Ramona and I were talking about a topic which I wanted to write about. It is about the verses of a scripture and while we were talking, I realized once more that it is often not easy to translate a Sanskrit word with its full meaning into English. I had some difficulties with the proper translation of the word ‘Dharma’.
When you look up the translation of this word, it will simply tell you that it means ‘religion’. This is how it is always translated in English scriptures, poems, etc. Many times this fits in the translation and from a religious point of view it does not matter. From my point of view today however, the translation with the one word ‘religion’ is not sufficient anymore.
The problem is that I don’t see myself as having a religion but I do have ‘dharma’. Everyone has because dharma actually means what you accept in your life. Everybody accepts something in his life and it is not only connected to a religion. Let me explain you what dharma really is.
In Sanskrit the root of the word is explained with the words ‘Dharyati iti Dharma’ – literally translated ‘Wearing means Dharma’. While this may not make much sense to you now, it does with an easy explanation. Dharma is like the clothes you wear. You put them onto your body yourself and you decide to walk around wearing them. Dharma is what you accept in life.
When I say I am a father, I can say in Hindi ‘I follow the Dharma of a father’. Dharma does not have any sense of religion here. It is more about the responsibility of being a father. If you are a father, you have the duties of a father. When I shower my child, make her wear clothes, play with her, I can say that I am following the dharma of a father. It is my job, my responsibility and my duty. It is that what I accepted in life for myself.
Nowadays the meaning of dharma is however often only seen as the duties of a certain religion. From any kind of duties that you accept, you now only think of the religious duties. The rituals, the worship and everything that you do because of your belief is now seen as Dharma. This is how the translation became ‘religion’ because when someone talked of Dharma, he was talking about those religious actions.
Religion tells you what you should do. There are scriptures and rituals that show you step by step how you should worship. Dharma however is more than that. It means what I have voluntarily accepted in my life. It is not something that another person has told me to do. Hinduism says that you are born as a Hindu – so how can that be your Dharma? Dharma is the tasks that I want to do from my heart, not something that I have to do because I was born to Hindu parents. Dharma is not religion.
Dharma is what I chose for myself to follow every day of my life. That is how I follow Dharma, how you follow Dharma and we all follow Dharma even if we are of different religions or have no religion at all. There is something in your life that you accept and follow from your heart – whatever it is, it is your Dharma.
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I completely agree with you here. I too, don’t have a religion. But I live my life with care and respect for others. I please and look after my parents, family and friends. I work hard and do my best in every situation. No religious book tells me to do these things but I do them anyway because like you have written, it is what I have chosen to wear in my life.