What is the meaning of dharma in the Bhagavad Gita?

Dharma in the Bhagavad Gita is one of its richest words, and it doesn’t map neatly onto a single English term. It means something like duty, righteousness, sacred order, and one’s proper role all at once — the right way of being and acting that holds a person and the cosmos in balance. Arjuna’s crisis at the start of the Gita is a collision of dharmas: his duty as a warrior to fight a just battle against his duty to his family and teachers. Krishna’s counsel is svadharma — that it is better to do one’s own dharma imperfectly than another’s dharma well (3.35), because acting from your authentic role and station keeps you aligned with the larger order. Dharma is not a rigid rulebook but a call to act rightly from where you actually stand, with integrity to your nature and responsibilities, offered up rather than grasped for gain.