Finding Your Dharma Is Not a Treasure Hunt

The Myth of Purpose

We are told to find our purpose. To go on a quest. To discover the one big thing we are meant to do. It sounds exciting. It also sounds exhausting and for most people it leads nowhere.

This idea of a hidden purpose treats life like a video game. There is a secret chest somewhere and if you just find the right map you will get the prize. But life is not a video game. There is no map.

This search often creates more anxiety than clarity. We look at people who seem to have found their purpose and feel like we are behind. We try on different careers or hobbies like clothes hoping one will finally fit. When it doesn’t we feel like a failure. The problem isn’t us. The problem is the idea of the treasure hunt.

Vedanta offers a different way to think about this. It’s an idea called Dharma. And it is much simpler and more useful.

What Dharma Is

Dharma isn’t something you find. It’s something you uncover. It’s your intrinsic nature. The way you are.

Think of it this way. The dharma of fire is to burn. The dharma of water is to flow. The dharma of sugar is to be sweet. They don’t have to try to be these things. They just are. They express their nature without effort.

You have a nature too. We all do. This is your Svadharma or your own personal dharma. It’s the unique combination of tendencies inclinations and abilities that make you you. Your dharma is not a job title or a grand mission. It is the quality of your being expressed through action.

You don’t need to go to a mountaintop to discover it. You just need to pay attention to what you already do.

Your real work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

This is often misunderstood. It doesn’t mean discovering a career. It means discovering the nature of your own mind and energy. The work is the expression of that nature.

How to See Your Dharma

If Dharma is our nature how do we see it? We are often too close to ourselves to have a clear view. We are buried under layers of expectations desires and ideas about who we should be.

The way to see your dharma is not by thinking harder. It is by observing more carefully. Watch yourself throughout the day. What do you do when you have free time? What kinds of problems do you enjoy solving even if no one pays you for it? What activities give you energy instead of taking it away?

These are clues. They are not clues on a treasure map pointing to something far away. They are clues pointing to what is already right here.

I once knew a programmer who was obsessed with making things simpler. He would spend hours refactoring code not because he had to but because he couldn’t stand the complexity. That was a sign of his dharma. He was a natural simplifier. This expressed itself in his code but also in how he organized his kitchen and how he explained ideas to people.

Another person I know is a natural connector. She loves introducing people who she thinks would benefit from knowing each other. She doesn’t do it for networking points. It just seems obvious to her. It is an effortless expression of her nature.

Your dharma might be to create order or to foster growth or to ask difficult questions or to bring comfort. It is usually not one thing but a combination of things. It is the underlying pattern of your actions.

Action Is the Path

Thinking about your dharma is not the same as living it. Dharma only has meaning in action. You can’t be a builder by thinking about building. You have to build things. You can’t be a teacher by thinking about teaching. You have to teach.

This is where many people get stuck. They wait for a feeling of absolute certainty before they act. They want to know for sure that this is their purpose. But certainty does not come before action. It comes from action.

When you act in alignment with your nature the action feels effortless. Not easy necessarily but natural. There is less internal resistance. You get into a state of flow. This feeling is your guide. It tells you that you are moving in the right direction.

When an action feels forced or draining or inauthentic it is a sign that you are moving against your dharma. This is also useful information. It helps you course correct.

This is why journaling can be such a powerful tool. It’s a way to track your actions and the feelings associated with them. It is a logbook of your experiments in living.

Over time you will see a pattern. You will see the kinds of activities that consistently feel right and produce good results. That is your dharma in practice. It is not a static destination. It is a dynamic path that you walk every day. It is the sum of your natural actions.

So stop searching for a grand purpose. The pressure is off. Instead just pay attention to your own nature. Notice what you do effortlessly. Notice what feels true. Your dharma isn’t hiding. It is expressing itself through you all the time. You just have to look.

— Rishi Banerjee
September 2025