Sanatana Dharma: The Real Root of Hinduism

      Real Hinduism is synonymous to Sanatana Dharma. But because of its intrinsic nature Sanatana Dharma cannot be confined into any specific definition. To understand real essence of Sanatana Dharma, let us look at the literal meaning of these two words. Sanatan means eternal, universal, abiding, ever present, unceasing, natural and enduring the fundamental principles behind this marvelous universe like the Law of Karma and Karma Sansara. Similarly, Dharma, as we have already seen, means harmony, righteousness, compassion, natural law, divine conformity; cosmic norm, wisdom, purest insight or law of being or moral duty. Putting these together, Sanatana Dharma denotes a dharma applicable to all people, at all times, inherent in and inclusive of all, loving to all and excluding none, both immanent and transcendent, the whole and the parts all together. And this is the real Hinduism, a fact that needs to be understood by many Hindus themselves.

Sanatana Dharma: Root of Hinduism

      In its normal nomenclature, Sanatana Dharma can be taken as a synonym for the universal teachings of Hinduism which remain relevant at all times and transcendent all historical changes, which seek to unite humanity as one large family, which overlooks all petty differences like class, caste, sects, genders, regions and includes all pure virtues for peaceful existence of all living beings and entire environment.

      While Hinduism has been Sanatana Dharma's main experience, it does not mean that it is limited to only Hinduism or India. We must not forget that Sanatana Dharma has many of its reflections in many other religious thoughts of cultures in the past. A deep reading of cultures such as Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Celts, Persian and Chinese will clearly display that many aspects of the universality and inclusiveness identified with Sanatana Dharma have been in existence out there as well. But it is to the credit of India that Sanatana Dharma took deeper roots and continued to remain in practice all through. It is not out of place to say that before the emergence of prophetic religions on the radar of humanity, all cultures did embrace eternal Dharma in varying proportions but it got trampled and gave way to other thoughts. But Hinduism has survived itself as it never remained far away from its deep roots embedded in Sanatana Dharma.

      One can come up with a question as to why Sanatana Dharma in India allowed diverse forms to get created as vitiated versions of universality? We must understand that Sanatana Dharma, by its very nature, is against uniformity as uniformity results in some sort of artificiality. It always promoted diverse localisation by the people that it served. We can appreciate even in today's context that any thing to become universal will have to allow adaptation suitable for local digestion. Again to the credit of India that in spite of emergence of variety of forms over the years, the soul of entire Hinduism has firmly remained Sanatan. And this very quality necessitates that India and its people recognize their responsibility to take up the role of global gurus for guiding the world to seek spirituality by firmly remaining grounded to Sanatana Dharma.

      Every time we talk of Hinduism, we must keep the Sanatana Dharma perspective in mind so that we perceive the right angle. Hinduism is like a great landscape of rivers, forests, snow-clad mountains and many more things in between. But how can such vast scenery be captured in a single camera image? Best of photographer will never be able to capture such a vast view in the best of best camera that he may have known to exist. So, best of best single image will show just a glimpse of the entire reality. To capture the entire scene, he must look at each of the part from close range and then only he would appreciate the switching over from one aspect to another in any meaningful manner. Unfortunately, many people do that injustice to Hinduism as they wish to put it in comparison with such other Prophetic religions, which do not offer such large view and are capable of getting fully captured in a single shot.

      Having been through the entire historical journey of this great tradition, let us now try to look at its core by ignoring unwanted and unrequited issues on its periphery. Hinduism has been recently dragged into controversies by only discussing about some limited aspects either deliberately or under some gross ignorance. So, let us look at it in its purest form once again. When we say Hinduism, it is not to be looked at in same manner that we look at Islam or Christianity. The word Hindu may get used as religion alone. But Hinduism, the subject matter of our study in this book, is far wider in scope and far more comprehensive in terms of human existence on this earth.

      The word Hinduism, every time we read it, refers to the eternal code of human conduct; that which has no beginning and no end; that which is firmly rooted in nature and honours all aspects of natural world including mountains, river, rocks, trees, flowers, birds and consider them all as sacred and. holy; which has completely pluralistic approach and accepts and appreciates all methods of worshiping the God in all its aspects or human imaginations without the exclusion of any one; which does not believe only in one book but considers every word and every letter as a guide for proper human behaviour; which does not require any one to be a middleman between a human and his God but encourages every man to contemplate his own inner self and connect with the God of his choice and imagination; which prompts human to seek his own experience of divinity rather than just blindly follow experience of some other human being; one which accepts multiplicity of beliefs being true and which does neither persuade or dissuade anyone to change his belief under any fear or favour; and one which considers every human as a separate soul by itself with no difference between long or short, thin or fat, black or white, Eastern or Western, male or female.

      Besides multiple forms of worship, Hinduism includes Ancient Culture, Philosophies, Literature, and Principles of Eternal Dharma. Looking at Hinduism from the narrow meaning of only way of worship is the greatest injustice one can do to this longest practised live human way of life. Methods of worship are temporary as they change every few hundreds of years. Hinduism is not only about how we seek our God. As we have many Gods, we also have as many ways of seeking to that. Actually; Hinduism also accepts as a good Hindu to any one who does not have any God. How many of us are confident that we know a little bit of our great Dharma in all its spectacular expanse in terms of its long traditions, its teachings and teachers, its never rejecting attitude of all aspects of human religious aspirations, its philosophy of coexisting in harmony with everything alive or dead on this earth, its commitments to non-violence, its spiritual traditions, use of all types of imagery as aspects of God, its beliefs in all sorts of rituals as means of maintaining disciplined life at different stages of life, its techniques and approaches to meditation to connect with the core of humanity well within our own hearts and its practices of Ayurveda and Yoga to ensure a perfect healthy balance between mind, body and soul.

      I have no hesitation in assuming that, unfortunately; most Hindus themselves may not have looked at Hinduism with so much of clarity. Most of its own followers have not been able to secure required exposure to understand it with all its vastness. Our schools and colleges have refrained from touching any subject under the disguise of secularity; our parents have been rather sucked up in normal life challenges for securing comforts of life for us ahead of teaching us about our great ancient traditions; and until two generations before, the entire energy of all our countrymen was in any case dedicated for securing independence from foreign rulers. Yes, we have gone through these challenges but the time has come for each one of us to do our bit of reconnecting with the best of principles enumerated by our learned sages.

      Let us not follow any thing blindly neither keep our eyes closed. I think we owe it to our coming generations to let them look at this grand mosaic with all its colours and reflections. Surely this understanding will only widen their outlook to everything around; will encourage them to gain advancements in all fields requiring human intelligence; will ward them of all pitfalls that transient attractions of material world are only false shadows and are not to be pursued for long; that we as human have a moral duty to find our spirituality in our own way; that a person bestowed with the wealth of wisdom is the real super rich guy. Undoubtedly, if we fail to expose them with this treasure, outsiders will take over this also and that day Hindus of India will be the real losers.

      Hinduism offers many tools and components that need to be understood and practised for adopting and adhering to this way of life in its true sense. These include mantras, asanas, rituals, pilgrimages, meditations, symbols, mind and body balance, astrology, astronomy, spiritual science, and the most scientific language Sanskrit. It is the way that is ever inclined for absorbing and reinventing new innovations all the time. This attitude of reinvention and smooth adaptation with changing landscape of its surroundings has helped it to survive for over 5000 years of history and kept it relevant at every step. In its long journey, Hinduism has witnessed many other religious and cultural systems that failed to invent and adopt and faced wiping out all together. Being an open-ended theology, any new finding at any stage and in any stream is never at risk of crossing its path. Compare it to some other prophetic monotheism faiths that are time and again confronted with new discoveries challenging their basic assumptions or new social trends standing in their way with mouth wide open.

      Speaking spiritually, as per Hinduism, the whole human life is supposed to be a unique journey where the individual soul remains in search to reach the goal of Self-realisation. And Self-realisation is what leads to realisation of God or, to say in other words, union with the divinity. Hinduism alone offers multiple choices of the tools or aids or inspirations that may be required by the soul which is aspiring for that union with the divine. Hinduism provides that the karmas one accumulates with each of its thoughts and actions determine the time taken or lives required for such Self-realisation. The array of choices on offer for the spiritual journey is observed to be the most attractive proposition influencing most new converts from the western world, who take up Hinduism on their own accord. Unlike the religions of book, there is no one in Hinduism who is there to encourage or cajole or initiate any one for adapting to it. On the contrary, many Hindus still suffer from trust deficit with non-Hindus and during their interactions with outsiders, Hindus most observant reaction is a very defensive approach, as they generally fear attack from Non-Hindus.

      Sanatana Dharma encompasses a rich treasure of literature created over centuries, which is larger than written material available for any other scientific stream until today. This speaks volumes of contributions made by learned Rishis, Munis, Yogis, Philosophers, Scholars, Thinkers, and Teachers. The concepts contained all through its great literary heritage have been refined with utmost collective wisdom of these great souls. Against this, other religions came up with collection of single Saint of their beliefs with the writings responding to prevailing conditions of that very specific time and place of history. Certainly, the legacies of Hindu scriptures do not deserve to be downgraded to get compared with others. While Sanatana Dharma constantly talks of inclusivity and acceptance for all, other religions focus on rejections. Such rejections are also not based on logics or philosophies but simply because their Book said so. Hinduism encourages each person to constantly remain in search of Truth by knowledge or actions or devotion or Yoga but other religions simply tell the individual to follow what is told.

      Similarly, Sanatana Dharma recognises that besides many active organs, the human body is blessed with five distinct sense cognitive organs and a rational mind. Besides mind, it recognizes presence of a higher intuitive power called, Buddhi which needs to be accessed and applied along with mind, to search the Truth. This accessing of Buddhi using mind and body as tools is advised to be undertaken only in deep silence of meditation. Any person with sustained practice of meditation can access that and once accessed, this experience will provide a direct perception of ultimate Truth. Also that, every person has to find his own Truth, as truth found by some one else is not capable of helping you to reach your truth. Obviously, reaching to such truth depends on seeker's own capacity capability; determination, and perseverance.

      So the onus of leading his journey on the road to pursue his truth is centered in driver's own hand and while there are milestones and directions available for travelling all through the road, the reaching to destination will firmly remain with the endeavours of the seeker himself. Contrary to this, other popular religions make the whole process very simple and provide that any one can follow the truth by simply accepting teachings of the Prophet or seeking pardon for the sins committed. People having mind of their own can draw their conclusions about which systems looks more logical and likely to meet their aspirations i.e. by exploring your own or simply by following others.

      Sanatana Dharma fundamentally believes in unity among all religious thoughts. People knowing about peaceful co-existence among Buddhism, jainism and Hinduism in BC centuries can well appreciate this aspect. These home grown systems, which were always in competition to each other, have remained in active communication and continuously borrowed from each other and lend to each other with out any problem whatsoever. These are known to respect each other. It was common in those days for members in a single family to get influenced by one of these thoughts and individual members were practising these alternate systems under the same roof without any problem. Can one imagine that kind of inclusiveness in other major religions of today? Can one imagine the fate of marital bliss of an average family; just for general understanding, if a middle-aged husband is practitioner of Islam and his wife wishes to converts to Christianity and his adolescent son comes home and declares at the dining table that he is influenced by Hinduism and wishes to go to temple for puja? But among Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, this is precisely the way it was happening.