Sanatana Dharma in Modern India

Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism is inarguably the largest ancient religion in the world; perhaps it is the only religion in the world which was not founded by a particular person, currently it is the third largest followed religion after Christianity & Islam.

The meaning of Sanatana Dharma or what we call it today as Hinduism simply means “an eternal way of righteous (Dharmic) living”, so at the outset it is not merely a religion, at its core it is a particular way of living.

In between 7^th-8^th century arab traders started to flock India for trade at the Malabar Coast down the south western India, That is the first time when India felt the presence of Islam. During late 10^th & early 11^th Century Muslim rulers invaded the land across the river Indus (Northern India), they called this land as Al-Hind (Persian term), meaning land of Hindus. The word Hindu is in turn derived from Sanskrit word Sindhu. This land of Hindus later came to be known as Hindustan in late 12^th & early 13^th Century and finally the religion practiced by Hindus came to be known as Hinduism to the world.

Many Hindu spiritual leaders & scholars would refer their religion as Sanatana dharma rather than Hinduism because it rightly describes our religion. I would personally like to call my religion as Sanatana Dharma; I would also request all Hindus to refer their religion as Sanatana Dharma rather than Hinduism.

Why should we call our religion Sanatana Dharma rather than Hinduism?

Well a name is not merely an Identity, there is always a meaning associated with a name, Hinduism simply implies religion of Hindus, well that will not truly convey the essence of our religion does it.

In India we have changed the name of cities citing various reasons, example Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, Calcutta became Kolkatta and Bangalore became Bengaluru, personally I don’t give a damn about changing the name of a city unless there is a logical reasoning behind it, for example change is city’s name might be to restore the historical identity or regional identity of a city, If we can think a lot about name of a city, why can’t we think over the name of a religion which we are following. If it truly defines our Identity then why shouldn’t we embrace our religion by recalling (Not renaming) it as Sanatana Dharma as it used to be thousands of years ago.

But it would be very naive on my part to suggest that by merely recalling our ancient religion as Sanatana dharma, we would be able to solve the problems faced by followers of our Sanatana Dharma. Unless until us i.e. younger generation do not truly understand or at least try to understand our religion, we would not be able to judge the validity of our religious practices & traditions and in turn we would not be able to know how great our religion is.

Unlike other religions, Sanatana Dharma has many complex rituals, practices, code of conduct etc... For those who truly understand the significance & meaning of these practices they will embrace it, for many who don’t understand it they would blindly follow, while few others simply criticize it.

Today Science has shown us that we genetically inherit common traits of our ancestors, forefathers and parents. That is something which takes place genetically for which we don’t have any control over. That means we cannot wish to have a particular trait from our parents or ancestors, simply put that it is beyond our control, but we just don’t inherit the genetic information from our parents or ancestors; we also inherited the information about our religion, tradition, culture which was passed onto us by generation to generation orally (Sruti). This is something of course which we have control over, right?

Well suppose some might ask, “If parents didn’t pass on any information about our religious practices or culture or tradition, what can we do?” Others might say, “My parents have told me about certain religious practices or traditions, but they haven’t told me about its relevance or importance?” Many people who question in above manner shall either follow religious practice blindly or abstain from any religious practice or simply say that these practices are unscientific or irrelevant.

This is the main problem that our Sanatana dharma is facing today. Following a religion or faith blindly without understanding its religious principles, practices, its relevance, and its importance is no better than not following the religion at all. In my view both are same. A level headed person would not out rightly dismisses a religion just because he does not know the importance or relevance of certain religious practices, he shall probe further in pursuit of understanding the religious practices either by reading religious books or by asking learned men. Very few people do this, most of them simply pass the buck & say they don’t have enough time to read books or they are not interested in these stuff or some might even be afraid of asking or cross questioning their parents regarding religious practices, hence some might blindly follow the religion, while others simply denounce it & say it’s a Crap.

In religious matters the Onus lies on our elders, our parents, If a Child Asks his/her parent queries about our religious practices or principles, they should answer the child’s queries with utmost responsibility. If for instance a parent doesn’t know any answer to the child’s question, then they should not yell at the child to keep quite & simply follow religious practice, if parents do that, that’s the biggest disservice that they are doing to their religion. If the child is grown enough, parents should buy them a book which explains the principles, relevance & importance of following our religious practices or they should try to find answer to child’s queries from learned men & then pass the same to their child, according to me that’s biggest service one can do to our Sanatana dharma, i.e. keeping our religion alive.

Many times I have witnessed during debates or interactions, our Sanatana dharma followers (Especially Younger generation) fail to give a substantial & constructive reply to rebut the atheists and other religious followers (Ex: Christians, Muslims etc) who criticize our religious practices, its culture & traditions, they even go to an extent to denounce our religion by not even trying to understand the vast knowledge & scientific validity behind our religious practices. This by no means a victory of other religion & defeat of Sanatana Dharma. But certainly that is an embarrassing scenario. Hence I would urge all Hindus to at least try to gain some basic fundamental knowledge, let’s say like a general knowledge about our Sanatana dharma, so that we can give a befitting reply & defend our religion & its practices during religious hostilities.

In this Article I have listed out few common questions that are raised against Sanatana Dharma by Other religious followers & atheists, I will try to answer these questions to the best of my knowledge in this blog, here are those questions:

1. Why do we Worship Idols? 

2.  What is the idea of god in Sanatana Dharma? Why so many gods in Sanatana Dharma?

3.  Why there are so many rituals in Sanatana Dharma? Why shouldn’t the resource spent on these rituals be used to help poor people or people who are in need?

      4.  Sanatana Dharma is the root cause of caste system which India is facing today?

      5. Why Sanatana Dharma prescribes Vegetarianism?

      6. What Sanatana Dharma says about Other Religions?

      7. Why Hindu Religious Centres such as Temples have become a Commercial centres today?

      8.  Sanatana Dharma was hostile towards Buddhism?

      9. Why so many Mythological Stories in Sanatana Dharma? Are these Stories Mythological or Historical?

     10.  Why Krishna had so many wives, is he a Womaniser?

     11.  Why Rama sent his pregnant wife Sita to forest, does not this indicate that he was not a Purushottama?

    12.  Indians migrated from central asia (Aryan Invasion Theory) hence Vedas are not truly Indigenous to India?

     13.  What is the meaning of Dharma?

     14.  Ramayana & Mahabharata is History or Mythology?

     15.  Why we see Good people suffering while bad people are prospering in this world?

     16.  If God is there why can’t he intervene & kill all bad people, what is he waiting for?

     17.  Who is a Brahmin?

     18.  Manusmriti was bias towards Brahmins & hostile towards Shudras, hence it endorsed untouchability?

     19.  Why Sanatana Dharma is not spreading like Islam or Christianity in the world?

     20.  Why Temples have erotic sculptures on their Walls?

     21.  Why all ancient scriptures in India are written in Sanskrit?

     22.  Should we build Temples to our God?

     23.  Is it true that women have no Equal rights in Sanatana Dharma? 

     24.  What is the Objective of a Hindu in life?

     25.  What is the essence of Gayathri mantra?  

    Before answering these questions, we should ask ourselves, why such questions are being asked. Let us analyse this first.

    

    Such Questions are not new to Sanatana dharma, if we look at the history of Sanatana dharma, we will understand how tolerant our religion has been. During the early days of Buddhism in India, a heterodox hindu system (Nastika) called ‘Carvaka’ (Also known as Lokayata) was emerging as an alternative to pro vedic Astika school of thought. The people who believed in Carvaka philosophy started to denounce Sanatana dharma & its principles. Pro vedic Scholars such as Kumarilla Bhatta, Adi Shankaracharya among others debated Carvaka philosophers & Buddhist Scholars to restore the Sanatana Dharma in this land.  

     

     A religion can only be sustained & practiced if it is supported by people who have vision & power of policy making in their hands, usually in olden days it was Kings, Monarch, and nowadays it’s our Politicians. 

   

   In ancient times when kings used to rule the land, they were supreme authority, the king was not only responsible for socio-economic development of his territory, safety, security & well being of his citizens, but he was also responsible for safeguarding of culture, traditions & religion.

     

     If we look into the history, India has been ruled by many rulers of diverse religion, During the time of Ashoka, Buddhism was thriving in India, because he believed in that religion & supported it, during the rule of moghuls (Muslim rulers) Islam was propagated in India, Speaking about Moghul rule I must say few important things, probably during the moghul rule (Perhaps except during Akbar’s rule) Hinduism witnessed darkest days in India. It’s a historical fact that moghul rulers such as Muhammed Gazni, Muhammad Ghori, Aurangzeb, & Muhammed bin Tughluq were hard core muslim rulers who took part in destroying many Hindu temples & Religious centres. They also involved in forced conversions of non-muslims, infact during Moghul rule, non-muslims had to pay ‘Jizya’ a form of Tax to rulers to practice their religion. What a pity? Hindus in their own land had to pay the tax to practice Sanatana dharma (Hinduism). During British rule, many Christian Missionaries were established in India which propagated Christianity.

   

   Of course I need not mention under whose rule Hinduism or Sanatana dharma prospered, People like Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Sri Krishnadevaraya, Prithviraj Chauhan, Under Cholas, Gangas, Vijayanagara, Kadambas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas etc..Under all these able rulers & empire, Sanatana dharma prospered across the length & breadth of the country.

     

     Muslims ruled India for more than 800 years and Christians ruled for more than 400 years. In spite of this Sanatana dharma is still a majority religion in India, that itself speaks the volume about the how deep rooted Sanatana dharma is in India.  Clearly “you can take away a Hindu from India but one can’t take away Hinduism from India.” 

     

     The reason why I am giving these examples is because, these example indicate the simple fact that usually the head or leaders of the country or state are the one who play a crucial role in propagation & prosperity of a religion, it’s not a rocket science. 

     Today India is a secular country, our constitution guarantees us a fundamental right to practice any religion or any faith that we desire without any discrimination, which is very good, but at times the word secularism is used in wrong way to appease certain section of minority religion, Sri L.K.Advani, one of the tallest leaders of BJP calls this as ‘Minorityism’, in broad sense it can be called as ‘Pseudo Secularism’.

     

      When I say Pseudo Secularism, what exactly do I mean?

      

      Let’s look at an example, suppose a Christian can proudly say he is proud to be a Christian and Islamists can proudly say they are proud to be a Muslim but when a Hindu say he is proud to be a Hindu, So called Liberals, Intellectuals & Secular politicians brand it as communal. Similarly if the question of Ayodhya is raised so called secular people will tell its the development issue which matters & not these religious issues any more, The Question is Who told these secular people that Hidutva & Development cannot go hand to hand together, in fact our ancient India was much more scientifically advanced compared to other countries during those times. Kindly look into this blog of Sri L.K.Advani who clearly explains the Pseudo secularism v/s Secularism in India

      http://www.lkadvani.in/eng/content/view/381/349/

      

     It’s very simple to understand why politicians are doing this; they are doing this for vote bank, nothing else. I think it’s right time that we Hindus should think about this, Hindus have never been hostile to any religion or faith, in fact, we Hindus believe that all road or path leads to god, "Ekam Sat Viprah bahuda vadanti", which means "there is only one truth, wise men interpret it differently". Our Vedas have also proclaimed "Vasudaiva Kutumbakam" which means "World is like One family". But when other religion starts to target Hinduism unduly, that’s when things go wrong.

     It’s high time that we Hindus unite together, not to make India a non secular country but to make India a Strong country, we can do it only when we truly realize how great our religion is, that can happen only if the younger generation realize the importance of our religious principles, practices & its culture and tradition. It’s time that we reinstate the past glory of this great nation. 

      I would try to answer the questions which was listed in this post in my future posts. Watch out for them.