Dharma
धर्म (dharma)
The order that holds things together - and, for a person, the conduct that keeps them aligned with it. Read in English
वह व्यवस्था जो सबको धारण करती है — और व्यक्ति के लिए वह आचरण जो उसे इस व्यवस्था के अनुरूप रखता है।
Dharma is often translated as duty, law, or righteousness, and each translation catches one facet while losing the rest. The root dhr means to hold or support: dharma is what keeps a thing being what it is. Fire's dharma is to burn; water's is to flow; a question worth sitting with is what yours is.
In the epics and the Gita, dharma is rarely a clean rule. Arjuna's crisis is precisely a collision of dharmas - warrior, kinsman, student - and the teaching begins where the rulebook fails. That is worth remembering when the word is used today as if it settled arguments.
As practice, dharma is less about knowing the right answer and more about staying answerable: asking, in the middle of an ordinary day, whether this action holds your corner of the world together or quietly pulls it apart.