questions help clarify what Swami Rama is expressing:

• What is a Dharma Code?
• How do I use it?

Answering these two questions will aid your understanding of the Dharma Code as Rod discusses in Chapter 6 in his book, The Four Desires.

What is a Dharma Code?
Dharma Code is:

• “Your unique life purpose.”
• ” [The] life course that your soul aspires to; the one you were meant to follow.”
• “A statement that endures and remains constant though all of your life’s circumstances.”

These quotes from The Four Desires clearly state what a Dharma Code is. A Dharma Code is like your soul’s mission statement. Remember that a mission statement is used by companies and organizations to clearly state their main purpose.  It helps the company to make overall goals and to guide decision-making. The Dharma code is essentially a mission statement, and you are the organization.

I personally love the story Rod tells of his eye opening dharma moment, in a lecture by his first teacher Mani Finger.
“You are responsible for your life…the sooner you see how you have determined your fate, the sooner and more completely you will have the life you want.”

Your Dharma code also is a call to action; it brings to light that which will inspire you to take responsibility for your life.  When we take responsibility for our own life, from the alignment of our soul’s purpose, our actions, decisions and goals are more clear and we start to embody that enduring happiness.

How do I use it? Learn to love it?
The advice to learn to love our life’s purpose is priceless. 
We can have this code and be content with it, but how we really hold ourselves up to that mission,  I think, is even more powerful than the actual statement.

Just this week I was having a discussion with a friend of mine and we were talking about our weak moments; when we say something we later regret, send a nasty e-mail, or just have one of those off days (sigh) and start to judge ourselves. Yes us yogis have those moments too, when our super humanness takes over our mind and body, lashing out at the world.

We dissected those moments and came to the conclusion we were not aligned with our Dharma Code. The decisions that we had made came out of our patterns or samskaras.

The more we live from that place of purpose, the more we are able to fulfill and the less we are disappointed by life. Rod says, “the moment you discover and commit [to] serving your Dharma Code, you begin the process of being lifted into the power of your soul and connecting with unbridled strength, courage, and enthusiasm.”  The word serving is instructive.  How often do we serve ourselves? So we use this Dharma Code to serve ourselves first and watch the rippling effects it has on the whole world!

Rod mentions personalities in the beginning of this chapter who obviously served their soul’s purpose: Michelangelo, Florence Nightingale, Frank Lloyd Wright. Do you know someone who serves their soul’s purpose? Let’s give them a shout-out and express how we have been inspired by them.

Aloha,
Chanti

Read The Four Desires book review on Elephant Journal.
Read other discussions about The Four Desires
Instructions: How the book club works