These are some views on dharma I once shared when a friend asked me to define it. Thought I could share it with you all.
Dharma is one word that cannot be precisely translated to any other language in the world. The scope of meaning and the feel that it holds in Sanskrt, can only be adopted as it is into other vernaculars.
All efforts of translating the word dharma into other languages so far have ended up giving only partial, tentative, regional or even distorted meanings
This much I can say- dharma is not religion or cult or merely an ethic (as spoken of in the masses, it is rather a 'Cosmic understanding of life and eternal values'
It enables one to judge the appropriety of ones own behaviour and others' through various phases and tests of life. Dharma promotes independent discrimination (viveka) based on desha (place), kaala (time) and sandarbha (situation/ context)
Our scriptures speak of rta, satya and dharma as 3 forms of dharma
Rta is the comprehension of the cosmic value that governs the entire creation
Satya is the verbal expression of the same
Dharma is the practical implementation of the same in life
Dharma is implemented in 2 ways-
Samanya dharma and vishesha dharma
Samanya dharma (eternal values like truth, compassion, purity, forbearance, placidity, conviction and many more) is never bound by the limits of time, place or communities. These values are universal and forever hailed as the highest in life.
On the other hand vishesha dharma (comprising ones duties as a husband, wife, king, subject, student, employee, etc or ones obligations towards ones country, language, religion, family traditions etc) is no doubt respected and promoted,
But it is not universal and it may need modification according to the need of the situation. (for eg- the social norms of any country have changed with times, the customs in one region or religion may not applicable to another)
When there is a conflict between following samanya dharma and vishesha dharma, it is samanya dharma that needs to be held high and the latter can be relaxed.
People or cults who are attached more to vishesha dharma (at the cost of samanya dharma) lack a universal perspective of dharma and end up in intolerance, hatred and misunderstanding. They even become aggressive in asserting their vishesha dharma as the supreme universal code and try to impose it on all others through conversions by force or crook(semitic religions that invaded other comminities and converted masses are examples for this).
The great power that has saved sanatana dharma from this kind of intolerance is mainly this understanding of samanya dharma
Whenever alien forces or internal problems have tampered with our religious ad social life (vishesha dharma), we have withstood the onslaughts and reconstructed our national fabric slowly but surely as we are doing in the pesent age. This is only because we have always upheld samanya dharma above all.
But here again in our religion, those clans or faiths who are too blindly attached to their personal cults above samanya dharma, resort to intolerance of a similar style and degenerate internally in course of time.
I cannot simply define dharma in a line since it's scope is soo very wide.
That is why this write up. Even this is not holistic, but only an attempt ot summarize the wide range of understanding it promotes.
Well, these are some fundamental views about dharma that I could grasp from our literatue and traditions. there are many more. Only an unbiased, sincere and practical approach can enable us to understand the true import of dharma and as to why it was held so high by our ancestors and as to how it sustained the social, economic, political, cultural and religious growth of India down the ages.
By defining dharma as religion and asserting that 'dharmaateeta' rule is the solution for all problems is a blasphemous development, much promoted by the anti-Indian conspiracies. It has now come to be interpreted as tolerating any onslaught against native Indian religious and cultural concepts and blindly and indiscriminately accepting any alien religious or cultural influence with a pseudo-generosity which is in reality a confused rationale in us. This is eating into the roots of Indian identity which, if lost in this process, shall greatly damage the slef esteem and understanding of ourselves in the right light.
We need to rather understand dhama in the right spirit and adopt it with a universal pespective and promote justice to one and all.
I welcome views on this - Arathi
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