Dharma means duty or responsibility. Or more elaborately, it’s a set of principles based on the essential nature of things along with a corresponding set of responsibilities. It’s sometimes awkwardly translated as religion. More accurate would be a body of principles that govern the duties of individuals, families, and society. 

Dharma applies to all things in existence. It establishes the principles associated with the nature of a thing. It also implies the actions that the thing must take in accordance with those principles. For example, one of the natural principles of a female bird’s behavior is to care for her chicks. So, defending them is her responsibility according to that principle.[1]

With humans, dharma advises the ways they should and shouldn’t act individually, socially, occupationally, and so on. So, dharma is not just morality or religion in the modern sense, but a set of guiding principles or laws according to which one responsibly acts.

Dharma, Modern Science, and the Environment

In 1690, in his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” John Locke, one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers, wisely defined science as having three components: (1) the nature of things; (2) human responsibility; and (3) the means for discovering and teaching the first two. It should be emphasized that he says true science includes human responsibility.[2]

Unfortunately, science has evolved into something much different. As an example, followers of modern “pure science” would say that developing an atomic bomb is purely within the realm of science. But the opinion of a scientist like Einstein that the bomb should not be used is not considered pure science. Such an opinion is judged to be in the realm of politics and may be overridden by a politician, in this case, Truman. This is just an example of the fanaticism of the followers of science. They eliminate Locke’s second principle of science, human responsibility, which Krishna calls dharma.

Certainly, there are fields like philosophy of science and science of morality that discuss the issue of human responsibility. However, these are toothless discussions. The world burns, and they talk about the morality of it.

Thus, science, as it’s practiced today, cannot solve the devastation that science and technology have caused. This is because such so-called science has eliminated human responsibility or relegated it to a field that’s not considered “pure” science.

Krishna says that those who abandon dharma—that is, human responsibility—have no power of discrimination and their work is unbeneficial; it ends in destruction.[3]

Unfortunately, the interpretation of human responsibility is left to politicians and businesspeople. And both groups are proven to be predominantly motivated by power and money—that is, greed.

[1] Dharma: https://goo.gl/K72xhn

[2] Locke: Essay, Book 4, Chapter One, 1823/1963, p. 174: https://goo.gl/uF3V3Y

[3] BG 16.7-9