Dharm (also spelled “Dharma”) has been translated most often as “religion”. Those steeped in Semitic and western thought systems, when they looked at Hindus, tried to find the equivalent of “religion” that they had always practiced. Many Hindu practices, such as worship, yagna etc. used to be labeled by us as “Dharm”, so these foreigners assumed that our religion is being called Dharm.

Over years, as many of us Indians also were cut off from our own Sanskriti and thought systems, we too started thinking of Dharm as religion, and the usage became popular everywhere you look.

Yet, not only does Dharm NOT translate as “religion”, but it is not translatable into other languages. Dharm is one of the core Hindu concepts that expresses our cosmology and value system. Indeed, if you understand the idea of Dharm accurately, you will have acquired a smattering knowledge of Hindu philosophy. I also believe that this understanding has a good chance of improving the way you think and act.

So what is the accurate meaning of Dharm?

If you ask a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindu thought, she will probably tell you this – the word Dharm comes from the root “dhr”, which means “to bear” or “to sustain”. What does Dharm “bear” and “sustain”? Dharm is supposed to sustain the universe. Thus, if a person, indeed any being, acts in accordance with Dharm, the way God has ordered the universe is being sustained. To act in accord with Dharm is to act in line with natural order. Any act not in line with Dharm disturbs this order, which then has to be restored by someone else.

The underlying idea is that all existence, including human beings, is part of a great universal order created by a supreme being. We are all meant to act in certain ways as per that order. When we do act thus, we are following our Dharm. But we sometimes don’t do that, and that is Adharm.

I think two points need to be elaborated before this idea of Dharm will be fully understood:

1. How does one know what his or her Dharm is?

2. Why should any being at all act against Dharm?

The first question: how to know what my Dharm is – there are many inputs that tell you what your Dharm might be. The first is your very nature. So, certain things that must be done by you to sustain yourself are your Dharm. These include eating food, drinking water, sleeping, mating and so on. You share these behaviors with other animals also. You follow your Dharm when you do any of it. I remember a usage of the word by our Hindi teacher – “To eat a rat is a snake’s Dharm”. This kind of usage is very common in Sanskrit.

However, human beings are far more complex than animals. We don’t always act in line with our instincts. In fact, we know instinctively that we are not meant to act only instinctively! Human beings build civilized societies and act in ways that sustain the society. Therefore, our Dharm has to be such that it makes us progressively more civilized. In fact, our sages defined Dharm for human beings as behavior that “bears” or “sustains” (go back to the root of the word above!) a society, or a civilized society.

This is a good starting point to understand Dharm – that behavior which makes human society civilized, and since civilization continually progresses, it also means that behavior which makes us progressively more civilized.

It needs to be remembered that there is still a certain amount of openness in the concept. There are sure to be situations when it will not be very obvious what behavior makes for a more civilized society. What do you do, for instance, when someone abuses you? Do you return the abuse? Do you start a brawl? Slap the person? Kill him? Or do you remain silent? Do you walk away? Do you forgive, or take revenge? Which of these behaviors makes for a better society?

The builders of the Hindu civilization did not lay down all the answers for us. They left it to our free thinking ability to figure out our own Dharm. Of course, based on their life’s experiences, they did leave guidelines. But to follow them is up to us. We do not commit Adharm by not following those guidelines. If we think through and decide, in good faith, that one particular course is our Dharm, then it is likely that we are indeed on a Dharmic path.

I believe the idea of Dharm to be very powerful. Once it is ingrained in all members of a society (and I believe it is still ingrained in our minds across ages and all manners of gigantic changes, though we do not always do Dharmic reasoning consciously), then civilized behavior comes automatically. Laws are laid down, but they are rooted in the society’s sense of Dharm. We do not make and follow the laws in order to behave civilly. Rather, we have a built in sense of civility, and the laws are only reflections of that.

Our ancestors were always looking for ways to figure out their Dharm, and then lay down laws so that the society lived according to it. They always seemed to ask themselves: What does God intend us to do in this or that situation? Actually, Dharm is so widely applicable in its scope that even atheists can also use it. So atheists could also ask themselves: What am I meant to do in this situation? (Notice there is no “God” or “supreme being” here)

The most important aspect of the idea of Dharm is that it does not specify fixed behaviors. As the society evolves, individuals’ Dharm can also change. Dharm is not fixed over time and space. There is a story in Mahabharata: in a time of famine, the great sage Vishwamitra, driven by hunger and having no other option to sustain his life, steals dog’s meat from the cottage of a low caste person and eats it. This is described as apad dharm (Dharm in time of dire emergency). Vishwamitra reasons that he has no other way of sustaining his life. But he is meant to sustain it, if he can. So he commits the dual sin of stealing and eating a forbidden food.

This flexibility has great implications. This is why the Hindus could so quickly and easily come to terms with modernity, and adopt human rights, gender and caste equality etc. Simply contrast the Indian constitution and modern Indian ethos with that of China or any Islamic, African or Latin American country, and it will be obvious that we have shown great adaptability. This is because over centuries, we became conditioned to follow our Dharm.

So next time you have to make important choices in life, simply ask yourself – “what is my Dharm in this situation?” You are sure to get an answer from within. And then simply do that. You will make the society a better place by doing so!

Finally, why do people at all commit “Adharm” when they are supposed to instinctively know what “Dharm” is? The answer is simple – they have not achieved the level of “civilization” that others have. They are less evolved beings. At their level of evolution, what they do might be Dharm. But society has progressed more, and they have not realized it. Or let us say, they are not able to overpower their base instincts to the extent the society at large is able to. Remember that sentence of my Hindi teacher – “To eat a rat is snake’s Dharm”? They are unfortunately somewhere between a snake and a modern day civilized human being.

You will come across that behavior and you will have to figure out what your Dharm is with respect to them. It will not always be obvious, but a little introspection will give you answers. Perhaps if you follow your Dharm with respect to such people also, you will again make the society a still better, more civilized place.