What is meant by "DHARMA" ?

Answer 1

What is meant by Dharma? What is the essence of Dharma? Can Man, common man, lead a happy life and survive if he sticks to Dharma? These doubts confuse the mind of man naturally in the course of his life. Solving them is necessary, even urgent.

As soon as the word Dharma is mentioned, the ordinary man takes it to mean: The giving of alms, feeding and providing lodging to pilgrims etc., the adherence to one's traditional profession or craft, law-abiding nature, the discrimination between right and wrong, the pursuit of one's innate nature or the freaks of one's own mind, the fruition of one's fondest desires, and so on.

Of course, it is a long, long time since the spotless countenance of Dharma has been tarnished beyond recognition. Beautiful fields and groves run wild with neglect and soon become unrecognisable bushland and thorny jungle; fine trees are hewn by greedy men and the shape of the landscape is changed. With the passage of time, people get accustomed to the new state of things and they do not notice the transformation, the decline. This has happened to Dharma also.

Every man has to acquaint himself with the outlines of Dharma, expounded in the Vedas and the Sastras and the Puranas. Misunderstood by incompetent intelligence, unbridled emotion and impure reasoning, they have been grossly diluted and their glory has suffered grievously. Just as the rain drops from the clear blue sky get coloured and contaminated when they fall on the soil, the unsullied message of the ancient Rishis, the example of their shining deeds, the bright untarnished urges behind their actions are all turned into ugly caricatures of the original grandeur, by uncultured interpreters and scholars.

Books written for children contain illustrations to clarify the text; but they spend their time with the pictures, forgetting what they are intended to make clear; in the same way, the unwary and the uneducated mistake the rituals, designed to illustrate the grand truths, as profoundly real in themselves; they ignore the truth which they were meant to elucidate. Travelers moving along the road rest for a while in wayside shelters but during their stay, they damage by neglect or misuse the very structure that gave them rest. So, too, the dull and the perverse alter the very face of Vedic morality and deceive the world into believing that their handiwork is what the Vedas teach!

When such mauling of Dharma took place, when the face of Dharma suffered disfigurement at the hands of the enemies of God, the Lord responded to the call of the gods and the godly and saved the world from ruin, by restoring Right and Truth in the field of Dharma and of Karma, i.e., in both Ideal and Practice.

Answer 2

Dharma means righteousness and good moral and ethical practices in accordance with the scriptures. Dharma includes all duties, individual, social, and religious, and adherence to the laws of the land. According to the Hindu philosophy, dharma is essential for accomplishing material and spiritual goals and for the growth of the individual and society.

Answer 3

Dharma is certainly no Religion

Once Dharma is to follow the ethics and duties, where Nature has put him.

Like a king's dharma is to keep his subjects happy and secure

Like Arjuna's dharma in Mhabharata was to fight...even if the enemy were his own nears and dears

Answer 4

Dharma means religious teachings & commands of a religion. Hinduism is not a religion. It is a custom, culture, tradition and way of Hindus' lives in Hindustan (India). No religious scholar, priest, leader, philosopher, book, script, saint or sage ever claimed Hinduism as a religion but all insisted it a culture, tradition, custom, etc. All leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, Bajrang Dal, Shiva Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, etc. proudly claimed that Hinduism is not a religion but a culture, custom, tradition, etc. Hinduism has a power to tolerate and absorb all religions' teachings. None can convert to Hinduism since a Hindu is born to Hindus in Hindustan (India) alone. A Hindu may embrace a religion and still remain a Hindu by nativity. Dharma (Religion) guides and saves the people who believe, adopt and practise it.

Answer 5

In Buddhism, Dharma is the teachings of the Buddha.

Answer 6

Dharma means the nature of a substance or that which is constantly present with the substance.

Dharma of fire is heat and light.

Dharma of water is liquidity.

Answer 7

Dharma is kind of yourself.
The way you are and the religious rules you follow are your dharma.
It is a very essential part of Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, etc., and personally I feel it is very important to distinguish yourself this way because it enables yourself to follow a free path to wherever you feel.

and please dont use wikipedia
dharma is a self belief not something that everyone in the world can say its one thing and wikipedia publishes it.

Answer 8

dharma of an entity is what that entity can't be separated from.

for example -

matter's dharma is 'to be'. (matter cannot be annihiliated.)

plant's dharma is 'tobe'+'to grow'. (plants grow till they are, everything that a plant does - is to grow)

animal's dharma is 'to be'+'to grow'+'to want to live'. (animals want to live, everything that an animal does is to keep living and perpetuate its race.)

human's dharma is 'to be'+'to grow'+'to want to live'+'happiness' (*everything* a human does is for happiness.)

every entity in the existence has 'to be' as their dharma. that is the basic for all entities in existence. which implies an entitiy cannot be annihiliated, even if it is reduced to dust.

human's dharma of happiness gets realized only with understanding of existence expressed as coexistence.

Answer 9

"DHARMA" means the 'Aim' of an individual effort and conduct within to realise the true identity of human being.

From:
'Prafull' Paramaatmaa Daas,
"Vishw Paramaatmaa Parivaar" means ("World of God's family").

Answer 10

their spiritual law the right way of higher living principles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma