Understanding Sanatana Dharma

Wow!!, look at all the reading Urstruly does about the heritage he has rejected :)

How many Hindus know Islam so well?

Barachota Zindabad too !

barachota #142 vous dit ``cinq milles filles avec les hijabes``!! Je vous donne les tout des hijabes. Et les homme barbu aussi.

(My french isnt all that great either.)

As for India-Pakistan politics, they really are not important. The important thing is that we see all individuals as fellow humans, and place humans above everything else: ideology, religion, nationalism, even laws and rules. The latter are all a means (and, as history as shown, a very poor means), while the end is humanity itself.

Re:urstruly#75

You have raised an interesting question about why political hinduism has shown up recently. If you look at history, India has always been attacked from outside and/or faced migration from other lands. People have come and assimilated, to the point that it is difficult to figure out who were the original inhabitants and who were the newcomers (heck, even Sonia Gandhi has become Indian!!). So getting attacked and invaded was a common occurance. The same is true with muslim invaders who settled in India. The only difference is that they encouraged religious conversion, otherwise they eventually became desis just like the rest of the population. Of course there was a lot of conflict and bloodshed, but eventually muslims became part of the south asian fabric. So much so, that in 1857, hindus actually fought to preserve the Mughal empire against the British. I am sure that if the British had never shown up, we might still have had a Mughal emperor sitting in Delhi, albeit a powerless one like the British monarchy.

That is why I think the two nation theory and the creation of Pakistan was a massive shock to the hindu ethos because for the first time it tried to put forth the notion that hindus and muslims just cannot co-exist and that muslims must negate all aspects of a millenium old synergy. We had accepted that the British were never assimilated and they departed India. But muslims had been around for 1000 years and most of them were local converts anyway. The fact that muslims no longer wanted to live with hindus was a startling revelation when the fact was that a minority of muslims had totally dominated the entire sub-continent for 1000 years. The political hinduism came up as a reaction to this phenonmenon, as hinduism got virtually wiped out of Pakistan. Hindus reallized that if they do not develop a political identity, their way of life would eventually disappear. Instead of assimilating others, they would become extinct. Even then it took some time for this thought process to develop until the emergence of the BJP. This ideology is still alien to most hindus as is evident from the recent elections.

Nazar:

I have wondered why Hinduism has such a long life, and therefore, often wondered how many of the Rituals must have remained unchanged when such Rituals and ``Values`` (I avoided calling them as ``Religious Values`` change and vary from region to region.

There is no binding force of a ``book of religious laws``. There is no finality of human thought or prophet. If anything, Hinduism lacks the definition of God/Allah that Semetic Religons have. In fact, Carl Sagan in his famous TV serial COSMOS had spent about 30 minutes on Hindu`s concept of God, and quoted from Riga Veda that Hindu Thought permits questions like ``whether the man is the best creation of God, or the God is the best imagination of Man``.

My understanding of Hindu philosophy and spiritual values is that it recognizes ``Values`` of various forms of energy, and Relationship of Energy with humans through manifestations in the form of recognizable symbols. In his authoritative book on Hindu Philosophy, India`s 2nd President, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, quotes Manu Smriti, regarded as the basis of caste system, and points to several Sutras in Manu Smriti that societies from time to time have ability to change the their structure, including caste system.

Kabir, during the ``bhakti`` period, in one of his poems, answered that if both Guru and Gobind (= God) appear at the same time, then he would touch the feet of Guru first, because he showed the way to God. This kind of thinking is not possible in Semetic Reglions, but these point to the importance of Guru/teacher, which subsequent and independent reglions, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism have codified.

Such flexibility seem to suggest that Hinduism is more like ``Common Law`` without a written constitution (= book) among religions, and thus has allowed people to select their own way and be guided by their own set of principals. Even have their own prophets and symbols. It also makes me wonder who is a Hindu. I think just about any person, who says ``I am Hindu``.

Although I still wonder why do we need a reglion? The answer I like the most is that there are some events and questions about the world around us that are not answerable within the confines of our knowledge of the known and observed on which science and materialism are based. For those answers we seek answers. In the days of hunters and gatheres, this could have been the knowledge about the observed the Fire, the Air, the Water, and the Earth. In today`s world the questions are not that simple for many, but when someone very dear dies in a family, that family then seeks the comfort in the ``religion``. In the west, the Science and Materialism has provided drugs and psychiatrists to deal with.

Human thoughts always evolve there is finality and there can be no final person, prophet or otherwise, as long as there is life. Religious thoughts play a role in life when the known and the observed science and material fail. The preference of religious thought could be based on religion of choice by the individual or by some one else.

Thanks for a wonderful write-up, Nazar Khan.

Anil

``Dharma is the process for aligning one’s body, mind and soul with the nature in search of the Ultimate Truth or Reality to find salvation in life.``

bombastic words indeed...........``aligning ones body, mind and soul``...FOR WHAT.....Ultimate Truth or Reality?

......behind that `Ultimate Truth or Reality` lies....an Impalpable Unreal LIE....

for men of flesh and bones and hormones.....what good -- if at the end of the Spiritual Rainbow...no 72 virgins....

barachota #142
`` Both people are almost the same.`` ``The best way to stop Hindus from Paki bashing is to make Paki Indians out of them.``

Indians are not the same as Pakistanis. Indians did not become independent for the privilege of having the Paki elite dictate what is good for them. Keep yourselves on your side of the border and content yourselves with pushing Pakistanis around.

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I withdraw unilaterally from these French wars that have erupted all over The Chowk. Vive le Anglophiles, let us continue in English, my head is spinning and besides, how can we take on the vapid English media in French?

tahmed32/140 - sorry about the Aishwarya Rai deal, no bid. All the trumps are with us in India on that.

barachota/142 - I think we need to expand on the Indo-Pak rivalry and get a sense of humour into it. I make fun of one stinky train from Wagah to Lahore and assorted Lahore villa Kuwait types are beating me on the head while saying ``Hai saadaa Lahore``, you get what I mean. This has to stop, agreed.

nazar

I have to laud you for your efforts in this article and your participation in the interacts.

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Therefore, Sanatana Dharma can neither be classified as polytheistic or monotheistic
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I believe there is a word for this.. monism ? as opposed to dualism (and qualified dualism) which also are present in the hindu traditions (besides polytheism which is interpreted as simply being an aid to represent the unrepresentable)

suggested next project: read a few of the popular translations of the bhagavat geeta and see if you can make your summary. there is another text that most hindus have not even heard of and that is called the ashtavakra geeta (unlike the popular bhagavat geeta) and is supposed to have more esoteric teachings (mainly spiritual).

errr i think i do -- which is why i refuted you ralphie boyyyyy

Warpster # 154

Thanks. ``Monism``.

I will read Bhagawat Geeta.

Anil # 151

I think there is a human need for spirituality just as there are other human needs. That is to form a link with nature and it comes out in different forms.

When in difficulty, everyone wants to prey to some one. Just the act of prayer and hope gets half of the anguish removed.

mog #155 Mon Dieu!! et tu, Brutus!! Pourquoi n`est vous continue en Francais? C`est une langue bonne, je croix!! Bouqout charmant!!

And my wife hates it when I switch on the French news (direct from Paris) just to try and build up some language skills (and the english subtitles are great for building vocabulary). And the French are actually really cool people (despite the bad publicity the neo-cons have given them recently). Like the chap sitting next to me on the plane who offered to introduce me to his sister if I got down at Paris airport rather than continuing to Pakistan.

nikki #148 It would be really cool if we did not have any poverty in India or Pakistan or elsewhere. I agree with you that people take poverty for granted in Pakistan (although to be fair the same is true for anywhere else), but at the same time there are lots of public-spirited people in Pakistan (as in other places) who do try to make a difference. I find it incredible, for example, how little is spent on poverty alleviation world-wide - it is to everybody`s advantage to make sure that every single child on earth receives at least 12 years of schooling. And to everybody`s advantage to protect the environment.

An article by a Pakistani muslim about Sanatana Dharma leads to a discussion in french about the exchange of Aishwariya Rai for 5000 cloaked women followed by an allusion to the land where men eat snails.

We live in interesting times.

On a more serious note, I commend the writer for bringing forth something informative about Hinduism. Its a pity that we do not learn a lot about it at school.

# 137 by Sadna
IMO, like interpretations of the afterlife have been the source of excesses in other religions, the forelife has been the source of excesses in Hindu belief systems.

Nice wrap-around.