What do you understand is the meaning of "Dharma"?

Question

Please explain.


Thank you.

***Added Note***
I LOVE all those long articles ... I really do ... but I want to know what YOU understand Dharma to mean ... I just wondered what you could roll off by yourself without looking anything up ... it means a lot ....Ta!
DLS

Answer 1

It denotes the purpose for which you have been given this life.

Answer 2

Dharma means duty. Dharma means doing that which is righteous and also what the sages or scriptures say. For eg. the dharma of a son is to protect his parents in thier old age and always respect them because he owes a lot to his parents. They brought him into the world, loved and nurtured him, helped him to grow up into a happy and secure individual. The dharma of the king or the minister is to take good care of his citizens and country. The dharma of a teacher is to put sincere and best effort for educating his or her pupils. Similarly, there is dharma for a wife, a husband, a priest and also a human being. Dharma also means relegion. Dharma defines and seperates the right from the wrong. In life rules have to be laid and respected. So following the righteous path is Dharma(WHAT ONE OUGHT TO DO) and not following it is Adharma (SIN). mahatma gandhi said that the highest duty of a person is non violence and truth and it is so besides many other things.

Answer 3

It is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagvatam 6.3.19 "dharmam tu saksad bhagavat-pranitam", Dharma is that which is directly enacted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Further, Srimad Bhagvatam 1.2.6 states,
sa vai pumsam paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhoksaje
ahaituky apratihata yayatma suprasidati
The supreme occupation [dharma] for all humanity is that by which men can attain to loving devotional service unto the transcendent Lord. Such devotional service must be unmotivated and uninterrupted to completely satisfy the self.

Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON founder comments on this:
Now, in English dictionaries this word dharma is generally translated as "religion," a kind of faith, but the actual meaning of dharma is "essential characteristic." For example, sugar's dharma, or essential characteristic, is sweetness. If you are given some white powder and you find that it is not sweet, you will at once say,"Oh, this is not sugar; it is something else." So sweetness is the dharma of sugar. Similarly, a salty taste is the dharma of salt, and pungency is the dharma of chili.
Now, what is your essential characteristic? You are a living entity, and you have to understand your essential characteristic. That characteristic is your dharma, or religion—not the Christian religion, the Hindu religion, this religion, that religion. Your eternal, essential characteristic—that is your religion.
And what is that characteristic? Your essential characteristic is that you want to love somebody, and therefore you want to serve him. That is your essential characteristic. You love your family, you love your society, you love your community, you love your country. And because you love them, you want to serve them. That tendency to engage in loving service is your essential characteristic, your dharma. Whether you are a Christian, a Mohammedan, or a Hindu, this characteristic will remain. Suppose today you are a Christian. Tomorrow you may become a Hindu, but your serving mood, that loving spirit, will stay with you. Therefore, the tendency to love and serve others is your dharma, or your religion. This is the universal form of religion.

Now, you have to apply your loving service in such a way that you will be completely satisfied. Because your loving spirit is now misplaced, you are not happy. You are frustrated and confused. The Srimad-Bhagavatam tells us how to apply our spirit of loving devotion perfectly.

That religion is first class which trains you to love God. And by this religion you will become completely satisfied.
If you develop your love of God to the fullest extent, you will become a perfect person. You will feel perfection within yourself. You are hankering after satisfaction, full satisfaction, but that full satisfaction can be obtained only when you love God. Loving God is the natural function of every living entity. It doesn't matter whether you are a Christian or a Hindu or a Muhammadan. Just try to develop your love of God. Then your religion is very nice. Otherwise it is simply a waste of time as mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.8,
dharmah svanusthitah pumsah visvaksena-kathasu yah
notpadayed yadi ratih srama eva hi kevalam
The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.

Answer 4

It is like two sides of a same coin.
The one side says " Love God."
The other side says ," Love your neighbour as thyself " .

This is Dharma .
It is JUST.

Some foolish people always say Dharma...Dharma...Dharma..
and yet they iltreat their fellow human beings worse than the street dogs and a rotten donkeys.

They don't know Love,
They don't know God Who is GOOD and an Embodiment of LOVE.
Such people are Liars.

Untouchability is a Sin,
Untouchability is a Crime,
Untouchability is Inhuman.

This is the first page of school books.
Then why do people who always speak of " Dharma" Practise this Inhuman Untouchability which is " Adharma" the Sin.

It is easy to Speak
But it is difficult to Practise what we speak.

The Christians all over the world have Homes where lepers
are taken care of .They are given treatments for their Leprosy and are given trainings also to stand on their own legs in future.

Can people who speak of " Dharma " atleast think of this....Never.

Answer 5

in my own words friend... dharma is the natural way, duty, role of anything in the world. example, a chair's dharma is to allow us to sit.. when its leg is broken, it cannot fulfill its dharma. likewise, man has his dharma, a tiger its own, a plant its own. to follow one's dharma is the way to live life. so friend, the one who fulfills his dharma is very dear to god, n is protected by the dharma that he fulfills. hope that shed some light, take care

Answer 6

Greg's wife.

Why? The sitcom, Dharma and Greg.

Answer 7

according to ancient Hindu(Sanskrit) religious and spiritual texts
dharma means duty.

Answer 8

hindu principle of cosmic order

Answer 9

the way things really are. and the teachings concerning how things really are.

Answer 10

Its nothing do help to other,who desire your help.believe to good etc.