First of all, dharma is that which is one's essential nature, that which supports you on all levels. In the cosmic sense, dharma is Truth.
We all have the individual dharma to relate to each other in love; to manifest the truth of our being; to unfold our divinity to its ultimate unfoldment. Then specifically, each one has an individual path of unfoldment or expression, and until we find that we cannot be happy. Dharma is your individual calling. When there is depression, you either don't know your dharma or you are resisting it. A depressed person is involved in self-absorption, in the ego-self. It's impossible to be depressed if you have an expansive heart. You ask whether chemical imbalance causes depression. Chemical imbalance is only the symptom; what we hold in consciousness is the cause.
What we call loyalty and duty to others can become a stumbling block to fulfilling our dharma. Here's the test: Does another want to keep you from being yourself? And your heart chafes under that authority that would hold you back. When you honor the inner call, the whole universe steps in to help you honor your commitment. And the universe will also help remove obstacles if you are receptive. Your first duty is to your spiritual identity. If you do not honor that, how can you be loyal to anything or anyone else?
Whenever we engage in any action or reaction that is contradictory to our well being, we are going against our true dharma. When someone tells the truth harshly, that person is going against his or her dharma. When truth is administered with love, it is dharma. Truth has to be administered with love.
Your dharma is to know the truth about anything you experience. Your dharma is to succeed in realizing who you are and what you came to do and to do the best you can at any given moment in whatever situation life presents to you.
