56
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 6, Ch. 1]
dharmaḥ —religious principles;  hi —indeed;  adharmaḥ —irreligious principles;  tat-viparyayaḥ —the opposite of that (that which is not supported by Vedic injunctions);  vedaḥ —the  Vedas , books of knowledge;  nārāyaṇaḥ sākṣāt —directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead (being the words of Nārāyaṇa);  svayam-bhūḥ —self-born, self-sufficient (appearing only from the breath of Nārāyaṇa and not being learned from anyone else);  iti —thus;  śuśruma —we have heard.
TRANSLATION
The Yamadūtas replied: That which is prescribed in the Vedas constitutes dharma, the religious principles, and the opposite of that is irreligion. The Vedas are directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, and are self-born. This we have heard from Yamarāja.
PURPORT
The servants of Yamarāja replied quite properly. They did not manufacture principles of religion or irreligion. Instead, they explained what they had heard from the authority Yamarāja.  Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ : one should follow the  mahājana , the authorized person. Yamarāja is one of twelve authorities. Therefore the servants of Yamarāja, the Yamadūtas, replied with perfect clarity when they said  śuśruma  (“we have heard”). The members of modern civilization manufacture defective religious principles through speculative concoction. This is not  dharma . They do not know what is  dharma  and what is  adharma . Therefore, as stated in the beginning of  Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam ,  dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo 'tra :  dharma  not supported by the  Vedas  is rejected from  śrīmad-bhāgavata-dharma .  Bhāgavata-dharma  comprises only that which is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.  Bhāgavata-dharma  is  sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja : one must accept the authority of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and surrender to Him and whatever He says. That is  dharma . Arjuna, for example, thinking that violence was  adharma , was declining to fight, but Kṛṣṇa urged him to fight. Arjuna abided by the orders of Kṛṣṇa, and therefore he is actually a  dharmī  because the order of Kṛṣṇa is  dharma . Kṛṣṇa says in  Bhagavad-gītā  (15.15),  vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyaḥ : “The real purpose of  veda , knowledge, is to know