Dharma/Religion....Our contemporary understanding...A bird's eye view...

        Dharma,the eternal word is/was/will with all it's humility and benevolence will make sense to the sensibles ! But a large majority of the society is terribly unaware of its true meaning/sense/logic and has a biased understanding of it and really really misinterprets its spirit...

  Not long ago I also didn't have much clarity of what it really stands for and was never intrigued by its meaning as it  probably  had never interfered much in my personal life. Certainly had a sense of doubt about its common interpretation but had not tried much to think deeper or understand better.Fortunately in recent past got the chance to  understand it far better and learn deeper and it made a lot of sense to me,so I  thought of sharing my learning... may be it will help someone to get the real sense of it leaving the myth/misconception to others to clarify and convince themselves as time progresses....

    In my contemporary knowledge I always had seen,heard,felt and experienced larger society often using Dharma and Religion as synonyms of a single concept.But really it is not true.It may be just used in everyday life like that but deeply they are different entities.I am afraid there is an exact word in English dictionary for the sankrit word 'Dharma''.Religeon is at best can be understood as a particular way of doing things/observing rituals or celebrating festivals by a particular faction/group of society.It might have incorporated some of the principles of Dharma also.But the nearest words interpreting the true meaning of Dharma to me is nature. For example Fire's  'dharma' is to burn,Wind's 'dharma' is to blow ,Water'r 'dharma' is to flow...so on and so forth.The Sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening.It's Sun's Dharma/nature.'Dharma'is universal law.It is eternal,all pervasive. Religion is devided into many 'isms' depending on following certain ways of life/rituals and beliefs.But 'dharma', is the natural law/the justice/the truth and it is universal.Someone may see his God in a temple,the other one in Mosque,3rd one in church,Gurudwara and some one may know God is in every being.So they can interpret them as Hindu,Muslim,Jain,Boudh,Ishai,Bahaian,Parsi and so on.But Dharma is same for all. Best way to understand Dharma is to see,observe,appreciate and be grateful to Nature.When there is rain it does not discriminate between Hindu city/Muslim city/Christian city.There is no Zorastrian fire or Jain Fire.So Dharma is Dharma only.It has no 'ism' as it's suffix.When Srikrishna teaches Arjun in Gita  He utters 'Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata...Abhyuthanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamy aham...Paritranaya sadhunam,vinashayacha dushkritan sambhavami yuge yuge..'  He never said Hindu dharmasya/Boudha dharmasya/Ishai dharmasya...

                So where did we get confused/lost our way..lost the meaning,interpretation of dharma and started fighting on someones or others beliefs and notions.Buddha never told he is Buddhist,Mahavir never told he is Jain/Krishna /Ram never told they follow Hinduism.They all stood for what is right,what is just,what is natural.The God/the creater/the protector is certainly not confined in a Mosque/a church/a temple/a fire temple or a gurudwara.  I believe there is someone,some supreme power who makes and protects us as logically/scientificall I can't get the answers to so many things which not only man can not make,but can not think,imagine,interpret and comprehend even.That's my belief in God/Allah/Jesus/Zorastra/Nanak/ Ram/Krishna/Shiv whatever you feel calling Him..God can be He or She .But God is primarily in our heart/in our soul and Dharma resides in our conscience/the inner sense.No rituals/followings/fasts/religious fanfare can alter the eternal Dharma .It's only our beliefs.Fair enough.We can have our beliefs but as long as it does not harm someone else.How much shlokas we read/how many gallons of milk we pour on a piece of stone we can not make it float on water nor our rituals/fasts/yagnas can never drown few droplets of oil in water...That's their nature.That's true dharma..eternal,all pervasive and was/is and will live till the universe exists...Let's think deeper...Let's see the light of Dharma not the shadow of religious interpretation of a great concept...Satyamev Jayate..