Sanathana Dharma

The Religion

Sanatana Dharma, "The Law Eternal", is the more appropriate or rather the accurate name for the religion which is now known as "Hinduism". The word Hinduism is not the original name for the religion. It is a name aquired in later historic times, while the religion has been in existence since timeless beginning. This religion has its roots in the "Vedas" which are scriptures of the highest wisdom and which originated with creation itself. It was not a founded religion, it was based on revelations directly from God himself to the seers during their transcendental and intuitive communion with the Divine. It was the Dharma and code of life for men of Bharat or Aryavarta from times immemorial, i.e., from even the pre-historic and most antique ages.

The religion was used to be known as "Vaidika Dharma" or "Vedanta", as it has the Vedas for its authority and source (Vedokhilo Dharma Mulam); it is also called Sanatana Dharma as it delineates and embodies values and doctrines which are of eternal validity. Sanatana Dharma stands for "Rita" - the majesty of moral and spirtual law. It looks upon the whole universe as being under the purview of a moral law and subserving to the supremacy of God, its creator. Times may change, ages may roll by, continents may rise and disappear, but values of life like truth, love, compassion, one's duty to mother, father, preceptor and to fellow beings, and the eternal reality of the spirit and unity of all life, are truths and values that subsist and will subsist for ever. These are the eternal values and truths which are embedded in the Vedas and are embodied in the religion that had evolved out of Vedas. These values being of eternal validity and universality, are the justification for the religion that embody them, for being called as Sanatana Dharma, the eternal Dharma, law/religion.

The word "Hindu" was of a far, far later origin; during the Greek period of history, Greeks and West Asians used the term Indu/Hindu with reference to the people living beyond the banks of the River Indus, and later the name began to be ascribed to the religion of the land also. 'Hindu' thus has only a geographical connotation and derivation; but, nevertheless, it has come to stay.

Hinduism exhorts people to abstain from all violence by thought, word and deed to any being or creature. "Ahimsa Paramo Dharmaha" - "Veneration of all life" (because everything is enveloped by God); "Isavasyamidam Sarvam" - "God inheres in all beings"; these are the basic, primary and fundamental tenets of Hinduism.

To sum up the whole essence of the Hindu religion and philosophy: "Love for all beings and love for God"- this is the essence of Hinduism, and as a matter of fact, it is the essence of all religions too. Anyway Hinduism can be said to be the most primeval and, so to say, as the mother of all religions.