These are my rants (my understanding) on Sanatana Dharma and how it is slowly being digested in a western framework of a ‘religion’ without many of us realizing it. It is going to run into many parts.
What is Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana dharma simply means the 'dharma from the ancient times'. How much ancient..? I interpret it as from the origins of the Universe. Dharma are the fixed laws. Sanatana dharma means the laws that come to us from ancient times or origins of Universe.
I translate it as laws of living (dharma) aligned to natural laws that come from the origins of Universe (sanatana).
How is Santana dharma different from a religion..?
A religion by definition is ‘messenger’ or ‘messiah’ based. It starts with a belief or faith on the words of a messenger or messiah. All the knowledge of a religion comes from the faith that people develop on the messenger or messiah. Invariably the messenger leaves his/her knowledge or his/her understanding to a set of people which gets collected in books or institutions. Hence knowledge evolution in a religion is tough.
The words of messengers may be apt for a certain time period, but may not work later times. It becomes tough for ‘religions’ to evolve.
Sanatana dharma does not have any messenger or messiah. It’s knowledge is distributed among all its people. Everyone who belongs to Sanatana dharma has his/her own unique understanding of the dharma and contributes to its overall knowledge evolution. The knowledge evolution in sanatana dharma is natural.
Religions have starting points and have some specific do’s and don’ts provided by messenger. Sanatana dharma has no starting point. It’s do’s and don’ts keep changing with time, as knowledge evolves and environments evolve.
But then what is in Sanatana Dharma..?
In essence, Sanatana dharma is Vedas and Varna-Asrama Dharma.
Vedas are 'revelations' or Sruti. No messenger wrote it or had ownership on it. They were heard, memorized and passed on generations after generations with same intonations as much as possible.
Events in the Vedic literature became the stories of Puranas. Several vedic events get mapped to puranic stories. Several puranic stories do not have corresponding events in the currently available vedic literature. This tells us that what we are currently retaining is a smaller part of the original vedic revelations.
Researching the Vedas, understanding it, devising scientific models based on it (Carvaka, Vijnana, saMkhya), interpreting it (Upanishads, Puranas), developing philosophical models around it (Dvaita, Advaita, Visishta-advaita), passing the vedas to subsequent generations are at the core of Sanatana Dharma.
From these vedic revelations comes the understanding of laws of living. The laws of living in Sanatana dharma are the Varna Dharma and Asrama Dharma.
Contrary to popular perception Varna dharma are not 'Jati'. Varna Dharma says there are three basic professional groups aligned to three gunas.
Varna dharma - Professional groups
Brahamanas or Knowledge providers are aligned to Sattva. Sattva guna is knowledge based, evolutionary, interactive learning and changing. Examples of Knowledge providers are scientists, researchers, teachers, entrepreneurs etc..
Kshatriyas or Service providers are aligned to Rajas. Rajas guna is action based, motion and control and hence skilled. Examples of Service providers are Soldiers, politicians, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Cooks etc who use the knowledge offered by Brahmanas, combine it with their skill-sets and offer it as services to society.
Vaizyas or Goods providers are aligned to Tamas. Tamas is opposite of Sattva. Hence it changes slowly or constancy is its hall-mark. Tamas is also opposite of Rajas and hence it is in-action and submission. Examples of Goods providers are farmers, businessman, traders etc.. They use the knowledge of Brahmanas, services of Kshatriyas, evolve slowly in their technologies compared to Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and provide the goods required for society.
A Varna dharma society has to have a proper balance of these people. Then it’s an ideal society. All these people go through a system of ‘dvija’ (twice-born).
A person becomes twice-born (dvija) after formal education that he learns from an external ‘guru’. It is because that education helps him to interact with an external world outside his/her close family, make him/her learn professional skill-sets needed to contribute to society and becomes a totally different person than what he/she was originally. It also teaches him/her methods of continuous learning. This is the school/college education of modern times.
Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaizyas cannot remain in their professional groups without going through ‘dvija’ or formal education.
But often we have a class of people who are thrown out of the economic cycle of Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vaizya. Sometimes they are thrown out of the economic cycle, because that they have not gone through the ‘dvija’ system (formal schooling) to acquire the right skill-set or knowledge needed to contribute to society. Another reason could be that their skill-sets or knowledge becomes not so useful to society or it becomes abundant in society that the value of it becomes too low.
These people are treated as ‘labor’ or ‘bio-mass’ of the society. They are called Zudras.
The zudras are aligned with nir-guna. Neither they are evolutionary or knowledge based, nor they can offer services, nor they can offer goods. They are useful to society only by their physical labor.
There is only a thin line between Kshatriyas and Zudras. When the services offered are in demand, it is Kshatriya. When services offered in abundance, it is Zudra.
These professional groupings are based on the tri-guna nature that exists in Universe from micro-cosm to macro-cosm. Hence these groupings are applicable at all times, irrespective of technological developments.
The cycle of four Yugas
Satya Yuga
In the Satya or ‘Krita’ Yuga, the yuga of creation, all four professional groups have equal importance. The society is to said run on all ‘four legs’. All the legs of society undergo formal education and learning (dvija).
Brahmanas or knowledge providers, glue the society developing institutions and systems that help run a society. The society runs by these institutions and structures. Kshatriyas or service providers administer the society through these established institutions. Vaizyas provide their goods through these established institutions. Zudras provide their labor through these institutions. There are very less zudras and they are more Kshatriyas (service providers). There is an order and peace in the society. Hence it is called Satya or 'Krita' Yuga.
Treta Yuga
But then this does not last long. Knowledge and technological evolution far outstrips the structures that exist to administer a society, which throws up lot of challenges. Administrative services become more powerful over a period of time. That leads to Treta Yuga.
Here the leadership of society is transferred to Kshatriyas or Service providers, in particular the administrative service providers. They become powerful as the technological evolution throws up complex challenges that cannot be solved by existing systems and human discretion is needed in day to day administration.
When service providers (Soldiers or politicians) run the society, institutions devised by Brahmanas or Knowledge providers lose some of their value. It finally depends on the ruler to listen to Brahmanas. The focus moves away from institutions to 'good' rulers.
In this society zudras get valued only for doing the physical labor for Kshatriyas (to be soldiers, guards etc). Education or Dvija system no longer is needed for zudras. The society is said to run on three legs of Service providers (kshatriyas), Goods providers (vaizyas) and Labor (Zudras). Hence it is called Treta yuga.
Dvapara Yuga
But that also does not last long. As society stabilizes and populations explode, goods become important for survival of society. This leads to ‘dva-apara’ Yuga. The leadership of society goes to Vaizyas or Goods providers.
In a stable secure society, Administrative services are taken for granted. It is goods providers that have all the power. Hence Vaizyas (businessmen, traders, farmers) lead the society. The society is said to run on two legs of Vaishyas and Zudras. Education gets limited only to Brahmanas and Kshatriyas in this society, as Zudras become the physical labor for Vaishyas. Hence the Yuga is called ‘dva-apara’ yuga (two off).
Kali Yuga
But that also does not last long. As the populations explode, lot of people get out of the economic cycle increasing the number of zudras or laborers. Society gets filled with cheap labor, people who are treated as just some bio-mass by the economic cycles. This leads to Kali Yuga.
In Kali Yuga, people who are thrown out of the economic cycle, the zudras, become majority. They try to run the society through ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ or through democratic methods, where their voices are heard. The society is said to run on 'one' leg. Kali means the only one left out or 'one' in a dice play.
But the Kali Yuga is unstable. An economic model in which cheap and slave labor dominates or huge population is forced out of economic cycles does no good. That model leads to destruction of society only. Part of society even gets destroyed in the strifes that occur in the society.
Re-birth of Satya Yuga
Society searches for answers. That’s when Brahmanas or Knowledge providers make a come back. The Scientists (Muni), Researchers (Rsi), Teachers (Acharya), solve the challenges of an unstable society through technology evolution, through better institutions and systems. They pull the society back from the complete brink of devastation and destruction and makes it to be re-born.
With technology, with education, with knowledge, with systems and institutions, problems of a zudra dominated society is solved. Better institutions get devised. The dvija system of educating everyone makes a come back. Balance of all professional groups is established as society understands the power of knowledge.
When population grows to solve the challenges of food, water and individual human desires, families go nuclear and then individualistic. As people become more individualistic population control automatically sets in. With Single or zero child families, over a period, population automatically comes down.
All these lead to a Satya Yuga being born again wherein all four legs of the society becomes equal and balanced. Knowledge becomes the driver of the society.
As one can see it is a cycle. Satya Yuga will lead to Treta again, as with more knowledge, more complex administrations emerge, with administrative services being in demand once again. This leads to Treta and then dvapara and then kali yuga again.
Varna dharma - Natural and Eternal
Thus Varna dharma explains us what is happening naturally. It depends on us human beings to evolve a society with less zudras, monitor where they are and act accordingly.
As ‘gravity’ cannot be abandoned, varna dharma cannot be abandoned. It is natural and eternal for the life of the Universe.
What we need to do is to understand where our society is at this point of time and devise appropriate structures and solutions to handle the issues.
Next: Asrama Dharma
-TBT
What is Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana dharma simply means the 'dharma from the ancient times'. How much ancient..? I interpret it as from the origins of the Universe. Dharma are the fixed laws. Sanatana dharma means the laws that come to us from ancient times or origins of Universe.
I translate it as laws of living (dharma) aligned to natural laws that come from the origins of Universe (sanatana).
How is Santana dharma different from a religion..?
A religion by definition is ‘messenger’ or ‘messiah’ based. It starts with a belief or faith on the words of a messenger or messiah. All the knowledge of a religion comes from the faith that people develop on the messenger or messiah. Invariably the messenger leaves his/her knowledge or his/her understanding to a set of people which gets collected in books or institutions. Hence knowledge evolution in a religion is tough.
The words of messengers may be apt for a certain time period, but may not work later times. It becomes tough for ‘religions’ to evolve.
Sanatana dharma does not have any messenger or messiah. It’s knowledge is distributed among all its people. Everyone who belongs to Sanatana dharma has his/her own unique understanding of the dharma and contributes to its overall knowledge evolution. The knowledge evolution in sanatana dharma is natural.
Religions have starting points and have some specific do’s and don’ts provided by messenger. Sanatana dharma has no starting point. It’s do’s and don’ts keep changing with time, as knowledge evolves and environments evolve.
But then what is in Sanatana Dharma..?
In essence, Sanatana dharma is Vedas and Varna-Asrama Dharma.
Vedas are 'revelations' or Sruti. No messenger wrote it or had ownership on it. They were heard, memorized and passed on generations after generations with same intonations as much as possible.
Events in the Vedic literature became the stories of Puranas. Several vedic events get mapped to puranic stories. Several puranic stories do not have corresponding events in the currently available vedic literature. This tells us that what we are currently retaining is a smaller part of the original vedic revelations.
Researching the Vedas, understanding it, devising scientific models based on it (Carvaka, Vijnana, saMkhya), interpreting it (Upanishads, Puranas), developing philosophical models around it (Dvaita, Advaita, Visishta-advaita), passing the vedas to subsequent generations are at the core of Sanatana Dharma.
From these vedic revelations comes the understanding of laws of living. The laws of living in Sanatana dharma are the Varna Dharma and Asrama Dharma.
Contrary to popular perception Varna dharma are not 'Jati'. Varna Dharma says there are three basic professional groups aligned to three gunas.
Varna dharma - Professional groups
Brahamanas or Knowledge providers are aligned to Sattva. Sattva guna is knowledge based, evolutionary, interactive learning and changing. Examples of Knowledge providers are scientists, researchers, teachers, entrepreneurs etc..
Kshatriyas or Service providers are aligned to Rajas. Rajas guna is action based, motion and control and hence skilled. Examples of Service providers are Soldiers, politicians, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Cooks etc who use the knowledge offered by Brahmanas, combine it with their skill-sets and offer it as services to society.
Vaizyas or Goods providers are aligned to Tamas. Tamas is opposite of Sattva. Hence it changes slowly or constancy is its hall-mark. Tamas is also opposite of Rajas and hence it is in-action and submission. Examples of Goods providers are farmers, businessman, traders etc.. They use the knowledge of Brahmanas, services of Kshatriyas, evolve slowly in their technologies compared to Brahmanas and Kshatriyas and provide the goods required for society.
A Varna dharma society has to have a proper balance of these people. Then it’s an ideal society. All these people go through a system of ‘dvija’ (twice-born).
A person becomes twice-born (dvija) after formal education that he learns from an external ‘guru’. It is because that education helps him to interact with an external world outside his/her close family, make him/her learn professional skill-sets needed to contribute to society and becomes a totally different person than what he/she was originally. It also teaches him/her methods of continuous learning. This is the school/college education of modern times.
Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaizyas cannot remain in their professional groups without going through ‘dvija’ or formal education.
But often we have a class of people who are thrown out of the economic cycle of Brahmana-Kshatriya-Vaizya. Sometimes they are thrown out of the economic cycle, because that they have not gone through the ‘dvija’ system (formal schooling) to acquire the right skill-set or knowledge needed to contribute to society. Another reason could be that their skill-sets or knowledge becomes not so useful to society or it becomes abundant in society that the value of it becomes too low.
These people are treated as ‘labor’ or ‘bio-mass’ of the society. They are called Zudras.
The zudras are aligned with nir-guna. Neither they are evolutionary or knowledge based, nor they can offer services, nor they can offer goods. They are useful to society only by their physical labor.
There is only a thin line between Kshatriyas and Zudras. When the services offered are in demand, it is Kshatriya. When services offered in abundance, it is Zudra.
These professional groupings are based on the tri-guna nature that exists in Universe from micro-cosm to macro-cosm. Hence these groupings are applicable at all times, irrespective of technological developments.
The cycle of four Yugas
Satya Yuga
In the Satya or ‘Krita’ Yuga, the yuga of creation, all four professional groups have equal importance. The society is to said run on all ‘four legs’. All the legs of society undergo formal education and learning (dvija).
Brahmanas or knowledge providers, glue the society developing institutions and systems that help run a society. The society runs by these institutions and structures. Kshatriyas or service providers administer the society through these established institutions. Vaizyas provide their goods through these established institutions. Zudras provide their labor through these institutions. There are very less zudras and they are more Kshatriyas (service providers). There is an order and peace in the society. Hence it is called Satya or 'Krita' Yuga.
Treta Yuga
But then this does not last long. Knowledge and technological evolution far outstrips the structures that exist to administer a society, which throws up lot of challenges. Administrative services become more powerful over a period of time. That leads to Treta Yuga.
Here the leadership of society is transferred to Kshatriyas or Service providers, in particular the administrative service providers. They become powerful as the technological evolution throws up complex challenges that cannot be solved by existing systems and human discretion is needed in day to day administration.
When service providers (Soldiers or politicians) run the society, institutions devised by Brahmanas or Knowledge providers lose some of their value. It finally depends on the ruler to listen to Brahmanas. The focus moves away from institutions to 'good' rulers.
In this society zudras get valued only for doing the physical labor for Kshatriyas (to be soldiers, guards etc). Education or Dvija system no longer is needed for zudras. The society is said to run on three legs of Service providers (kshatriyas), Goods providers (vaizyas) and Labor (Zudras). Hence it is called Treta yuga.
Dvapara Yuga
But that also does not last long. As society stabilizes and populations explode, goods become important for survival of society. This leads to ‘dva-apara’ Yuga. The leadership of society goes to Vaizyas or Goods providers.
In a stable secure society, Administrative services are taken for granted. It is goods providers that have all the power. Hence Vaizyas (businessmen, traders, farmers) lead the society. The society is said to run on two legs of Vaishyas and Zudras. Education gets limited only to Brahmanas and Kshatriyas in this society, as Zudras become the physical labor for Vaishyas. Hence the Yuga is called ‘dva-apara’ yuga (two off).
Kali Yuga
But that also does not last long. As the populations explode, lot of people get out of the economic cycle increasing the number of zudras or laborers. Society gets filled with cheap labor, people who are treated as just some bio-mass by the economic cycles. This leads to Kali Yuga.
In Kali Yuga, people who are thrown out of the economic cycle, the zudras, become majority. They try to run the society through ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ or through democratic methods, where their voices are heard. The society is said to run on 'one' leg. Kali means the only one left out or 'one' in a dice play.
But the Kali Yuga is unstable. An economic model in which cheap and slave labor dominates or huge population is forced out of economic cycles does no good. That model leads to destruction of society only. Part of society even gets destroyed in the strifes that occur in the society.
Re-birth of Satya Yuga
Society searches for answers. That’s when Brahmanas or Knowledge providers make a come back. The Scientists (Muni), Researchers (Rsi), Teachers (Acharya), solve the challenges of an unstable society through technology evolution, through better institutions and systems. They pull the society back from the complete brink of devastation and destruction and makes it to be re-born.
With technology, with education, with knowledge, with systems and institutions, problems of a zudra dominated society is solved. Better institutions get devised. The dvija system of educating everyone makes a come back. Balance of all professional groups is established as society understands the power of knowledge.
When population grows to solve the challenges of food, water and individual human desires, families go nuclear and then individualistic. As people become more individualistic population control automatically sets in. With Single or zero child families, over a period, population automatically comes down.
All these lead to a Satya Yuga being born again wherein all four legs of the society becomes equal and balanced. Knowledge becomes the driver of the society.
As one can see it is a cycle. Satya Yuga will lead to Treta again, as with more knowledge, more complex administrations emerge, with administrative services being in demand once again. This leads to Treta and then dvapara and then kali yuga again.
Varna dharma - Natural and Eternal
Thus Varna dharma explains us what is happening naturally. It depends on us human beings to evolve a society with less zudras, monitor where they are and act accordingly.
As ‘gravity’ cannot be abandoned, varna dharma cannot be abandoned. It is natural and eternal for the life of the Universe.
What we need to do is to understand where our society is at this point of time and devise appropriate structures and solutions to handle the issues.
Next: Asrama Dharma
-TBT
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