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What is Dharma?
Dharma, a Sanskrit word, has two principal meanings. The dharma of an individual is his essential nature, the intrinsic law of his ‘being’ and development. It also signifies the law of righteousness and piety. The implications of this double meaning are significant. Man’s duty, how he ought to live, what he ought to believe, and what he ought to do about his beliefs are, among others, conditioned by his essential nature, his constitution, and temperament.
The word Dharma is derived from the Sanskrit root dhr, to mean, ‘sustain, support, uphold’. It is variously defined as nature, the law of nature, that which supports, virtue, ethical law, the ‘ought’, merit, the potency of ethical actions, the right action, the law or the body of the doctrines of any faith, quality, characteristic, the law of the universe, reality, element, and category. The concept of dharma is all-encompassing of human activity in relation to itself in all its facets including spiritual realization, and in relation to the universe.
Dharma is the bottom line of all the religious and spiritual faiths that have originated in India. In this sense, the religious and spiritual faiths and practices that have crystallized in the Indian sub-content from pre-historic times are known as Sanatana dharma. The religions such as Buddhism, Jainism are the offshoots of Sanatana dharma. Hinduism has been considered as a religion only for the last five, six centuries, being the successor, in name, to Sanatana dharma. Sanatana dharma constitutes the Indian psyche, philosophy, spirituality, religion, etc – it's very way of life.
Dharma is sourced in divine revelation, sacred tradition, and the practices of the wise. Where it is silent in any of the three sources, the conscience of the individual making the ethical decision may be considered an additional source. The sources are serial in the order of their importance, the divine revelation in the Vedas being the most determinant and conscience being the least important and to be resorted to only in the event of the three primary sources not yielding any normative guidance. Several dharmasastras and dharmasutras have sought to codify the norms of dharma over a period of time. The most influential, and also the earliest, treatise on dharma is the Manavadharmasastra (The laws of Manu), outlining the various rights and responsibilities of different varnas and ashramas of the traditional Vedic society that had crystallized up to the period when the treatise was compiled.
Dharma is, on one count, the ethical potency or the force or the power of merit and demerit that controls the universe. It is the governing ethical force of the universe. It is the central concept of Mimamsa, which is the critical interpretation of the Samhita and the Brahmanam component of the Veda, essentially constituting the theistic school of Jaimini. According to it, dharma is essentially a philosophy of ethical action, but is more concerned with the supra-sensual nature of the ethical force and the ritual. The supra-sensual nature of the ethical force and the ritual has otherworldly bearings in its significance and workings. As regards social action, the ethical force is concerned with this world and produces for the agent of action what he desires and what his action deserves. It is left to the ethical codes such as dharmasutras for its elaboration and explanation.
Dharma is, on another count, that which supports, and, therefore, that which supports the universe. It is that which holds the plurality together; without it the manifold will fall apart. It is the grandest conception of the sovereignty of ethical action. Jaimini defines it as the good the characteristic of which is the impelling or the directing of man to action. But what is the good that impels a man to action? It is something to be achieved by action and is also dharma. Dharma thus produced brings forth the desired fruit of action. If the dharma is ethically right, the fruit it produces brings enjoyment. If it is ethically wrong, the result it produces brings forth suffering and we call it adharma.
The concept of dharma in the sense of duty, right action, and merit of the ethical codes such as dharmasastras is derived from Mimamsa. Mimamsa is the basis and source of the whole of Indian ethics, not only of the interpretative rules but also the basic principles and the ideas of morality and positive law.
It is difficult to find an English word for the meaning given of dharma by Mimamsa. It is law in the sense of both the ‘is’ and the ’ought’. In literary and philosophical works, it is used in a variety of ways. In Buddhism, it means everything from metaphysical reality to function, thing, quality, and category. In Jainism it is the principle of motion.
Then, what is this dharma? According to Mimamsa, it is a potential force, which we generally call merit and demerit. We generally think that the two are only good and bad qualities attributed to men by God or society because of their actions. But Mimamsa says that merit and demerit are not qualities (gunas), they constitute the potential force, which is the Extraordinary and the Unseen. This force resides in the atman in the agent and controls and determines the future life of the atman here, hereafter, and in the future lives, which it takes through transmigration.
We must accept the reality of this unseen power, as otherwise, we cannot explain how action performed now can cause or produce the fruit after a lapse of time. There is a time interval between the end of the action and the appearance of its result. But there can be no causation with a time interval between the cause and the effect. Causation is a continuous process without any time intervening between the processes of the cause and the appearance of the effect. We have, therefore, to postulate that the action we perform does not end whenever the activity is ended, but assumes the form of a potential force that can stay as potency until the occasion and opportunity arise for operation. We do not see this force; it is, therefore, unseen. It is not an ordinary kind of force like that of the magnet; it is, therefore, extraordinary. The ethical activity becomes a force that controls the production of the forms of life we desire. This force produces the forms which the stuff of the world assumes and that the agent of action desires.
According to Mimamsa, a unitary force of activity controls and guides the forces of different individuals. This unitary Supreme or Universal Force preserves the unity of the universe. This gives rise to the idea that the universe is a system of forces, a plurality of patterns of activity controlled by a supervising pattern of activity. If substances are regarded as unities of potential activities or forces, the universe may be regarded as a system of substances also. We have to bear in mind that the unity of the substances is not accomplished conceptually or by a law existing apart and imposed on the substances but by a controlling force running through every one of them like the force of gravitation binding together the members of the planetary system. The universe must, then, be a pattern of patterns, an active force controlling innumerable active forces. In Mimamsa, as in Buddhism, this active force is dharma. For both, dharma is the law, the support, and the ideal of the universe; it is that which makes the universe what it is.
All Mimamsakas agree that dharma is the action enjoined by the Veda. For some, dharma is the action itself, but not the merit produced by it. The action is right because it produces ‘good’ for man. But for others, the objective of the Vedic injunction is the production of the Unseen, that is, the Veda commands us to produce the Unseen. Our actions are, therefore, right because they are in accordance with the injunctions of the Veda, but not because they produce good for man. Dharma is the Unseen as the objective of the Vedic command, but not the action. Thus some emphasize the good, and some the right. An action is right for some because it produces the good, and for some others, an action produces the good because it is right. However, for all, it is an action that becomes the Unseen potency.
Some important ideas flow from the above discussion of the content of Mimamsa in relation to dharma. First, the Veda gives certain commands. Second, our actions follow the commands. Third, after our actions are completed, they assume the form of potential force called the Unseen and the Extraordinary. Fourth, our actions lie in waiting as potential forces and becoming active when the occasion and the opportunity arise. Fifth, dharma in the sense of merit is that part of the potential force that produces good for the agent of action, and adharma in the sense of demerit is that part that produces evil. As the potential force is a transformed state of the action itself, it is also called action (karma). Generally, both dharma and adharma are called dharma in the usage of the word character.
For Mimamsa, the doctrine of karma or action is the doctrine of dharma, which, in a general sense, may be considered as duty or obligation, as karma and dharma are associated with commands and the doctrine of the unseen ethical force. Mimamsa may be, thus, the metaphysics of ethical action as ethical action is a central controlling power of the universe. It believes, however, that man is free although his atman carries within itself the potential forces of his future. His past actions do not deprive him of his freedom but produce the capital for his future life. He can make whatever use he can of his capital. Further, the effects of evil actions can be countered by good actions and can be prevented by expiatory actions. The potential force the atman carries is a mixture of the potentialities of good and evil actions. Sometimes, they cancel one another. The potentialities of good actions are strengthened by those of other good actions, but counterbalanced by those of evil ones. It is not, however, necessary that every good or evil act must produce its particular effects.
In Bhagavad-Gita, dharma covers all the duties of social ethics as understood at that time and also the surrender to God. Even one’s personality has to be surrendered. It belongs to one of the Prakrtis of God. We have to give Him back what belongs to Him. We have to consider ourselves to be instruments or occasions of the processes of the Cosmic Person, not independent agents. This amounts to becoming one with the source of the universe that is, surrendering one’s own being to it.
The role of dharma, according to Bhagavad-Gita, is to make man the ideal one. The ideal man is one who has realized his rational being and whose reason has become steady. He preserves his equanimity under all conditions, whether favorable or unfavorable, whether in grief or in joy. He does not have any egoistic desires and looks upon all the events that happen without being disturbed. He does not have any attachment or longing for the objects of his senses and can withdraw his mind and senses from all objects. Attachment to objects is the destroyer of reason. For attachment breeds desire, desire leads to anger when it is frustrated, and anger clouds the mind, such clouding destroys memory, and then the reason is destroyed. Reason and memory are intimately connected. So the ideal man is neither attached to the objects nor hates them. He performs all actions without any egoity to attain peace.
While Mimamsakas explain dharma as the action commanded by the Veda, Vaisesikas explain it as that from which happiness in the world and the supreme good of salvation result. This concept of dharma includes both ethical obligation and salvation. It is to include in its meaning all proper actions turning man towards the world and also that which makes him withdraw from the world. By performing ethical actions, one obtains happiness in this world. By following the way to salvation, one obtains eternal bliss. The Veda provides both ethical duties and the way to salvation. Therefore, Vaisesikas consider that both are to be termed dharma. As salvation is the highest ideal, it is to be sought after as the ultimate goal.
The concept of dharma in Buddhism is so comprehensive and all-inclusive that it can mean anything and everything in the universe. It includes elements, categories, qualities, things, laws, way of life, form, etc. It also means the law, the doctrine, and the truth taught by Buddha. What the doctrine of Buddha points to is the ultimate Reality. So dharma, in Buddhism, means the highest Reality.
In relation to dharma, Buddhism postulates Four Noble Truths. First, through wisdom one acquires a full vision of dharma. Second, through morality one purifies all that obscures the vision of dharma. Third, through meditation one matures dharma within oneself. Finally, one transforms oneself into an epitome of dharma.
In popular usage, dharma means a way of life, ethical law, positive law like civil law and criminal law, and simply a religion. It denotes truth, knowledge, morality, and duty. It is the truth about the state and function of the world, the truth about how to eliminate its evil tendencies, and the truth about its immutable spiritual potentiality. It is knowledge in the sense that once one becomes aware of dharma, one acquires the knowledge to become free from the bonds of phenomenal existence. It is morality, for it contains a code of moral conduct that is conducive to spiritual purity and maturity. It is a duty, for whoever professes dharma has a duty to comply with its norms and achieve the goal that it sets forth.
Ethical codes such as the Manavadharmasastra are regarded as the application of the Mimamsa concept of dharma to different ethical, social, and legal situations. The Arthasastra of Kautilya is regarded as a further articulation and explanation of a part of the dharma of the ethical codes that deal with kings and governments. All the ethical and legal codes are called applications of the law of action or dharma.