Dharma

Dharma comes from a root meaning “to hold”, the holding-together of things. In the texts it sweeps across scales: the dharma of the cosmos (order itself), of society (the king’s justice), of a stage of life, and svadharma, one’s own particular duty, which the Gītā famously tells Arjuna it is better to fail at than to succeed at another’s.

Why it resists translation

“Religion”, “law”, “duty” and “ethics” each capture a quarter of it. The epics treat dharma as subtle, sūkṣma; the Mahābhārata’s whole plot turns on good people disagreeing about what it demands here, now, with these facts.

On this site

Every practical page is quietly dharmic: eating for one’s constitution, working without grasping, honouring the teacher. The concept is the site’s operating system; this entry is its name.