An Introduction To Terapanth: [13] Acharya Bhikshu’s Philosophy

Acharya Bhikshu was a staunch spiritual practitioner as well as a deep philosopher. He was a revolutionary thinker in the fields of dharma. His views on dharma in brief are summed up as follows.
There are basically two kinds of dharma:

Those activities which nourish self-restraint and encourage the observance of the vows of abstinence are lokottara dharma and those which are not only of social benefit but encourage the sensual indulgence or leading to bondage of inauspicious karma fall under “laukika dharma”. Social duty and lokottara dharma are not identical. Duty is adjudged according to social norms and values, whereas lokottara dharma is based on spiritual principles. Duty is concerned with social utility and gets changed with time, place and circumstances, but lokottara dharma is the ultimate source of freedom from all bondage and hence, it is eternal.

Whereas there is a scope of development of self-restraint, detachment from worldly things and purity of inner consciousness, there exists the lokottara dharma; wherever there is lack of self-restraint, augmentation of attachment with the worldly things and absence of purity of the inner consciousness, there is no place for lokottara dharma.