Sanatana Dharma or Vedic religion, the most ancient religion prior to Hinduism.+

Sanatana Dharma or Vedic religion,   the most ancient religion prior to Hinduism. 

The question arises as to what is Sanatana Dharma? It can safely be said that it is the Vedic religion based on Vedas alone. Hinduism, as we find today, is not the pure Vedic religion it mixers of different ideologies accepted by the people from time to time. Thus, Hinduism is a hotchpotch mixer of many ideologies. 

Hinduism is not a religion it is a way of living of different caste and creeds following their own regional cultures and traditions in different parts of India. All the so-called Hindus are divided by caste, sub-castes, and creeds within Hinduism. Thus, the real Sanatana Dharma or Vedic religion is no longer in existence in its ancient grandeur as it was prior to Buddhism and Jainism. 

As one goes deeper into the annals of the religion one becomes aware of the fact that Sanatana Dharma has no beginning. Nobody can say when it started. It is without a beginning and so without an end. It is eternal and everlasting. That which has a beginning, has also an end, as all beginnings have an end also.

Sanatana Dharma has no founder. All religions are known by their founders or prophets but this is not the case with Sanatana Dharma. It neither has any prophet to begin it nor any book or authorized scripture told by the prophet who got a revelation.

If the Santana Dharma has no founder but all so-called Hindu religions are known by their founders or sages, therefore, Hinduism cannot be the ancient Vedic or Sanatana Dharma. Thus, it proves that the religions founded by the Sages after the 8th century onwards are not the ancient Sanatana Dharma or Vedic religion. 

As one peep into the annals of the history of all religions, one becomes aware of the fact that the religions with scripters have got the largest number of followers and those without scriptures are rare and scarce. In both these classes of religions, one finds that the truth is the result of the experience of a particular person ~ Jesus, Prophet Mohammed or Bhagvan Buddha and Sage Sankara, Guru Nanak, Mahavira. All of them experienced the truth and that they preached. All religions are built upon the direct experience of this experience. But there is a difference. 

Others have the founders of this experience known as the first founder of the religion and after their name, the religion is known. The other difference is that they now claim that the experience, the prophets had, is now no longer possible. So, one has to rely on "Belief”. 

The experience of the scientists says that if one experience is possible, it will be repeated eternally. This is the Law of Nature. What once takes place, takes place often and always.

As one goes deeper into the annals of religious history, he becomes aware of the fact that Sanatana Dharma differs from other religions on this point. Sanatana Dharma is not based on the spiritual experience of any single individual or any such revelation. It is based on the realization, intuition, and experience of a number of Seers, Sages, and mystics who realized the Infinite and were illuminated. It does not owe its origin to any one person or prophet nor does it adhere to any papal authority or dogma.

It does not build around one man as its center though it is not opposed to philosophies built around personalities and prophets. It believes in scientific precision and experiments to arrive at truth anytime and many times, so it believes in the free expression of thoughts and inquiry into the fundamentals even. It is, therefore, a tolerant religion, granting freedom of Enquiry and Expression, seeking evidence.

Looking into these entire facts one can conclude that the Sanatana Dharma is an eternal and everlasting humanitarian religion of all mankind. It is not limited to the teaching of any particular people or class of people or any form of worship. It is a comprehensive way, a law of Being ever praying to be with the Absolute.

In this respect, the present Hinduism with its diverse castes and creeds, dogmas, rituals, beliefs, and worships are not purely of Vedic Religion but they are a hotchpotch of ideologies adopted from other ideologies and seers experiences. 

As one goes in deeper in annals of history he finds the fact that the Sanskrit language is older than Hebrew and Latin. One also finds the oldest spiritual writing known to mankind in the Vedas about 6000 BC, orally transmitted for most of history and written down in Sanskrit. It makes them the world’s longest and most ancient revealed scripture of Sanatana Dharma. 

Vedas are concerned with wisdom; what is life about; what does death means, what the human being is, what is the nature of the Absolute that sustains us, and the cosmos, etc….
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Sanatana Dharma believes that there is nothing that is not God. The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all. God permeates everything and nothing permeates Him. 

The famous peace invocation of Isa Upanishad says: ~ 

Om Purna- madah, purna-midam purnat-purnam-udacyate Purnaysa purna-madaya purna-meva-vasisyate.

This means ~ All this is full/ from fullness, fullness comes when fullness is taken from fullness/ fullness still remains.

This belief is all-comprehensive and all-absorbing. There is nothing that is not God. This truth has been told by the seers. This is the only truth but is described by the people differently. 

The message of Sanatana Dharma goes that Akem Satya; Vipraha vividha Vadanti i.e. Truth is one, but the people describe it in different ways. Those on the journey to Eternity may differ but once reached there, all the differences sink into oneness. 

The whole of humanity has to arrive at this eternal truth one day. 

Looking at all these above aspects on can conclude the present Hinduism is modified to suit the mass mindset by the sages by adopting the ideology from other ideologies in the past is nothing to do with the pure Vedic religion or Sanatana Dharma.

Sanatana Dharma aims at making the whole world full of Aryas. It is not confined to the need for Self-salvation alone. It has a missionary message too. It says, ’Kranvanto Viswam Aryam’ lets the people of the world be made Arya i.e. gentle, righteous, and religious-minded. The central point of Isa Upanishad is -- Renounce and enjoy. This has to be our aim in life.

Sanatana Dharma is a cosmopolitan religion. It wishes the happiness of the world. Man is essentially divine. There is divinity in every man. He has to realize it. Then alone the world can become a place to live in. Santana Dharma says that :

Sarve Bhavanti Sukhinah/ Sarve santu Niramayah Sarve Bhadrani Pashyanti, Ma Kashchid Dukh Bhag Bhaveta.

It means: - Let everyone without distinction be happy. Let everyone be without any ailment. Let everyone look like Arya, noble and righteous. Let there be no one to have any share of sorrow or grief. This is the philosophy of Santana Dharma ~ a religion of all religions and all mankind.

Sanatana Dharma stresses upon action. It believes in the theory of Karma. The Upanishad says, ’you are what your driving desire is, as your desire is, so is your will, as your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.’ Thus, we create our own destiny through thought and action. So the message goes that there is no joy in the finite, there is joy only in the Infinite. Nothing can satisfy us but the reunion with our real Self which in fact is the attainment of Sat-Chit-Ananda. Self-realization is in becoming immortal. It does not mean an everlasting life, but it stands for a state that is beyond death and life alike.

Sanatana Dharma believes in the immortality of the soul. It inhabits one body after another according to Karma in the previous life, during its eternal journey to the Absolute until it is one with God. This is called belief in Reincarnation. It is not a fact that the individual dies with the death of the visible body. At death, the soul leaves the physical body and does not die. It gets into a subtle body called Astral on a non-physical dimension. The forces which brought the body and personality into existence continue shaping its destiny after death and would do so till unison with the Absolute when one becomes free from the cycle of birth and death.

When Yajurveda says: ~

Translation 1.

They enter darkness, those who worship natural things (for example air, water, sun, moon, animals, fire, stone, etc).

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc.) (Yajurved 40:9)

Translation 2.

"Deep into the shade of blinding gloom fall asambhuti's worshippers. They sink to darkness deeper yet who on sambhuti is intent." (Yajurveda Samhita by Ralph T. H. Giffith pg 538)

Translation 3.

"They are enveloped in darkness, in other words, are steeped in ignorance and sunk in the greatest depths of misery who worship the uncreated, eternal prakrti -- the material cause of the world -- in place of the All-pervading God, But those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time. (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

So, Yajur Veda indicates that: ~ 

They sink deeper into darkness those who worship Sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurveda 40:9)

Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)

When the religion of the Veda knows no idols then why so many gods and goddesses with different forms and names are being propagated as Vedic gods. Why these conceptual gods are introduced when the Vedic concept of God is free from form and attributes. 

Who introduced the concept of God with attributes and attributeless gods, when Yajur Veda says: ~ Those who worship visible things, born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like), in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness. Therefore, all these add-ons prove that the form and attribute-based concepts are introduced by some sages of the past with a new belief system and code of conduct in the name of Vedas. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar