Dharma

Dharma is one of the central ideas of Hindu thought: the righteous duty, moral law and natural order that upholds the cosmos and every being within it. What is dharmic is not fixed for all, but depends on one’s role, stage of life and circumstance — the dharma of a student differs from that of a ruler or a parent.

Across the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, dharma is the question at the heart of every choice: Krishna’s counsel to Arjuna is, above all, to act according to his own dharma without attachment to reward.

Dharma runs through the Vedas, the Dharmashastras, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna counsels Arjuna to act according to his own dharma.