On namah shivay: I came across this question in this group....what is the difference between Religion & Dharma... I have tried to answer it below as per my limited understanding: Om namah Shivay: Religion & Dharm the difference---- religion is the way we understand the Hindu religion , Muslim , Christianity e.t.c. Dharm is a bigger concept...there r various meanings that dharm can be given...but according to me the one sure short meaning of Dharm is - "justice",,, in Hindi 'nyay'..it means , that , which is right , just, proper,...or "uchit" in hindi... I have come to this conclusion..based on some observations... 1.The battle of Mahabharat is addressed by Krishn as Dharma youdh...the battle was not for religion but for...justice( dharm) the kurukshetra is called dharma kshetra ...that besides 2.Yudhishter the eldest among the Pandavs is addresses as Dharmaraj...its well known that Yudhishter had very good understanding of justice and law...what is proper and what is improper.3.the god of death "Yam" whose son Youdhishter was , is also addresses as Dharma raj..because he judges the people after their death.Yam the god of death is supposed to have a Very good understanding of dharma or right and wrong...proper ..improper; because he is supposed to judge the human souls after the death according to their conduct. That besides 4. There is the story of Nachiketa a boy who wanted to understand the concept of Dharm..he went to various gods...but it was Yam( the god of death) alone who explained to him the concept of dharm ... Because Yam has very good understanding of justice ...right and wrong...proper, improper...that is why he's called dharmaraj. So in my understanding Dharm means justice , just , proper or the right conduct...(lord Ram is also called Dharm vigrah - or statue of dharm)and I think under some conspiracy which took place at some point in history...attempt was made to limit the meaning of Dharm to sprinkling water , flowers , showing agarbattis before god ....because dharm is not an easy value / principle/concept to sustain..eventhe most powerful nations sometimes find it difficult to deliver complete justice or dharma and have been seen to be making compromise in the Matters of justice.