Dharma

The word Dharma is derived from the Sanskrit root dhr, to mean 'sustain, support, uphold¿. It is variously defined as nature, the law of nature, that which supports, virtue, ethical law, merit, the potency of ethical actions, the right action, the law or the body of the doctrines of any faith, quality, characteristic, the law of the universe, reality, element, and category. The concept of dharma is all-encompassing of human activity in relation to itself in all its facets including spiritual realization, and in relation to the universe. Dharma is the bottom-line of all the religious and spiritual faiths that have originated in India. In this sense, the religious and spiritual faiths and practices that have crystallized in the Indian sub-continent from pre-historic times are known as Sanatanadharma. The religions such as Buddhism, Jainism are the offshoots of Sanatanadharma. Sanatanadharma is what constitutes the Indian psyche, philosophy, spirituality, its very way of life

The book Dharma deals in detail the principles of Sanathanadharma including ethics.

About the Author

K.R. Paramahamsa was a retired civil servant in India borne on the Indian Administrative Service. He has created the website Sri Sathya Sai Veda Pratishtan at www.vedamu.org , a repository of all the Vedic literature available in India in Devanagari and Grantha scripts. Besides, the website hosts 415 hours of Vedic chanting of ten Veda sakhas in different modes in a representative way. He is Adjunct Faculty of the Hindu University of America in Florida. He is now a resident of the Ashram of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai at Prasanthi Nilayam-515134, India in pursuit of spiritual upliftment.

Table of Contents

1. Dharma

2. Ideals of Dharma

3. Way of Life

4. God and Divine Ground

5. Human Being

6. Spiritual Experience

7. Spiritual Exercises

8. Moral Insight

9. Right Action

10. Ethics

11. Evolution of Ethics

12. Faculty of Human Mind

13. Ethical Mechanism

14. Moral Organism

15. Religious Consciousness and Morality

16. Ethical Theory

17. Metaphysics of Morals

18. Ethics ¿ Individual & Social

19. Realization within Self

20. Relations - Duties

21. Desire ¿ Passion

22. Ends ¿ Means

23. Reason - Conscience

24. Virtue

25. Justice

26. Values

27. Good for Man

28. Things in our Power

29. Naturalism

30. Utilitarianism

31. Subjectivism

32. Mechanics of Ethics

33. Meta-ethics

34. Normative Ethics

35. Applied Ethics

36. Future Ethics