Krishna descends to establish dharma – what does that dharma refer to?
Transcript
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When Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says he comes to establish Dharma what exactly does he mean? The word Dharma Dharma is multivalent multivalent means it has many different meanings in different contexts we consider fundamentally Dharma comes from the Sanskrit word Dhruv which means sustain so Dharma refers to that which sustains our very nature that means the course of action that enables us to live true to ourselves that is Dharma the course of action that enables us to live true to ourselves that is Dharma so now what exactly is our Dharma? Our defining nature if we see we all want to love and to be loved and we all long for a lasting object of love most of the movies and novels are about romance and most of the romantic movies and novels they end with H E A happily ever after so we all long for lasting love so this actually to want to love and to be loved that is our nature that is our Dharma now we all have a nature to love and to be loved so the path, the course of action that enables us to develop our loving nature in a proper way in a way that leads to fulfillment, that is called Dharma so Sanatana Dharma refers to the eternal Dharma that means that is the process which will enable us to direct our love we are loving many different objects in this world unfortunately none of these loves can last forever but we direct our love towards the eternal, towards the supreme that is a love that will last so Dharma in that sense refers to our nature to love and serve and the Dharma in its highest expression is the course of action that will enable us to love the eternal now in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna says I have come to establish he is referring specifically to the social order that will facilitate spiritual growth so at that time when Krishna came the vicious Kauravas had unscrupulously grabbed power and they were breaking heaven in society so Krishna wanted to establish so paritranaya sadhunam vinashasya nishkatham in 4.7 he says that those who are disrupting Dharma, I will sideline them those who honour Dharma I will enthrone them and in that way I will establish Dharma so Krishna is talking about establishing an external order which will help us to establish the inner order establishing the inner order means learning to love the eternal learning to love live in a way that helps our loving nature to guide us towards the eternal so in that sense bhakti in its fullest sense is paro dharma and the outer social arrangement which can help us to practice bhakti since we develop love for Krishna that is also dharma so we try as much as possible to have an external order by which we can develop the inner order so arranging society that is one level of establishing Dharma but the ultimate purpose of establishing Dharma is to make the Atma that is Krishna’s ultimate purpose and that is why for 4.9 years so he says that when Dharma is established what will happen by that then people will understand my mysterious appearance they will become attracted to me they will attain love for me and when they attain love for me the establishment of Dharma is meant to help us to complete love for the Lord