The message of Bahagavan Das on the present significance of the Vedic Social Order

but as the archetypal name for Man, derived from his prime distinguishing characteristic, namely Mind or Reason. The name Manava-Dharma-Shastra therefore means the science (Shastra) of Order (Dharma) according to Manu or the reasoning mind of Man. The other name by which Bhagavan Das calls it will be explained later, but these names are here given because they both contain the important word Dharma, of which some understanding is necessary in order to grasp the significance of the Manu Code.

The word Dharma is variously translated as Religion, Right, Duty, Law, and it does indeed contain all those notions, but it is wider than any of them in the sense in which they are usually taken in Western thought. The words law and duty often convey a meaning of some sort of constraint from outside—by society or God—in the same way that, for instance, the word morality can nowadays have rather a nasty, unpleasant ring. The root Dhri, from which the word Dharma derives, means to hold, hold together, support, maintain; thus in the widest sense we may call Dharma Universal Law, that Divine Law or Law of Nature which makes the World-process what it is and holds all its parts together as One Whole in an unbreakable chain of causes and effects. In a social sense we may call it that scheme or code of laws which binds together all human beings in the bonds of mutual rights and duties, of causes and consequences of their actions in relation to one another, and thus maintains society as a whole. But even this must not be taken in an outer sense, for that which holds a thing together, makes it what it is, prevents it from breaking up and changing into something else is its own essential nature, the law of its own inner being.

The word Dharma can only be understood in relationship to the notion of Organic Order, in which the well-being and proper functioning of the whole is the end and aim of all its members. There is no conflict between the duty of the lungs and of the liver or between the interest of either of them and the well-being of the whole body, because the interest of the whole and the parts are in fact identical. Thus Dharma means both the Order of the whole and the proper function of each part, and in this senseand only in this sense—it can be translated as law, right or duty. It means the same as the word ‘Dikaiosune’, which is the central

Io