Letting go of Hinduism

Spirituality Religion
#1

I just had an epiphany - and I will share it before I retired to bed - and I’ll let you know if it remains the next day:

Hinduism, which refers to what the British classified as a religion, is not the equivalent of Vedic dharma. I have known for this for a while, but insisted that Hinduism was just the foreign term for the Vedic religion. I know realise my folly(well at least at this hour) that to call Vedic dharma religion is to force oneself to look at Vedic dharma through the lens of the Western categorical framework.

Dharma does not mean religion. It has no equivalent in Western languages. If we look at the etymology of the word it means that which sustains and maintains the order of something. If we combine this with Vedic, meaning knowledge, then Vedic dharma is the knowledge of the eternal order of reality and the principles and it is about living in harmony with them. The concept originates from the concept of Rta in the Rig Veda as the eternal laws of nature.

The best way to understand dharma then is as pure spirituality, the synthesis of knowledge, experience and art of life. When there is so much going on, the term religion seems to do nothing but trivialise it. Thus I now arrived at the understanding Vedic dharma is spirituality and has nothing to do with any kind of organized religion. It is an entire categorical framework itself where everywhere everything is spiritual - even breathing is spiritual.

Call it Vedic dharma/sanatana dharma and not Hinduism. What is in a name? An entire categorical framework is hiding in the name Hinduism which is completely at odds with Vedic dharma.

#2

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61514]

[B]I just had an epiphany.[/B]

[B]Vedic dharma pertains to knowledge dealing with the eternal order or LAWS of reality and the principles and it is about living in harmony with them. The concept originates from the concept of Rta in the Rig Veda as the eternal laws of nature.[/B]

[B]Vedic dharma has nothing to do with any kind of organized religion.[/B]

[B]It is a categorical framework - an approach to the law.[/B]

[B]Call it [B]Vedic dharma/sanatana dharma[/B] and not Hinduism.[/B] [/QUOTE]

I bolded what I thought essential and reworked it just a smidge.

Vedic Dharma = Knowledge of the Law.

Religion is just something people can bicker about.

What is essential is knowledge of the Law.

#3

I agree. Hinduism has such a horrible ring to it.

Sanatana Dharma it is.

#4

for a layman sanatan dharma, = way of leading one’s daily life, which holds true eternally.

#5

[QUOTE=prasad;61520]for a layman sanatan dharma, = way of leading one’s daily life, which holds true eternally.[/QUOTE]

I would like to rephrase that a little:-

Sanatana = eternal
Dharma= the correct way of leading one’s life, having regard to the circumstances of life in which one is place. (This distinction is drawn to point out that dharma may be different for say a sanyasi and a soldier.)

#6

[QUOTE=reaswaran;61526]I would like to rephrase that a little:-

Sanatana = eternal
Dharma= the correct way of leading one’s life, having regard to the circumstances of life in which one is place. (This distinction is drawn to point out that dharma may be different for say a sanyasi and a soldier.)[/QUOTE]

I would like to reprahrase that a little.

Sanatana = Eternal

Dharma = Law

#7

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61514][B]I just had an epiphany.[/B][/QUOTE]

A question for pondering is “why did I have this epiphany?”

#8

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61514]
[B]Dharma does not mean religion.[/B] It has no equivalent in Western languages. If we look at the etymology of the word it means that which sustains and maintains the order of something. If we combine this with Vedic, meaning knowledge, then Vedic dharma is the knowledge of the eternal order of reality and the principles and it is about living in harmony with them. The concept originates from the concept of Rta in the Rig Veda as the eternal laws of nature.

The best way to understand dharma then is as pure spirituality, the synthesis of knowledge, experience and art of life. When there is so much going on, the term religion seems to do nothing but trivialise it. Thus I now arrived at the understanding Vedic dharma is spirituality and has nothing to do with any kind of organized religion. It is an entire categorical framework itself where everywhere everything is spiritual - even breathing is spiritual.

Call it Vedic dharma/sanatana dharma and not Hinduism. What is in a name? An entire categorical framework is hiding in the name Hinduism which is completely at odds with Vedic dharma.[/QUOTE]

Well, I told you so. Religion is a dirty conception; it’s got crapped up with those orthodoxies, moral imperatives and cults, and so on. Just to get rid of it paves the way for an entirely cleaner path of spirituality.

Let that epiphany drive you to the mystique of the entire existence.

#9

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61514]What is in a name? An entire categorical framework is hiding in the name Hinduism which is completely at odds with Vedic dharma.[/QUOTE]
http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=61272&postcount=32

Categorizing such things with a name is simply the mind trying to understand something that can only be felt. The mind can create signposts but it cannot completely convey the message as it is not the mind that feels.

Most religious debate is thus arguing semantics of what people have felt over time but the mind cannot completely convey. This leads to misinterpretation, at best, by people dominated by their minds who have no idea how to feel and often do everything they can to NOT feel.

Hell, considering what yoga IS according to the Sutras, it should come as no surprise that most yoga techniques are in large part methods to distract the mind so we might actually feel something. By my modern translation of the sutras, yoga is getting the mind to shut the fuck up. It’s probably why the original Hindus created yoga. When they tried to convey the message of what they’d felt, people tried to understand it with their minds so all the realized sages were like, “Ok dudes, how do we help these tweakers to get their minds to shut the fuck up?”

#10

Hinduism, which refers to what the British classified as a religion, is not the equivalent of Vedic dharma. I have known for this for a while, but insisted that Hinduism was just the foreign term for the Vedic religion. I know realise my folly(well at least at this hour) that to call Vedic dharma religion is to force oneself to look at Vedic dharma through the lens of the Western categorical framework.

The anti-Hindu historians like Romila Thapar 1 and D.N. Jha 2 have opined that
the word ‘Hindu’ was given currency by the Arabs in the 8th century. They
however, do not explain the basis of their conclusion nor do they cite any
evidence in support of their claim. Even Arab Muslim writers do not make such
an extravagant claim 3. Another theory propounded by European writers is that
the word ‘Hindu’ is a Persian corruption of ‘Sindhu’ resulting from the Persian
practice of replacing ‘S’ with ‘H’. Even here, no evidence is cited. In fact the word
Persia itself contains ‘S’ which should have become ‘Perhia’ if this theory was
correct. The present paper examines the above two theories in the light of
epigraphic and litereary evidence available from Persian, Indian, Greek, Chinese
and Arabic sources. The evidence appears to support the conclusion that 'Hindu’
like ‘Sindhu’, has been in use since the Vedic age and that although ‘Hindu’ is a
modified form of ‘Sindhu’, its origin lies in the Saurashtran practice of
pronouncing ‘H’ in place of ‘S’.

Swami Vivekananda said, garva se kaho ki hum Hindu hai, say with pride that we are Hindus.

हीनं च दूष्यत्येव हिन्दुरित्युच्यते प्रिये
(Meru Tantra)

[I]Hindu is one who discards the mean and the ignoble.[/I]

ओंकारमूलमन्त्राढ्य पुनर्जन्मदृढाशयः।
गोभक्तो भारतगुरुर्हिन्दुहिंसनदूषकः॥
(Madhava Digvijaya)

[I]One who meditates on Omkar as the primeal sound, believes in karma & reincarnation, has reverence for the cow, who is devoted to Bharat, and abhors evil, is deserving of being called Hindu.[/I]

हिंसया दूयते यश्च सदाचरणतत्पर।
वेदगोप्रतिमासेवी स हिन्दुमुखशब्दभाक्॥
(vriddha smriti)

[I]One who abhors the mean and the ignoble, and is of noblebearing,
who reveres the Veda, the cow, and the idol, is a Hindu.[/I]

हिमालयं समारभ्य यावदिन्दु सरोवरम्।
तं देवनिर्मितं देशं हिन्दुस्थानं प्रचक्षते॥
(brihaspati aagama)

[I]Starting from Himalaya upto Indu waters is this country created by the gods is Hindustan[/I]

#11

Sarva,

I am not contesting the origin of the word Hindu, but rather its classification as a religion by the West. It is not a religion as religion is defined in the West. It is a body of spiritual knowledge and spiritual cuture - a complete way of life.

There are many points Vedic dharma has which differ from religion:

  1. It has no founders. Vedic dharma has risis/sages/gurus who appear in all times, we even have modern risis.

  2. It has no fixed scruptures: Vedic dharma recognises the Vedas as divine revelation, but there is no requirement to read the Vedas or any text. Many later texts are considered just as divine such as the Gita and the Agamas.

  3. It has no beliefs - there is no single definition of god or god’s nature, his name, myths - some see him as the personal creator, some as absolute reality, some as an impersonal force. Some relate to god as father, mother, son, friend, lover, teacher or as an abstact.

  4. It has no fixed practice - there is no single practice prescribed, rather every practice that can bring one closer to the divine is recommended: this ranges from service and chairity, fire sacrifices and mantra chanting, idol worship, austerities like fasting, meditation, music and dance.

  5. It has no clergy. There is no god ordained group of humans who make decisions for others. Everybody has the freedom to live Vedic dharma as they want. Although there are samapradayas which do dictate how one lives, there are hundreds of samapradayas with different ways.

#12

I think Sanatana Dharma is indeed a richer portrait of the variety of life.

One god, one church, one way, that’s indeed not even the way material life presents itself to us, why would it be the case in spiritual life?

Some psychologists theorize that monotheism is an evolution, a sign of a more unified mind, a theory I personally disagree with, because the conscious mind itself is highly fractional, others state that polytheism, pantheism and panentheism are richer views because they better represent the actual nature of the mind.

I consider monotheism a product of an unnatural exaltation of the conscious mind in detriment of the totality of the unconscious contents and the whole of the psyche.

In this regard, even if there are no FIXED founders or RIGID and EXCLUSIVE set of beliefs in Hinduism (in the exclusivist way that we observe in the abrahamic sects), Sanatana Dharma is still united in the Vedas and the understanding of Brahman.

#13

Indeed I agree, the absence of all the above is what makes Santana dharma santana - eternal and universal. This is why it is not a religion, it is pure spirituality science. We are doing a great disservice to Vedic dharma by calling it another religion amongst others.

Vedic dharma should not be reduced to either religion or nationality. It is the birthright of every human being on this planet.

#14

[QUOTE=Surya Deva;61514]
Hinduism, … is not the equivalent of Vedic dharma. [/QUOTE]

Although you are correct at a subtler level, the term “Hinduism” is a substitute for VaidIka Dharma. Hinduism, or any ‘ism’, does indeed redact the beauty that is Sanatana Dharma. Yet, the term Hinduism refers to Sanatana Dharma in its entirety.

Some Sri VaiSnavAs are vehemently opposed to being called Hindus and they will readily agree with you. However, in this modern day and age where western education is predominant in most countries, all systems of philosophy are unfortunately redacted to ‘isms’. Thus, the entire corpus of Sanatana Dharma is redacted to Hinduism.

#15

hindu was actually a word used by the muslims to describe the group of people that lived on the other side of the indus river so your right hinduism is a very inacurate term and it just goes to show how confused the hindus are about their own religion and culture.
sanatana dharma is much better
and india by the way should be called bharata varsa
i teach english in an oil company and they have a very old map hanging on the wall and it actually says bharata on it with india in subtitles underneath

#16

also iran comes from arayan
mongolia comes for mangala
the stan in pakistan kazakstan and uzbekistan is sanskrit
and singapur means city of the lion
so there you go…