REFLECTIONS ON THE SANATAN DHARMA AND THE HINDU POLITY ... 1

REFLECTIONS ON THE SANATAN DHARMA AND THE HINDU POLITY ... 1

We, Hindus, worship the cow and do not eat it. That is why we are the most civilised spiritual race in the world and the least violent. Our problems are internal, limited to within our complex social fabric where indeed we find tensions and inequalities, sometimes even of a vicious kind. But we do not extend them to beyond our boundaries. We do not persecute other peoples, other races, religions, cultures. We are a peace-loving people content to solving the riddle of existence rather than busying ourselves in cutting the throats of people who differ with our religious realisations, beliefs and practices. We have learnt from ancient times the sanctity of life. Hence, we are non-violent. But when infringed upon too much, we also know how to deal a telling blow in self-defence. 

Our dharma differs from the Abrahamic concept of belief-bound faith. It is based on the discoveries of spiritual principles by spiritual scientists or seers called Rishis. These principles are beginningless and endless, subtle as they are and transcending time. Hence, their conglomerate collection called the Vedas are also beginningless and endless and are co-equal with God in some sanctified sense, although not absolutely so, God in the Vedic sense being the highest development of these ideas and the unmanifest-manifest Being.

Our dharma is a tradition in much the manner of the scientific tradition. As such no dogma binds it or its adherents. Investigation into truth in all its relative complexities and its absolute transcendence is its life force and rational scepticism backed up by intuitive insight its method. Where it goes a step further than science is that dharma keeps its doors of investigation open to both the external and the internal world. Modern psychology also does somewhat the same but does not go as deep as the psychology of the Sanatan Dharma. The latter dives deep into the internal world of man and attempts to arrive at the very root of consciousness which is also the root of the Being, dubbed the Brahman in the universal sense and the Atman in the sense individual. Essentially, though, Atman = Brahman, for in transcendence of the mathematical web of Maya there is but the solitary existence, call it by whatever you will.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo: Swami Madhavananda, ninth President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi who had, when apprised of the young Nirmal's (Madhavananda's) academic brilliance and ascetic propensities, famously compared him to a tusker's tusk rimmed in gold. She had in delightful benediction exclaimed, "ও বাবা, এ যে দেখছি হাতির দাঁত সোনা দিয়ে বাঁধানো !"