Everyday Dharma: 8 Essential Practices for Finding Success and Joy in Everything You Do

by Suneel Gupta

He tells me that as I get older, the wheel will move faster. Time will accelerate. Years will squish together. Each birthday will arrive a little sooner than the one before. And as the wheel turns faster and faster, life will pull me to the outside, away from who I really am at my core. Away from my Dharma. That’s when Bauji takes a deep breath and begins the journey that you and I are about to take together. “Beta,” he says for the final time, “you must find your way back to the center.”

I realized then that I had drifted to the outside of the wheel.

Even as we get older, and realize that life isn’t quite so simple, we still manage to convince ourselves that if we can just get that next sale, next job, next promotion—then we’ll finally be happy.

“arrival fallacy.”

So they went searching for a middle path, one that didn’t force them to choose between outer ambition and inner peace. They wanted both: to dream big and to feel fulfilled.

Dharma is a Sanskrit word loaded with meaning. Its definition has been interpreted by communities around the world, from Buddhist monasteries to Burning Man camps. For your journey ahead, we are going straight to the source. To the most ancient and storied scripture on dharma, the Hindu book of living—the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita says that each of us has a dharma, or a “sacred duty.” Duty to whom, exactly? To the fire burning inside of you. Some call this purpose, others call it your gift. My grandfather called it your essence.

Your essence doesn’t care about power, promotions, or possessions. It only cares about one thing: expression.

If essence is who you really are, then expression is how you show up in the world. Your essence is always calling for you—expression is how you take that call.

That’s the thing about your essence. It is an inner flame that either lights up the world around you or burns a hole inside of you.