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The
original name of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharm. ‘Sanatan’
means eternal and ‘Dharm’ means those actions, thoughts
and practices that promote physical and mental happiness in
the world and ensure God realization. |
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Sanatan
Dharm eternally exists in God, is revealed by God, describes
the names, forms, virtues and the abodes of God, and reveals
the true path of God realization for the souls of the world. |
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There are
three eternal existences: soul, maya, and God. Souls
are unlimited in number, infinitesimal in size, Divine in quality
but eternally under the bondage of maya. Soul does
not belong to maya or the mayic world. It
has a natural and eternal relationship with God. |
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Maya is
a lifeless power of God having three qualities: sattvic
(pious), rajas (selfish) and tamas (impious)
that represent its existence when it is evolved into the form
of the universe. The universe has two dimensions - material
and celestial. The Divine dimension of God lies beyond the field
of maya. |
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Hinduism
is monotheistic. There is one single God Who represents the
various aspects of His unlimited Blissful charm through many
forms such as Krishn, Vishnu, Shiv and Shakti and the impersonal
aspect. Out of these Krishn is the absolute supreme form of
God which includes all others. God is an eternal, omnipresent,
all-Blissful, all-Gracious, all-kind and all-loving Divine personality. |
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Hinduism
explains that the soul is eternally yearning for perfect, unlimited
and everlasting happiness. But the soul is mistakenly searching
for this happiness in the mayic world where one finds
only transitory pleasures followed by disappointments. |
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The illusion
of finding perfect happiness in the mayic world is
the cause of soul’s reincarnation. The soul, since uncountable
lifetimes, has been taking birth into the 8.4 million species
of life where it undergoes the consequences of actions (karmas).
Perfect happiness is neither a feature of the mind nor a nature
or quality of the mayic world. It can only be attained
by God realization. |
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The human
form of life is the only chance for a soul to attain God realization,
if one understands the disappointing nature of the illusive
attractions and attachments of the world and sincerely proceeds
on the path of God realization by completely trusting in the
causeless kindness of God. |
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The aim
of human life is to attain God realization. The means of God
realization is bhakti and God’s Grace. |
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Humble,
loving and wholehearted submission to a personal form of God
is called bhakti. Bhakti evokes the Grace
of God and ensures God realization. Upon God realization the
soul is released from the bondage of maya and achieves
unlimited Divine Bliss forever. |
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Sattvic
practices such as austerity, intellectual study of Vedant, practice
of renunciation and meditation, on their own, can only evolve
the sattvic quality of person’s mind to a certain
extent. They can never be the means of God realization. When
one begins to do bhakti, these practices, with the
Divine uniting factor of bhakti, are then classified
as karm yog or gyan yog. Only when these practices
are performed with bhakti, can they become the means
of God realization, because only bhakti unfolds God’s
Grace. |
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A personality
who has the Divine knowledge of all the scriptures and who is
God realized is needed to guide, protect and Grace the souls
on their path to God realization. Such a Divine personality
is called Guru. It is the Guru who imparts the Divine vision
or Divine love of God to a dedicated soul when they reach a
stage of complete surrender through bhakti. Divine
personalities are always present on the earth planet to guide
the souls. |
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In addition
to sending Divine personalities from His abode to the earth
planet, God Himself descends on the earth planet from time to
time to establish and protect Sanatan Dharm, to reveal
His absolute Blissfulness through His Divine actions (leelas)
and to show the path of bhakti to the souls. The descension
of God into the material (mayic) realm is called avatar
in Sanskrit. |
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The Divine
scriptures of Hinduism include the Vedas, the Upvedas, the Vedangas,
the Smritis, the Darshan Shastras, the Upnishads, the Puranas,
the Itihas (Ramayan and Mahabharat), the Gita, the Bhagwatam
and the writings of Jagadgurus, acharyas, and Saints.
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The vast
collection of Bhartiya scriptures are a systematic
line of teachings. They provide the guidelines for all kinds
of people, having varying levels of purity of mind and receptivity
for God, and lead them towards God realization. |
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The Bhartiya
(Hindu) scriptures also reveal the scientific axioms that are
valuable in the research and development of modern science.
They reveal the sequence of the procedure of creation of the
universe, the exact model and working of the universe, as well
as the science of defense, medicine and aviation, whatever is
required by the society for daily living. |
