THE SANATAN DHARMA AND ITS UNIVERSAL ALL-EMBRACING ARMS ... 1

THE SANATAN DHARMA AND ITS UNIVERSAL ALL-EMBRACING ARMS ... 1

THE THIS SIDE OF THINGS

Exclusive religions with their illiberal thrust on core principles spread fast not because of the truths that they present but because of the very narrowness of their fanatical focus which finds resonance with the material man with his limited understanding of the universe and life, and his easy acquiescence thereof with such fractional representations of the infinite Truth. The substance of those truths is not what gives life and sustenance to these religions but they draw their strength from the essential Truth within the soul of man which these religions, however, massively fail in truth to understand. Hence, their conflicting course in evolving conversion and the concomitant corruption of the concourse they seek to bring unto their fold.

Blindfolded these religions move through the mire of material ignorance which they term spiritual enlightenment of their flock, barring the occasional saint that they throw up from within their polity, not knowing that these great ones have ascended to their illumination not because of the fanatical and erroneous precepts of their parent religions but in spite of them which their inner realisations rejected and induced them to march ahead unto the essential Truth of the inner self. Where these enlightened ones have declared their findings, they have been mercilessly tortured to death or have been otherwise subjugated by force unto silence. Thus, these religions have remained stunted in their stagnation of unique prophetic or messianic utterance, dated and unevolving, and their vast following perennially planted in the nursery of terrestrial life with heavenly hope and hellish fear their guiding code unto submission to the divine order passed unto them.

THE ALTERNATIVE UNDERSTANDING

It was the discovery of the transcendental, immaterial, spiritual oneness of existence, the underlying solidarity of the Being that was the grandest achievement of the sages if ancient India who we honour as Rishis or the seers of Truth, for Truth, indeed, in all its wholeness that they had discovered as the climactic evolution of their spiritual thinking and realisation. Which is why their spiritual way has been called the Sanatan Dharma or the Eternal Religion, the universal set whose subsets are the earlier and latter-day religions of the world with their specific aspects of emphasis.

Hinduism is a latter-day linguistic aberration stemming from geographical connotations and their alien mispronunciation that has stuck by the law of regional association with the religion of the Vedas. As such any resident of India is a Hindu in the geographical sense. Is such a one also a Hindu in the spiritual sense? I say, yes, for Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism, the four religions that have roots outside of India and owe their allegiance to texts other than the Vedas, are essentially fractional representations of the infinite Truth of the Atman/Brahman which form the sum and substance of the Sanatan Dharma. The concept of the Ishta or the Chosen Ideal/Deity solves this paradox as it allows for infinite variations of spiritual conception and practise within the universal ambit of the Infinite Self which in its intrinsic and fundamental impersonal truth provides the phenomenal framework for its myriad manifestation.

Buddhism and Jainism reject the Vedas in the letter but represent its very spirit in an altered attire. Hence, though they are so-called non-Vedic dharma traditions, they are in truth mere children of the Mother Faith that have in their adolescent arrogance rebelled against the Mother. As such these must be considered part and parcel of the Sanatan Dharma as well despite the expected opposition from narrow historians who cannot decipher the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Mother's Language.

Sikhism also cannot be described as non-Vedic and is part and parcel of the Sanatan Dharma.

End of Part 1

To be continued...

Written by

Sugata Bose

16Nilanjana Chakraborty, Sharmistha Chatterjee and 14 others

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