If dharma is the innate characteristic of a thing, how can it differentiate humans from animals?

Transcript

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Any other question? Krishna, question. If dharma is the innate characteristic of all living beings, then how can it be the defining characteristic of human beings only? Don’t animals also have dharma? Answer.
These two refer to different connotations, and denotations of the word dharma. Denotations refer to meanings and to direct meanings. Connotations refer to implied meanings.
The word dharma has multiple meanings. Now when it refers to innate characteristics, at that time, Prabhupada is using it to explain how the dharma cannot be changed. He is saying that the English word religion which is used to translate dharma is inappropriate because we can change our religion from say Hindu to Muslim or whatever.
But we can’t change our dharma. Dharma always remains the same because it is a part of who we are essentially. That is we are made to love and serve and loving and serving is our dharma.
And Prabhupada adds the preface Sanatana dharma. To love and serve Krishna is our Sanatana dharma. Because that is the love and service that will go on Sanatana, eternally.
We cannot give up our dharma, but we may choose non-Sanatana dharmas. You know, we choose to love and serve our family or our nation or even our own mental conceptions or our pets. So in that sense, that word dharma refers to our innate characteristic.
But that is not the only meaning of the word dharma. So, there is dharma and there is Sanatana dharma. Dharma is our innate characteristic to love and serve.
But not everybody will be directing that loving and serving propensity towards Krishna and adopting Sanatana dharma. So, the word dharma also refers to other things. So, for example, the capacity to direct, to harmonize our dharma with Sanatana dharma.
That means the capacity to understand that if I want to truly be happy, I need to love and serve an eternal object. That capacity is also called dharma. Now, that capacity is not present in animals.
That capacity is present only in humans. So, that capacity is what is referred to in the Mahabharata as dharmohitesha madhiko vishesho dharme nahina pashubhi samana So, that means that the capacity to inquire about the higher truths of life and the capacity to harmonize our life according to those higher principles. That is what is referred to as dharma.
And that is the meaning of dharma when it is considered the differentiating characteristic between humans and animals. There is also another meaning of dharma which is a duty, a religion which is a set of processes, set of activities by which we can move from material to spiritual level. We can actually learn to love Krishna.
So, Christianity and Islam, they can also be called dharmas but they are not innate characteristics. They are the means by which we will learn to love Krishna. So, in this way the word dharma has many meanings when it refers to innate characteristic it refers to our nature to love and serve.
And that innate characteristic, how will we make it sanatana dharma, how will we direct it to love and serve Krishna? By using our capacity innate, which only human beings have, for loving the, for learning about the eternal truths of life and then learning to love the eternal. So, that is the difference between the two meanings of the word dharma in these two different contexts. Thank you.