Water must be liquid. A stone must be solid. This is the dharma. You cannot say: "Liquid stone." No. That is not dharma. As soon as you say "stone," it must be solid. As soon as you say "water," it must be liquid. So this liquidity and water, the liquidity is the dharma of water. The solidity, or dharma . . . similarly, we have got a dharma. We are forgotten now what is our dharma. The dharma is . . . here it is stated, dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhitaḥ puṁsāṁ viṣ . . . (SB 1.2.8). How to awaken our consciousness to understand Kṛṣṇa, that is real dharma. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). This is the description of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
So there is no question of the created dharma. Therefore Bhāgavata says, dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavaḥ atra (SB 1.1.2): "Cheating type of dharma is completely rejected." Real dharma is to know our relationship with God. Our relationship with God is that He is the Supreme Prabhu, the Supreme, and we are aṇu.
- nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām
- eko yo bahūnāṁ vidadhāti kāmān
- (Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.2.13)
That is our relationship. God is also a person like us. We are also persons. Nityānām, cetanānām. We are also living entities, and God is also a living entity, a person. But what is the difference? The difference is God is maintaining everyone, and we are being maintained. That is the difference. We are all persons. Just like father in the family: father is also a person, and the children, they are also persons. But what is the difference? The father maintains. Similarly, we are all children of God, children of Kṛṣṇa. He is the maintainer. So what is our duty? To feel obliged. That is our duty. That is dharma. Not that you manufacture some dharma. Real dharma is you try to understand what is your relationship with God and then act accordingly—your life is perfect.
Therefore Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā, janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ (BG 4.9). You have to understand Kṛṣṇa tattvataḥ, in truth. Then as soon as you understand Kṛṣṇa in truth . . . that is the real criterion. If you do not understand Kṛṣṇa in truth, simply superficially, then that is not perfection. That is not perfect knowledge. Janma karma me divyaṁ yo jānāti tattvataḥ. This tattvataḥ has been again repeated in the Eighteenth Chapter: tato mam tattvato jnatva visate tad anantaram (BG 18.55).