Dharma in Tantra — The Natural Order of Right Action
Tantric dharma is not a list of rules but the natural self-expression of liberated consciousness — for the realized being, right action arises spontaneously from the recognition of universal divine identity.
Dharma (right conduct, cosmic order, natural law) in the Tantric tradition is understood differently from its role in conventional Hindu social ethics (Varnashrama Dharma). For the Tantric practitioner, Dharma is not primarily a social code but the natural expression of one's true nature. The Kula Tantra tradition teaches that when a practitioner genuinely recognizes their identity with Shiva, right action arises spontaneously — not from the application of rules but from the innate wisdom and compassion that characterize consciousness recognized as divine. This is why Tantric texts sometimes appear to violate conventional dharma (through transgressive practices) — they are pointing to a dharma rooted in direct recognition rather than social convention. The Ashtavakra Gita's teaching that the realized being 'does whatever occurs to him, for there is no rule for the free' must be understood in this context: freedom from rules is freedom from compulsion, not license for harm.
For the one who knows the Self, dharma is not a constraint but the natural expression of what they are — right action arises effortlessly.
Moral philosopher Aristotle's concept of 'eudaimonia' (flourishing through virtue) and his argument that the virtuous person does not experience virtue as constraint but as the natural expression of their well-developed character is the closest Western parallel to the Tantric concept of post-recognition dharma.
Ashtavakra Gita