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It is difficult to provide a single concise definition for "Dharma"; the word has a complex history and an equivalently complex set of meanings. Monier Monier-Williams gives its primary definition as:
that which is established or firm, steadfast decree, statute, ordinance, law; usage, practice, customary observance or prescribed conduct, duty; right, justice (often as a synonym of punishment); virtue, morality, religion, religious merit, good works,
of which the first, "that which is established or firm" seems to be the most ancient and etymological. "Dharma" is cognate with the Latin firmus, the origin of the word "firm." Meanings related to law, morality, scripture, and teachings were probably acquired through analogy, by being regarded as firm and called as such. For the phenomenological or psychological meaning, see below .
In Hinduism, Yama, the god of death, is also known as Dharma, since he works within the laws of karma and morality, regulated by divine principles. More familiar to most Hindus is the embodiment of Dharma in Lord Rama, an avatar of VishnuVishnu is an aspect of God, or Brahman, whom Hindus pray to. He is the second God of the Trimurti (also called the Hindu Trinity), along with Brahma and Shiva. Known as the Preserver he is most famously identified with his avatars, or incarnations of God,. Within Hindu communities, Dharma can also refer to the Hindu religion in general.
In Buddhism, the Dharma most often means the body of teachings expounded by the BuddhaBuddha ( Sanskrit, Pali, others: literally Awakened One Enlightened One from the Sanskrit: "√budh", to awaken can refer to the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama or to anyone who has attained the same depth and quality of enlightenment. Buddhism. Confusingly, the word is also used in Buddhist phenomenologyPhenomenology is a current in philosophy that takes intuitive experience of phenomena (what presents itself to us in conscious experience) as its starting point and tries to extract the essential features of experiences and the essence of what we experien as a term roughly equivalent to phenomenonA phenomenon (plural: phenomena is an observable event, especially something special. Kant's use of phenomenon Phenomenon has a specialized meaning in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant who contrasted the term 'Phenomenon' with Noumenon'. Phenomena constitut, a basic unit of existence and/or experience.
In scripture translations dharma is often best left untranslated, as it has acquired a lively life of its own in English that is more expressive than any simplistic translation. Common translations and glosses include "right way of living," "Divine Law," "Path of Righteousness," "order," "faith," "natural harmony," "rule," "fundamental" and "duty". Dharma may be used to refer to "rules" of the operation of the mind or universe in a metaphysical system, or to rules of comportment in an ethical system.
Within Indian logic "dharma" also means "property" and "dharmin" means "property-bearer". In a Sanskrit sentence like "zabdo 'nityaH" ( Sanskrit transliterated according to the Kyoto-Harvard convention ), "sound is impermanent", "sound" is the bearer of the property "impermanence". Likewise, in the sentence "iha ghataH", "here, there is a pot", "here" is the bearer of the property "pot-existence" - this just goes to show that the categories property and property-bearer are closer to those of a logical predicate and its subject-term, and not to a grammatical predicate and subject.
A common manner of describing Hinduism among its adherents is as a way of life, as "Dharma." It defies dogma and thus seeks to instead align the human body, mind, and soul in harmony with nature.
Our very limitation is guided under a universal understanding, that of Dharma. The Atharva Veda, the last of the four books of the Vedas, utilizes symbolism to describe dharma's role. Thus we are bound by the laws of time, space and causation according to finite reality, which itself is a limitation imposed by the self-projection of the infinite BrahmanThis article is about the concept of transcendent reality in Hinduism. See also Brahmin and Brahman (disambiguation). In the Vedantic (and subsequently Yogic) schools of Hinduism, Brahman is the signifying name given to the concept of the unchanging, infi as the cosmos. Dharma is the foundation of this causal existence, the one step below the infinite. Indeed, dharma is the projection of divine order from Brahman, and as such:
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