View source for It Is Better to Die While Following Bhagavad Dharma

{{Infobox discourse
| title = <!-- Write the name of the title -->It Is Better to Die While Following Bhagavad Dharma
| image = <!--Write image name eg. Example.jpg, do not include "File:" -->
| caption = 
| speaker = <!-- Write the name of the speaker -->[[Shrii Shrii Anandamurti]]
| date    = <!-- Date-->1978 November 5
| time    = <!-- Time or Morning/Evening -->Evening
| place = <!-- Location -->Kolkata, India
| coordinates = <!-- Coord -->
| also known as = <!--Other names -->
| language = <!-- Only mention if known -->
| topic    = <!-- Topic -->Your divine nature 
| event    = <!-- Event, if any -->
| included in = [[Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 4]]
}}
'''''It Is Better to Die While Following Bhágavad Dharma''''' is a discourse given by [[Shrii Shrii Anandamurti]] in Kolkata, India. The discourse was delivered on the evening of 1978 November 5. This discourse is the twelfth chapter of [[Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 4]].<ref name="AV4">{{cite book|title=Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 4|author=Shrii Shrii Anandamurti}}</ref>

== Synopsis ==
{{Quote box|width=360px|bgcolor=|align=left|quoted=1|salign=right|quote=Svadharme nidhanaḿ shreyah – that is, "If human beings die while following the path of Bhágavata dharma, that death will open up the path to liberation." Paradharmo bhayávaha. And the mind of a person following animal dharma will become degraded – and that person, after death, will be reborn as an animal or plant. So, paradharmo bhayávaha ["do not live as an animal"]. Here svadharma does not mean Shákta Dharma, Vaishnavite Dharma, or Hindu Dharma.|source=Shrii Shrii Anandamurti}}
Anandamurti starts the discourse by saying that it is better for human beings to live and die following ''manava dharma'' (human dharma) rather than trailing the dharma of others beings. Anandamurti then explains that although humans and animals share some characteristics, it is incorrect to call human beings "rational animals". Animal life is body-centered while human life is an ideological flow. Therefore humans are to follow ''Bhágavata dharma'' (divine characteristics). Anandamurti goes on saying that Bhágavata dharma has three distinctive attributes: Vistára (expansion), Rasa (flow) and Sevá (service). Following divine dharma, human beings pave their own path toward liberation.<ref name="AV4"/>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Portal|Ananda Vacanamrtam}}

{{S-start}}
{{Succession box
 | title  =  [[Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 4]]
 | years  = 
 | with   = It Is Better to Die While Following Bhagavad Dharma
 | before = ''[[Which Is the Right Path?]]''
 | after  = ''[[The Three Stages of Spiritual Progress]]''

}}
{{S-end}}

{{Ananda Vacanamrtam}}

[[Category:Discourses of Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar in 1978]]
[[Category:Chapters of Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 4]]