धर्म

In everyday speech, dharma has often come to mean "a religion" or "a way of worship", but in the Gita its range is wider. There it carries the sense of duty, the right order of living, rule and conduct, and its meaning shifts with the passage.

The final counsel of chapter 18 is a difficult example. In verse 18.66 the phrase sarvadharmān parityajya is directly translated "abandoning all dharmas". Traditions read it in different ways: one takes it as giving up reliance on every other means and resting in one refuge, another as giving up the grip of being the doer. What these readings share is that the verse does not advise running away from action, since the same counsel began with offering all actions (18.57).

So when you meet the word dharma, first see which passage it sits in, and settle its sense from the context of the verse rather than from a textbook definition. It is not a basis for withdrawing from your relationships or obligations; do not settle such decisions alone.