Last week I told you that I’ve been spending a lot of time looking into how yoga philosophy offers us a vision for the future.
That vision begins with resistance to all that is intolerable about the present: extra-judicial detentions and deportations, making the world safe for producers of “forever chemicals,” one mass shooting after another, kleptocratic authoritarianism, . . . the list goes on and on.
Successful resistance movements
- Understand and address the conditions that gave rise to the current situation
- Offer a vision for something new and better that makes it impossible for authoritarianism to make a come back
- Have a spiritual component that inspires moral purpose and a sense of belonging
If you missed last Sunday’s email about how yoga philosophy offers us a useful way to understand those conditions (as avidyā-soil) and change them so that authoritarianism can’t come back, you can read it here.
So what comes next?
The choice is between transformation and repetition, between creating something new and getting things back to “normal.”
But “normal” is what got us to now and now is not acceptable, so I vote for moving forward, to making a commitment to a vision of what we can become rather than going back to an imaginary version of what we were.
I gave that alternative vision a name: Dharmic Personalism.
Dharmic Personalism is the idea that belonging isn’t granted by tribe, ideology, or the state, but arises from our deeper identity as spiritual beings linked together through a common source.
It’s a kind of “social spirituality” that thrives in a civic culture shaped by responsibility, reciprocity, and reverence for the natural world, that’s supported by institutions designed to help each individual discover and express their unique contribution to collective well-being, and that celebrates diversity as a natural attribute of a harmonious whole.
So how does Dharmic Personalism change the underlying soil so that racist, sexist, pseudo-religious kleptocratic authoritarian extremism can’t grow back?
Dharmic Personalism works not by attacking extremism directly (which often strengthens it) but by transforming the underlying soil—replacing avidyā with knowledge of self, interdependence, and purpose:
Replace the Illusion of Separateness with the Reality of Interdependence
Dharmic Personalism promotes the idea that:
- Every being is an eternal spiritual person (puruṣa)
- Every being is connected to every other being through the Ultimate Person (Puruṣottama)
- Society thrives when each person lives in alignment with their natural qualities (svabhāva)
This reframes:
- economic anxiety → cooperative prosperity
- social resentment → spiritual kinship
- tribal identity → universal belonging
Counter Artificial Scarcity with Dharmic Abundance
Dharmic Personalism views scarcity as artificially created and maintained through “rent-seeking”—using government influence (lobbying, bribery, etc.) to gain economic benefits, which is incompatible with sattva-based governance.
Policies rooted in dharma (anti-rent-seeking, re-localized production, equitable distribution, balanced consumption) remove the material insecurity that demagogues exploit. When people are economically grounded, fear politics cannot flourish.
Reorient the Narrative: From Nostalgia to Purpose
Right-wing extremism sells a story: “We must go back to a lost greatness.”
Dharmic Personalism offers a counter-story: “We must go forward into a society aligned with our spiritual nature.”
Instead of exclusionary nostalgia, Dharmic Personalism offers:
- moral purpose
- universal dignity
- spiritual belonging
- shared prosperity
- a vision of the future, not a myth of the past
When people have a meaningful, inclusive story, they no longer cling to the myth of past dominance.
Rebuild Institutions Around Moral Truth and Service
Extremism grows where institutions are hollowed out. Dharmic Personalism encourages:
- leaders as servants (sevaks), not dominators
- decision-making guided by sattva
- transparency and truthfulness as public virtues
- a culture of compassion rather than punitive retribution
Such institutions cultivate trust—and trusted institutions starve extremism of its fuel
Heal the Wound of Belonging
Nationalist extremism is, at its core, a belonging crisis. People join extremist movements when they feel:
- invisible
- economically fragile
- culturally displaced
- spiritually empty
Dharmic Personalism offers:
- community without coercion
- identity without exclusion
- purpose without domination
- belonging without enemies
In the bhakti-yoga wisdom tradition, we find the validation of personal spiritual individuality and blueprint for social cohesion that supports the need of human society to establish an ideology of peace, friendship, and prosperity with a common cause.
I’m still working with all of these ideas, but I’m convinced that a new way of being begins with setting the course toward a cultural respiritualization of human society.
Do you think it’s possible?
Wishing you all good fortune,
– Hari-k