Sanatana Dharma in Simple Terms – 1

This series of articles that I have named ‘Hinduism/Sanatana Dharma in simple terms’ is an attempt to approach Hinduism from different angles and give a ‘big picture’ idea of what Hinduism is about – its origin, its fundamental scriptures, its main tenets and so on -, in a simple manner, for all persons – Hindus and non-Hindus. I will keep the subject of my initial articles at a level that glides over the various aspects, rather than going deep into any single concept. I will also touch upon the practical relevance of what we are learning. At a later stage, we can, if there is enough interest from the readers, go deeper into certain ideas and see their richness and profundity. I say ‘if enough interest’ because I would like this series to be a two-way discussion. The site managers are making it accessible in such a way that the reader can react and ask questions. Thus we will be able to take into account readers’ requests to the extent that they fit in with the general theme. Please leave comments and questions, they will be very useful for me in making my presentation as readable and as interesting as possible for you.

Who is Sanatana Dharma in simple terms addressed to?

Basically anyone. But, in particular, to people who have had exposure to bits and pieces of this vast ‘religion’ and philosophy but are unable to do a proper synthesis, people who have no exposure and are wondering where to start, or people who are just curious to learn a bit about this religion as it is one of the major religions of this world while being one of the most ancient ones and yet not very well understood by large sections of the world population. Let me add that I am writing these articles with a special thought on youngsters who are genuinely interested.

Now, what is going to be the format of this series of articles on Sanatana Dharma?

I am going to take one topic at a time and give a few explanations keeping them simple but at the same time covering the core ideas. At the end, I will select some keywords from my text for the reader to try to explain them in their own words to review their understanding. Finally, I may give some questions for stimulating some further thoughts on what is being said and for leading to future articles. Short answers to the questions posed, if any, will be given in the following article. However, you will see that there may not always be a single answer to all questions. Why? Because Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma is all about every individual finding the right path for themselves using the correct background knowledge on how to seek the Truth. Sanatana Dharma provides one with the methodology to seek and attain the Ultimate oneself.

An important note: I have combined information from various sources, a lot of them being oral discussions with scholars, starting with my parents, in particular my father Shri G. Varadharajan, who was well-versed in Hindu philosophy. Some (other) conversations have even provided me with constructive criticisms which have motivated me to seek further knowledge and get more clarity in my understanding. I consider it my privilege to have been able to discuss freely with many knowledgeable well-wishers. I have also incorporated ideas from many books as well as online classes and discourses. It will take too long to make a list of all sources, but I would like to do it at some point and add it to my text[2]. However, my writing is based on my own grasping of the meaning and my own synthesis of the contents of all these sources. I take full responsibility for any error. 

Introduction:

Shall we start from the beginning? Then, let us ask, what is religion? And what is philosophy? I ask the two questions together as they are intertwined with each other.

Before answering these questions, let me clarify that I give pragmatic answers to the questions I pose. The answers may not be strict definitions given in any field of study, but the idea is to give an answer that is correct and that speaks to everyone.

What is philosophy? Philosophy is the quest for the truth regarding the nature of Reality and how to acquire knowledge about Reality: what is the nature of the universe, what is our nature, is there a Supreme Being, if yes, what is Its nature, what are Its qualities, what is our relationship with It, what is the ultimate aim of our existence, and so on.

As for religion, I would say religion is a way of life based on certain principles. Where do these principles come from? From the answers to the above (philosophical) questions, we derive answers as to how we should lead our lives, and that forms the practice of a religion.

Why do we need a religion? Like we need food for the body, arts and science for the mind/intellect, we need spiritual experiences for the soul or atma.

Now, many of you will have an immediate question. We know we have a body; we can also say we know we have a ‘mind’ because we ‘think’ (if we say that the thinking capability is what we call the functioning of the mind). But how do we know we have an atma? Well, this will be elaborated in the next article in the context of Hindu philosophy. For the moment, let us assume we have an atma.

Another point to note: I will use the original terms of Sanatana Dharma (like atma) as much as possible, and not their translations (like soul), as the translations may often be misleading in understanding the concept. The translated terms may denote a different concept for people coming from other backgrounds and therefore may be confused with those other concepts. Of course, the original terms will be explained whenever necessary.

So, let us take the concept of Reality for this article. How do we grasp the Reality?

How do we acquire knowledge about Reality?

According to Sanatana Dharma, there are 3 ways of acquiring knowledge about Reality. In other words, 3 sources of knowledge – they are called pramaanaas:

1. Pratyaksham (perception): we ‘observe’ (directly through our senses or indirectly through instruments e.g. satellite images) the world around us and gain knowledge about it. Science comes under this category. When I say science, it is not just the hard sciences but also includes social sciences and humanities, which observe human behaviour.
2. Anumaanam (inference): we infer from our observations and draw conclusions about reality. Science is here too, in the form of logic, inferential methods and data analysis[3].
3. Shabdam (words, oral transmission): These are words of a person who has experienced reality (mostly a deeper unmanifest reality that cannot be known from the previous two sources) and who says things as they are. That is, words of an aapta person – a trustworthy person without any selfish motive. The last criterion is very important here. Who is an aapta? As stated above, it is one who says things as they are, but also one who does not seek name, fame, money, power or any return for oneself now or later, from sharing their knowledge with others. Let us dwell a bit more on this pramaanam.

Can we think of any example for an aapta? A clear example is the Supreme Being (Paramatma)! Why? Because It has everything and hence does not seek anything! Now, one can ask ‘how do we know there is a Supreme Being’. We will deal with this too in the next article. For now, if we accept that there is One, then Its words are always true, because we will see later that one of the qualities of the Supreme Being is that Its will is always instantaneously satisfied, and hence It does not desire anything.   Other examples are the Rishis and Rishikas who “experienced” the Ultimate Reality (Brahman or Paramatma) through dhyaanam (rigorous meditation) and shared their experiences with others. Are/Were they trustworthy? In fact, they only ‘taught’ (or shared their knowledge with) those who came to them. They did not go looking for disciples. Further, they did not claim that they could define Brahman in a precise way nor in its totality. They would give some indications based on their experiences and ask the disciple to keep meditating over them and find out for themselves. Even then, one may ask ‘why should we trust them?’. In fact, there is absolutely no need for any blind trust here. As in all sciences, one can follow their path, repeat their experiment, and experience the same Reality oneself! It is like when a teacher tells you ‘force produces acceleration’ one can either trust the teacher or one can do the experiment oneself!

The collection of the words of rishis and rishikas (shabda), which is essentially the ‘words’ of Paramatma (the Supreme Being, the Ultimate Reality) revealed through them, is what we call the Vedas.

I said we will answer the questions on atma and Paramatma in a future article but let me add a few words for the curious and impatient! The pramaanam for their existence is the third one, that is, the words of rishis and rishi-ka-s who experienced a reality deeper than the material world. These words are found in the Vedas which include the Upanishads. For information, Vedas have two (three) types of texts – Karma kanda (dos and don’ts, actions, rituals), and Brahmakanda (the philosophical part, also called the Upanishads). (There is also the Devata kanda, about various divinities, but we won’t get into it much in our explorations.)

To conclude this article, we have learnt that according to the different accepted ways of knowledge acquisition in Sanatana Dharma, Reality is of a three-fold nature: the insentient matter (prakriti – the ‘universe’), the sentient individual atmas (jivatmas) and the sentient Supreme Being (Paramatma, Brahman). The first type of reality is directly perceivable while the other two are to be realised through a proper deeper search. Further insights on their nature are left open at this stage, especially on how all three can be considered as One entity.

Let us add that Science only accepts the first category of reality so far, although discussions have already started happening in the scientific world about the existence of consciousness – some serious and some non-serious, and genuine open dialogues between the ‘scientific’ community and the ‘spiritual’ community are timidly in progress[4]. Sanatana Dharma is not opposed to science; on the contrary it integrates all scientific knowledge (we saw that it is part of the first two pramaanams) and goes hand in hand with it, reconciling both. If interested, we can later devote a whole article on science and religion from the Hindu perspective.

One may think all this is so abstract and theoretical, what is the use for us? Well, it has important direct practical implications, but before applying any knowledge in practical terms, one should have a minimum understanding of the basic concepts and ideas. This is where we are now!

We will discuss the practicality in detail soon. However, even at this stage, we can mention some obvious practical consequences. If there are atmas and a Paramatma in addition to the material universe around us, then we would (or should) practically seek to do things that not only satisfy our bodily needs and pleasures, but also our spiritual desires. Now what are our spiritual desires and how should one go about fulfilling them? All this and more later!

Questions:

1. What could an atma desire?
2. Open question: can you think of an ‘aapta’ person in your life? Who is it and why did you choose him/her?

[1] Professor Emeritus of Econometrics and Human Development, University of Geneva, and Founder, Vishishtadvaita Group of Switzerland, a philosophical study group.

[2] A good simple book to start with is Essence of Hinduism by D.S. Sharma, published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, second edition, 1988.

[3] This automatically includes intellectual reasoning although information processing ability is required for knowledge from all threepramaanams. 

[4] Note that the two communities are not mutually exclusive.