SANATANA DHARMA
Its Concept and Applicability
R. DAS
The term “Ideology”, as Fowler’s dictionary
indicates, is a natural result of the decline of religious faith in this modern
age. We hesitate to accept anything that has an association with religion,
faith or creed; hence our preference to the politico-social systems, like
socialism, communism or fascism which excite in us a quasi-religious enthusiasm
or suggest striving for a secular or humanistic ideal. Another reason for
aversion to religion-based ideologies or faiths is the historical record
showing a constant exploitation, military aggression, group hatred and
rivalries in the name of religion, causing endless misery to the common man.
Each faith has its own creed, dogma, mythology and rituals which are different
and sometimes diametrically opposite to those of other faiths. Having no common
ground or unity underlying these diversified faiths, the followers extol their
own and remain alienated with others. Very often they
try to impose their ideologies on others resulting in friction, proselytization, strife, battle and war. These conflicts or
“battle for ideologies” on the religious field become detestable to the modern
mind.
But Hinduism, or more properly the Sanatana Dharma, developed altogether a different ideology
based on universal truths arisen from the depth of consciousness of the Rishis of old. Knowledge can be acquired in three ways:
one, by direct perception through senses; two, by intellectual faculty or
reasoning: and three, through intuition or spiritual revelation which is
considered as the highest type of knowledge. The Sanatana
Dharma has emerged out of this spiritual revelations
of the Rishis. It rests on certain eternal truths or
principles and is not built upon historical characters unlike Christianity,
Mohammedanism or other faiths. The Vedas containing eternal truths of the Rishis, are often called Apaurusheya,
The fundamental universal principles of Sanatana
Dharma are:
(i)
All
beings are born of Brahman, after being born, live in Brahman and
finally enter into Brahman after dissolution. (Brahman is the Absolute
or the supreme Reality.) (Taittiriya
Upanishad 3/1)
(ii)
Existence
is one; but sages call it by different names. (Rigveda).
(iii)
Verily
all are Brahman. (Chandogya Upanishad 3/14/1)
From these principles, it follows that man’s real nature is divine and he is
continuously struggling, consciously or unconsciously, to attain the supreme
goal of life which is attainment of Brahman or as vedanta refers as Moksha
or liberation –liberation from the bonds of imperfection, death and misery.
And what becomes of the man who attains liberation? He lives a life of bliss
infinite. He enjoys the bliss with God. It also follows that the great concept
of one existence or oneness creates a feeling of unity in all human beings and
in all forms of life; hence the need for reverence to them all. This is called lote which is an intense feeling of unity with all. This love can be cultivated by purifying the mind
which is generally polluted by desire, attachment and frustration.
These concepts led to the conviction that
spiritual values are the highest value in life. There are other values as well,
like the aspiration for wealth, power, and material property (Artha and Kaama). But
these are never given the primary position among human aspirations, because
these are considered as means to attain the highest goal of life, namely Moksha. The Hindu culture and civilization
rest upon this spiritual value since the Vedic time. Hindu art, literature,
philosophy and education have expressed this great value.
The Smritis, Puranas, Epics and other Hindu scriptures have also
advocated this view. The Hindus flourished when they gave expression to this
spiritual value in their lives and activity; they degenerated when they failed
to give its expression. In short, Hinduism is Moksha-oriented.
Swami Vivekananda has truly said, “For good or for evil, our vitality is
concentrated in our religion. You cannot change it, you cannot destroy it and
put in its place another...This is the line of life, this is the line of
growth, and this is the line of well-being in
The Hindus have no ethics in the Western sense
of the term; they have developed dharma – a way of life, a way of truth.
In fact, Hindu ethics of dharma, is essentially a discipline of life
which leads one to liberation. The details of right conduct prescribed therein,
therefore, emphasize the transformation of the whole being into a Divine one or
a Jivanmukta purusha.
Two paths have been prescribed for life’s journey. One, the path of
renunciation (Nivritti Marga)
and the other, the path of active participation in worldly affairs (Pavritti Marga) First is the
direct route to the goal of life and is extremely difficult. It is therefore
meant for the chosen few. The other path is meant for the common man and is
long; that is, it takes its course through the fulfilment
of desires and material aspirations. While doing work one has to bear in mind
that material aspirations are not ends but only the means to the ultimate goal.
In the context of this path, the Hindus prescribed the scheme of social organisation known as Varnashrama
dharma.
Hinduism holds that the spiritual evolution
of man is a continuous process which goes on from birth to birth. Death is not
the final end. He takes up another birth to proceed in spiritual evolution,
which is delayed if his ideal is hedonistic and is quickened if he performs
good deeds and undergoes spiritual discipline. Clean and moral life is
therefore encouraged in Hinduism. This concept is at the root of the Hindu
ethics and culture.
The Sanatana Dharma
has no conflict with other religions; it has no “battle for ideologies” with
other faith’s. India, the land of dharma, never preached her thoughts with gun and sword. She never waged war on her neighbouring
countries on matters religious nor she conquered any territory on the pretext
of religion. She never said: “My God is true and yours is not; let us have a
good fight over it.” She knew no proselytization. On
the other hand, she exhibited a spirit of catholicity throughout her history.
She gave shelter to the Farsi refugees who fled a few centuries back from their
homeland following political trouble. Today their descendants are known as Parsis. They follow Zoroastrian faith. St. Thomas, one of
the apostles of Christ, came to India to preach his Master’s gospel. India
accommodated him with love and care and helped build a church in South India
which is still functioning. She had been preaching her philosophy, art and
literature for the good of mankind. Her principle had all along been to “do
good and be good.” Her influence in the world of thought was sweet and
graceful. “Slow and silent, as the gentle dew that falls in the morning, unseen
and unheard, yet producing a most tremendous result, has been the work
of the calm, patient, all-suffering spiritual race upon the world of thought”
said Swami Vivekananda.
Spiritual principles of Sanatana
Dharma were given practical shape
in the form of Varnashrama Dharma which
provided a wonderful success in the scheme of social organisation.
The whole society, adopted a positive attitude to life. We read from the Isha Upanishad (Verse 2) that one should
desire to live for one hundred years performing one’s duties. The marriage vow given in the Rigveda runs as: “I take your hand in mine for a happy future that you may
reach old age with me as your husband.”
One of the Vedic prayers says: “Thou who art
Power, fill me with power; Thou who art Valour infuse
valour into me; Thou who art Strength, give me
strength. Thou who art the Vital Essence, endow me with vitality. Wrath against
wrong art Thou, instil that wrath into me. Thou art
Fortitude, fill me with fortitude.” (Shukla
Yajurveda Ch. xix/9) We read in the Chandogya Upanishad (V/ix/5) that King Asvapati Kaikeya declared that in
his kingdom there were no thief, no miser, no drunkard, no man without sacrificial
fire, no ignorant person, no adulterer, much less an adulteress. The picture of
Ramarajya, as described in the Ramayana and
the great advice, both spiritual and secular, given by Vishwadeva,
on his death-bed to Yudhishthira, as found in the Mahabharata shows a high moral tone of
society in the epic age. Dharma established in the reign of King Ashoka * and King Harshavardhana
in the historical period show how the Hindu society flourished in the human as
well as in the social welfare activities.
We also read in history the record left after
a wide travel in India, by the Chinese traveller Fa Hien and Hiuen
Tsang. “About one hundred and fifty years before Shankara,
the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsang came to India and he
was struck by the intellectual curiosity of the people of this country, their
eagerness for knowledge, readiness to accept new ideas and interest in
education. Himself a great scholar, he came here to learn to slake his thirst
for intellectual and spiritual knowledge” writes Swami Ranganathananda
in his book: Eternal Values for a Changing Society. (Page 209)
Downfall came to the Hindu society when India
lost her freedom to the Muslims in the eleventh century. In the absence of political freedom, Raja dharma which was a vital unifying and constructive force in society ceased to
function. The Mahabharata says that
without Raja dharma the values of the three Vedas are lost and all other
dharmas existing in a society become
extinct. The Muslim rulers with their religion which had an alien concept and
culture, disturbed the Hindu culture and tried to destroy it ruthlessly. The Britishers then came not only with their military strength
for economic exploitation, but also with a band of Christian missionaries to profetylise the Hindus by force, fraud and temptation. They
also attempted to de-Hinduise the Hindus through
English educational system. On account of its strong vitality Hinduism did not
disintegrate totally, but it lost considerably its vigour
and dynamism. It, however, did not forget completely to foster the ethical and
the spiritual values in its society.
For more than a century, India is passing
through a spiritual renaissance which began from Raja Ram Mohan Roy. The other
leaders of thought in this period were Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose. Their contribution for the revival of the Sanatana Dharma and regeneration of India is immense. Sri
Ramakrishna was the “living embodiment of the Sanatana
Dharma” and he infused in his life “the universil
spirit and character of this Dharma so long cast into oblivion by the process
of time.” And Swami Vivekananda, his chief disciple, broadcast the eternal
principles of this Sanatana Dharma to make it
practical in daily life of everybody. (He, however, preferred to use the word
“Vedanta” in place of the word “Sanatana Dharma”.) He
wanted that its main principles namely oneness of existence, divinity of man
and god-realization - the aim of human life, already mentioned minus its
theoretical rituals should be given a practical shape and practised
on the national level. He said:
“The Abstract Advaita (the non-duality, the Oneness must become living and poetic in everyday
life; out of bewildering Yogism must come the most scientific and practical
psychology and all must be put in a form so that a child can grasp it.” “All
ratiocinations of logic, all these bundles of metaphyics,
all these theologies and ceremonies may have been good in their own time, but
let us try to make things simpler and bring about the golden days when every
man will be worshipped and the reality in every man will be the object of
worship.”
During the long period of the political
subjugation, India lost much of her treasure of the Vurnashrama
system, which raised her to the highest pinnacle in the past, on account of
the intrusion of the aggressive foreign culture. During the British rule, she
relinquished even her age-old spiritual values of life and came to a sad state
of degradation. Now India is politically free. There is no foreign power to
interfere in her development of spiritual culture. A time has come when she
should restore her lost values and resume her march with a greater zeal and
enthusiasm to take her true rank in the hierarchy of nations, by applying the
great principles of the Sanatana Dharma in the modern
context.
* Ashoka later on embraced Buddhism. The Buddha retained the subjective
spirit of the Hindu ethics. The life of righteousness was the key to the Buddhistic ethics.