Dharma & Truth

The concept of dharma is unique to eastern philosophies and religions. It encompasses the wide concepts of duty, righteousness, action, truth, and law. Dharma signifies the obligation, binding upon every man who desires that his action should bear fruit, to submit himself to the laws that govern the universe and to direct his life in consequence. That obligation constitutes his duty.”Thus, dharma covers the eternal order of universe as well as any particular situation in the life of a human being. The holistic conceptualization of dharma suggests that any human activity, including inaction, potentially has wide reaching consequences.

There are religious texts,scriptures, and treatises on law that relate to Dharma, but these are some times contradictory to each other. The best way that one can understand the concept of dharma is through the words and actions of Krishna, particularly in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita links the concepts of dharma and karma yoga. Krishna tells Arjun that it his dharma to fight against adharma without any expectation of reward or without regard for the result of the war. Whether he will win or lose is immaterial. The only thing in his control is his karma or action, which is to fight. The rationale of the actions and behavior of Krishna are puzzling to everyone. Arjuna, his close friend and disciple is able to follow Krishna's instructions and perform actions in the war only due to his faith in Krishna, although his mind and reason are not fully convinced. He questions Krishna again and again (although very respectfully) through different stages of the war even though Krishna has already explained all reasons for why Arjuna should fight and what his duty is. Arjuna is able to stay on the path of dharma during the Mahabharata war only because he has Krishna as his mentor and guide throughout.

However every time Krishna's instructions are simple from the point of view of karma yoga. Any other way of understanding dharma will be too complex for the mind to comprehend. The simplest way to stay on the path of dharma is by doing your duty without expectation for reward or without attachment to the result. By following this path of karma yoga, one will also acquire knowledge and wisdom and the ability to discriminate between what is right and wrong.

Truth is of relevance not on its own but only in the context of dharma. Dharma over rides truth in the Mahabharata. Krishna asks Yudhistira to be technically truthful (not technically lie) and tell Drona that Ashwatthama (the elephant) is dead. Krishna's rationale of this is that Drona is the biggest enemy of dharma in the war of dharma versus adharma and to remove such a barrier to dharma is dharma. The Mahabharata tells us that the adharmic are often as strong as or stronger than the dharmic. This may be because they are not constrained by any moral code, and may in fact, be victors in most battles and wars in the short term. It is therefore necessary to evolve strategies to fight them, taking advantage of their weaknesses. The world is not a level playing field. Those who are not on the path of dharma take short cuts to acquire knowledge, pleasure, revenge, wealth, and power by usurping what is not rightfully theirs. The dharmic route is a certain and permanent one but typically takes longer. The wise ones play to their own strengths and the opponent's weaknesses in a war of dharma versus adharma.