Sanatan Dharm
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Contents |
The concept
As in the Gita
Oct 11, 2023: The Times of India
Sanatan Dharma is in the news. According to the Bhagwad Gita, the pre-eminent, holy text of Sanatan Dharma, that which elevates us, helps us reach the goal of life, attain true knowledge and liberation is dharma, righteousness; that which drags us into worldliness, makes us irreligious is adharma, unrighteousness.
The Gita teaches that dharma is not just a set of rules and rituals but a profound inner wisdom, ethical and moral principles that guide us in fulfilling our duties, living a righteous life, and ultimately, attaining spiritual realisation.
One of the key aspects of dharma is performing our duties with righteousness, to the best of our abilities, without being attached to, or concerned about results. The Gita also teaches that controlling our mind and senses is essential for understanding and following dharma. Disciplining the mind helps us make wise choices and by following dharma, the mind and heart are purified, we progress on the spiritual path and get fulfilment in life.
Dharma is the path to lasting peace and happiness. The second chapter of the Gita tells us that “the self-controlled man moving amongst objects with the senses under restraint and free from attraction and repulsion, attains real peace.” It further says, “To the un-meditative, there can be no peace; and to the man who has no peace, how can there be happiness?”
The Gita makes clear the connection between ethics and spirituality, between a life of virtue and liberation, underlining the universal principles of dharma that apply to everyone – truthfulness, non-violence, compassion, and integrity. These virtues are the mark of people who are endowed with and live by divine qualities, which help them justify their human existence and move towards liberation.
The Gita describes peacefulness, compassion, modesty, and absence of hatred as qualities of a person having divine qualities. On the other hand, hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, harshness, and anger belong to those of a demoniacal nature and character.
Sanatan, which means eternal, is an adjective that denotes the universal and everlasting nature of values that represent dharma. With the passage of time, values may get eroded, and when this erosion reaches acritical point, God Himself rejuvenates dharma. “Whenever there is a decline of righteousness and rise of unrighteousness, then O Arjun, I manifest Myself. For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of righteousness…,” Krishn says in the Gita.
He revives dharma by reminding us of our innate virtues, pointing out how, by forgetting the fact that we are souls, and that goodness is our original nature, we have drifted into vices and have ended up being weak and full of sorrow.
He teaches us to connect with Him by remembering Him and by contemplating His virtues and powers regularly. When we remind ourselves again and again that we souls are children of the Supreme Soul and His attributes belong to us as well, and that we are basically strong and virtuous, we begin to become like that.
This is how souls are purified and empowered, whereby true dharma of all beings is restored in the world. In essence, righteous conduct and virtuous living are the best means of preserving Sanatan Dharma.
The Nuances
Kishore Asthana, Navigating The Nuances Of Sanatana Dharma, November 16, 2018: The Times of India
Imagine a globe. At the North Pole is a magic gateway, leading to the Self. To reach this is the objective of all sincere travellers on the Path. But, the travellers are at different places on the globe, some even at the South Pole; the paths are confusing and full of pitfalls and most travellers are a gullible lot, willing to believe everything they are told. Though well-tried maps are available, most lack the wisdom to understand these.
To make matters worse, there are highwaymen in disguise on the path who want to profit from exploiting the ‘need’ of these travellers. Most travellers don’t know what they seek – they just have an idea of a fabled land of bliss, which, if they could only reach, would remove all their earthly worries.
Keep that magic gateway in the North Pole in mind. Imagine a circle around it, somewhat like our Arctic Circle. Let’s call this the magic circle. The few travellers here are so near the gateway that it just pulls them in. Those outside this circle, but within sight of it have almost arrived and can sense the Force. At this level, all scriptural arguments and religious theory give way to personal experience and the question of gods and rituals – even sin – fades away.
Next, we come to another larger circle at a distance from the Magic Circle, in, say, the position of the Tropic of Cancer. At this place we start losing sight of the magic circle. The first set of deities, are placed at this second circle. These are our primary deityimages, each with a symbolic meaning, and are placed there to indicate the existence of the magic gateway to those who are not able to feel it more directly. They are like road signs. Many sacred texts are at this level, containing maps leading to the magic gateway.
As we keep moving further away from the magic circle, we come across more and more ritualistic worship till, at levels below the equator, there are so many practices, so diverse, that it is difficult to divine what they symbolise or where they are guiding us. Popular religion is at this level, with its folk tales, gods and goddesses, rituals and myriad superstitions. Here, instead of proceeding towards where these images point, people start going round and round the road signs themselves. We can expect to find the vast majority of followers here.
The demarcation between these levels is not a sharp one. Each tends to fade out into the next.
Dharmic spiritual texts, the maps of the quest, are also distributed all over the spiritual globe. Generally, the entire text is not at any one level. For example, while most parts of the Upanishads are at the upper-most level some are also found at the middle level.
Many scriptures are written in symbolic form. The knowers see through the tales and understand the underlying truth. Others just see an epic in its literal form and take it at face value. As such, the same scripture can be considered to be at different levels depending upon the perspective of the beholder.
Yes, there is much more to the Dharma than meets the eye. As we travel farther on the Path, we like to stay more in one place physically and the more we know, the less we want to speak.
Tamil Nadu
Sanatan Dharm and Tamil identity are twined at the core
Sep 29, 2023: The Times of India
The most actively suppressed truth in the debate on Sanatan Dharma is that it is the very soul of the ancient Tamil people. How has this suppression happened?The anti-SD rhetoric rooted in the anti-Brahmin politics of Tamil Nadu in the last century has systematically concealed the umbilical cord between SD and Tamil people. This politics began with the Justice Party that was promoted by the British as part of their divide and rule policy.
Founded in 1916, with anti-Brahminism as its core, the party rose to power in 1920, then collapsed in the late 1930s, with the rise of the nationalist Congress. But the seeds of anti-Brahminism sown by it among the castes next to Brahmins in the Hindu hierarchy, continued to provide the emotional and intellectual leadership for the rising anti-Brahmin socio-politics. The final outcome of this phase was the Dravidar Kazhagam formed by EV Ramaswami Naicker (EVR) in 1946, adding anti-nationalism to anti-Brahminism.
The socio-political Dravidar Kazhagam mutated into a fully political DMK in 1949. While the electoral participation of DMK eroded the anti-national thrust, anti-Brahminism remained its DNA. That is what repeatedly manifests in its anti-Hindu, anti-SD rhetoric. But DMK has an embarrassing truth to hide, which is that Tamil culture is inseparable from SD. The person who discovered this disturbing truth first and had the courage to speak it out was none other than EVR, DMK’s ideological mentor. DMK glorifies Tamil Nadu as “Periyar Mann” (EVR’s soil). EVR flayed Tamil language, literature and people as barbaric, and Tamil scholars as worthless. He shredded the earliest Tamil literature Tolkappiyam – without which there is no Tamil grammar or norms of social and cultural life for Tamils – as the work of an Aryan stooge. That is, a Brahmin. Why? First, the Tolkappiyam introduction says that its author Tolkappiyar got the text approved by a master of four vedas, Athankottu Aasan (the teacher in Athankottu village). Next, Tolkappiyam defines Tamil society as a four-fold varna hierarchy of Arasar (Kshatriya), Andanar (Brahmin), Vaisiyar (Vaishya) and Velalar (Sudra), while listing the rights, privileges and dress code of each. ‘Marabiyal’ that classifies this four-fold social order, means ‘genetics’. Implication: the four-fold social order is by birth. This explains why EVR trashed Tolkappiyar. EVR also abused the Tirukkural authored by Tiruvalluvar, who is glorified by DMK, as ‘human shit kept in a golden plate’. Because Tiruvallvuar celebrated Brahmins’ kula dharma, their learning and teaching of vedas.
The greatest acharyas of Sanatan Dharma were born in Dravidian land. In the autumn of his life Karunanidhi wrote Ramanuja’s life history, praising him as beyond caste differences
This is not all. An ancient Tamil literature that Stalin’s father Karunanidhi held in high regard was Silapathikaram , authored by a Jain monk. In its climax, its heroine Kannagi tore one of her breasts, generated fire out of it and burnt Madurai city to avenge the unjust capital punishment meted out to her husband by the Pandyan king. Asking whether Kannagi hid phosphorus in her breast to stoke the fire, EVR trashed Silapathikaram too. Because Kannagi ordered the fire to destroy everything other than “Brahmins, Children, Women and Cows”. But Karunanidhi glorified Kannagi by writing her story and turning it into a film. If Varnashrama inheres in SD, it is integral to Tamil culture too. If Manu’s Varnashrama promoted caste, Tolkappiyar did so equally. If vedas are the origin of SD, Tirukkural celebrated vedas. If SD valued Brahmins, Tolkappiyam to Tirukkural to Silapathikaram too valued them! That is why EVR wanted all of them banished.
Tolkappiyam , Tirukkural , Silapathikaram all testified that SD was at the core of Tamil life. Yet, DMK pretends as if SD was imported into Tamil land, when it looks more like it has been exported from Tamil soil. The greatest acharyas of SD – Adi Sankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhwacharya – were born in Dravidian land, the first two on Tamil soil when it included Kerala. Sankara expounded the Advaita that transcended all differences among humans and regarded the entire universe – animate and inanimate – as one and indivisible. When Sankara once asked an outcaste to move away, the latter revealed himself as Lord Shiva, and reminded Sankara of his own Advaita. Sankara then touched the person’s feet and composed his Manisha Panchakam , which says that Brahmins and outcastes are equals. Are the illiterates in DMK unaware of this? Ramanujacharya, who expounded Visishtadvaita, revolted against his own Guru and publicly shared the mantra diksha given to him confidentially, with all castes. He rejected caste distinctions. In the autumn of his life Karunanidhi wrote Ramanuja’s life history, praising him as beyond caste differences, made a film about this and his own KTV telecast it! Are DMK leaders, his own son and grandson, aware of this? The link between Tamil culture and SD is a millennial continuity. The great Tamil Siddha Tirumoolar, whose time period some say even predates Sankara, expounded Advaita by saying that the formless Brahman hid behind the external form. The 19th century saint Vallalar explained Advaita saying that idol worship is the first step to realise the formless Brahman. DMK rejects Advaita but respects both Tirumoolar and Vallalar! As the debate sharpens, owning Tamil culture and rejecting SD will endlessly embarrass DMK. More because ritualistic SD has so deeply penetrated the ruling DMK family that it openly conducts Shatru Samhara Yagnas to overcome political enmities. To close: “Hindu faith is also known as Sanatana Dharma, Vedic faith and Vaidika faith. Sanatana Dharma means eternal and indestructible values. Varnashrama Dharma is based on work division and there is no hierarchy in it.” This is what is said in a Class 12 textbook on Indian Culture, revised and published in 2022 by the present DMK government itself! CM Stalin’s son and his ministers who abuse SD should be given free copies of this school book. The writer is editor of Tamil magazine, Thuglak
