Watching the Dinosaurs yesterday on the BBC reminded me that they roamed this earth for 165 Million Years but all that time earth seemed to have no Dharma ? Strange how God allowed them a free reign on the earth for such a long time, for they did not pray or build any temples or serve others. Was it their fault that their brains were too small? God did not let man wait even a few thousand years before he sent help. Even animals of today seem to follow the Natural Law but man seems to be the only species that needs to be reminded in principle of living a true life or be instructed in the right way by the Guru .The point is related to time and the purpose of that supposed chaos and lack of religion on this earth and to draw attention to how 'old' or 'new' God is.
A Guru is someone who works with you to bring to a new level of understanding and practice. Morality - a
good life - like art, music, science, is a skill that one can master through meeting a Guru. Morality is a skill and like all skills, it is present to some extent like art, etc but is improved further with added guidance from a Guru.
A Guru is someone who has mastered the skill himself. A martial arts Guru can only teach you martial arts if he is a master at it. A Guru who is the master of morality can thus teach you how to lead a good life.
Dinosaurs would also have to learn certain skills. T. rex would need to learn to hunt. Much of hunting behaviour is already there in creature. However, t. rex are not so social. So they are their own Gurus, they learn through trial and error, and experience. If they don't learn they starve to death.
Similarly, if you want to learn to play tabla, you can also learn it through trial and error. I know many artists who are self-taught. It is possible since rhythm, pattern and beat are already present in us but you will get more out of seeing a Guru who has mastered tabla himself. (In tabla circles, a Guru is called an Ustaad) With his experience, he can guide you to mastery faster than you can guide yourself.
A Guru cannot teach you if you do not listen to what he says and do as he instructs. If you block him off with your own ignorance that will not work either. Understanding from a Guru only comes when you surrender yourself to him, more specifically, the source of wisdom only he and other Gurus have access to (that should sound Abrahamic
).
As for rituals of praying and other ceremonies and rituals, they are a very complex human way of doing things. We have complex rituals around everything. A bird, the descendents of dinosaurs, does a simple ritual mating dance, to attract a mate. We go through pretty complex dances and finally have a finale to end it off, known as Anand Karaj. This ritual of getting married on its own is so complex. Birds have simple social behaviours, whereas, we have very complex ones, that's all. And we have always had rituals, we are just a ritualistic today as we were when we lived in caves.
Look at dinosaurs and dharma on a continuum where on one end there is simplicity and on the other end there is complexity. It will make more sense.
