In today’s environment in India where religious and communal disharmony keeps threatening to raise its ugly head, Sanatana Dharma is our perfect panacea for communal harmony, says OSWALD PEREIRA
Our Bharat has a rich philosophical, spiritual and cultural legacy. In ancient times, the people of Bharat were a much more evolved and civilised people than the rest of the world who were living in dark, barbaric conditions, fighting for survival in forests.
India’s vast body of Vedic teachings are amassed under the umbrella term Sanatana Dharma, which literally means eternal religion. Being the oldest religion, Sanatana Dharma can be said to be the parent of all religions. But it’s more like a mother, giving nourishment to other religious beliefs, without impinging on their growth and independence.
Can Sanatana Dharma be called a religion of the Hindus?
Before we answer this question, we should know the origin of the word Hindu. The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu which is the local name for the Indus River that flows through the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent. Sindhu also means sea.
The word Hindu or Indu was used by Greeks to denote the country and people living beyond the Indus river. But the word Hindu was more related to ethnicity than religion. The word Hindu is believed to not appear in the scriptures, such as the Vedas, Upanishads, and the Puranas. However, Hindus in earlier centuries, accepted these scriptures as part of their spiritual and religious beliefs; and so do Hindus in the present day.
Sanatana Dharma talks about the Vedas, the Supreme Being and the way to reach Him. Thus it follows that the Hindus, with their belief in the Vedas, are Sanatanis.
Sanatana Dharma is transcendental, and its adherents believe that the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity is to perform seva or service. A Sanatani practises virtues such as honesty, purity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity and asceticism and his Dharma is to follow universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems.
Sanatana Dharma promotes truth and righteousness. It upholds the sacredness and dignity of all creation, inspiring man to live in harmony with all living beings.
Now comes the most important question? Do those who follow and practise Sanatana Dharma believe in Hinduism? Ideally, a Sanatani shouldn’t be following any ism, including Hinduism, because of its sectarian connotations.
However, this is not an ideal world and, perhaps, to expect a practitioner of Sanatana Dharma to disown Hinduism might be asking for too much. Would one ask a Christian to discard Christianity because of its sectarian connotations?
But herein lies the fault line. Personally, I feel one can be a good Christian, without believing in an organisational religion, Christianity. The true significance of being a Christian is to be all-loving, all-accepting, universal, all-embracing, broad-minded and liberal ― in one simple word, Catholic (not to be read as the religion Roman Catholic).
In like manner, for Sanatana Dharma to be effective and spread love and harmony, it is important for it to be free of the ism in Hinduism. In other words, one can be a good Hindu without necessarily believing in ‘Hinduism’ ― which is a term that, in fact, was coined by western writers and propagated by the colonial powers to divide and rule … Hindus, Muslims and Christians.
In the final analysis, Sanatana Dharma is the mother of all religions, watching over, benignly, other world religions like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and many others. A mother doesn’t discriminate or stifle, but allows all to grow and prosper independently. So Sanatana Dharma should be all-religion-tolerant ― never ever discriminating against or dividing religions.
Most importantly, in today’s environment in India where religious and communal disharmony keeps threatening to raise its ugly head, Sanatana Dharma is our perfect panacea for religious and communal harmony.
Also Read Living In Religious & Communal Harmony (yourspositively.com)
Oswald Pereira, a senior journalist, has also written eight books, including The Newsroom Mafia, Chaddi Buddies, The Krishna-Christ Connexion, How to Create Miracles in Our Daily Life and Crime Patrol: The Most Thrilling Stories. Oswald is a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda, and practises Kriya Yoga.
More Stories by Oswald Pereira
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What else is Dharma but an abiding principle that is not only universal but undebatable and non-controversial. It’s a principle that is “सनातन or eternal”.
The thinking man only acknowledges it by virtue of his awareness but in spite of it Dharma remains in its abiding glory perennially, holding everything together in perfect synergy, in the gamut of the universe.
Blessed are we to be the inheritors of the Rishi-Sanskriti which has realised this eternal truth and passed on to posterity by articulating its glory in the Vedas and Upanishads which declares that everything that one can conceive is nothing but the manifestation of Brahman,
“सर्वं खलविदं ब्रह्म”
And hence, the bold declaration of Only Oneness is the sum substance and essence of Sanatan Dharma, it’s one and only commandment being:
सर्व जन हिताय, सर्व जन सुखाय
Actualising it in thought and action in spite of all the forces to the contrary, is the only way we can be true to the ethics and ethos of Sanatan Dharma. Undeniably, it is a great challenge to live with which requires the highest of democratic spirit and liberalism.
At the heart of Indianness lies this basic sense and hence, even as we have faced so many invasions in history we have survived both way as a matured culture and also as a civilisation. It is only the vested interests who have taken advantage of discord and fomented the fire of destruction.
I personally, very strongly believe that the ethics and ethos of Sanatana Dharma is genetically ingrained in Indianness and by virtue of that, average Indian is an entity of equity and equilibrium.
This makes me believe that however turbulent time may be, this very ethics and ethos of Sanatan Dharma which is a “living faith” settling every discord on the basis of Dharmic principle in perfect precision.
Finally, I would not hesitate to say that Sanatan Dharma is not merely timeless but much ahead of our subjective sense of time too. To understand it and live by the tenet of it we have to collectively evolve to one step ahead of our present state of evolution.
One can only hope and pray. So be it. Amen. तथास्तु 🙏
Baturam Ji, indeed, Sanatana Dharma is much ahead of our subjective sense of time and to live by its tenets, we have to collectively evolve to one step ahead of our present evolution.
Thank you for your excellent value-add, which is as good as a full-fledged article.