Dharma stands as the first of the four traditional aims of human life (alongside artha, wealth; kama, pleasure; and moksha, liberation) and orders the others beneath it. It is at once universal, the moral law binding on all, and particular, since each person's concrete duty depends on their circumstances (svadharma). As a lived value it distinguishes Hindu ethics from systems built on a single universal rule, holding together a common order with an acute sense of situated obligation, and it prepares the soul, through duty rightly done, for the ultimate goal of liberation.
A real tension exists within Hindu thought between dharma and the final goal of moksha: the classical ashrama system prescribes a stage of formal renunciation, sannyasa, in which a person is expected to set aside the very caste and household duties that defined dharma throughout the earlier stages of life, in pursuit of liberation beyond all worldly obligation. The Bhagavad Gita addresses this tension directly by counseling action performed without attachment to its results as a middle path, allowing dharma to be fulfilled rather than abandoned even by one seeking liberation, a resolution later Vedanta commentators, including both Shankara's more renunciate-leaning reading and more devotionally inclined interpreters, continued to debate.