Sanatan Dharma and the civilisation called Bharat

There is a new phenomenon of attacks by some local and state party leaders on the very fundamentals of Hindu culture and tradition such as holy “Ramayana” and “Sanatana Dharma”, with obvious intention and hope of earning some political brownie points or even votes by dividing the society into pro and anti Sanatanis. So let us dwell on some historic facts and see why and how our “Sanatan Dharma” has helped this civilization called Bharat or India to survive and grow despite all odds against ferocious foreign invasions, systematic destructions of our Institutions and diversion of our treasures, and promotion of internal divisions along the lines of religion, regions, castes, languages and what not.

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The word “Sanatan” is ?Sanskrit word and indicates continuity. It has survived for thousands of years despite repeated attacks by foreign invaders coming from middle east and north of Hindukush mountains who tried to crush this civilization called “Sanatan Dharma” by burning of our libraries, holy books, art, literature, demolished our temples and converted them into mosques using same broken idols and images as raw material and forcing thousands of upper class Brahmin and scholars to convert or killed when they didn’t agree to convert.

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It also survived 300 years of British rule and state propagation of Christianity and large scale conversions achieved through doles of money, jobs, education and coercion. It also survived the systematic attempts of British colonial rulers to brainwash Indian elite and ruling classes by providing them English education and ruling them through Laws which were totally alien to local culture but suitable to subdue and humiliate the local population. As a matter of fact, this cannot be said about many other religions like Zoroastrianism or civilizations like Mesopotamian, Mayan etc. which could not survive onslaught of followers of Abrahamic religions.

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Now let us look at impact of culture and religion on geography, its flora and fauna. In middle east, there was an area called “Fertile Crescent” which ran across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, and Iraq and historically considered as the grain bowl of the middle east and Europe. It is also considered to be the place of origin of Wheat. This area has now completely turned into a vast desert with no rains and no water and a continuously agitative population giving rise to violent organizations like Islamic State, Al Quaeda etc. On the other hand, our Indian subcontinent, which has an even older fertile belt of Ganga Yamuna Doaba region and Punjab (spread across both India and Pakistan), the fertile land of five rivers. Even after centuries, this area is still producing more than enough grains and eatables for feeding world’s largest population. Does it have something to do with our “Sanatan Dharma”, which some petty politicians are calling names as dengue, cynide and what not, is the philosophy which encouraged the inhabitants of this subcontinent called Hindus to live in peace and harmony with not only nature but also among themselves, with its neighbors and welcome our guests (Atithi devo bhava), even when they came with ulterior intentions.

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If we look at our state organization, we find that King was not the omni-powerful as in the west or middle east, but he used to follow the guidance of Raj Gurus and Mathadhishas of our great Temples. The relationship between the Kind and the citizens was not of rule and the ruled with support of state police but based on a bond of love and respect. If we investigate the history of many Indian Kingdoms right from Mauryan Empire to Cholas, Pandeva’s and even Shivaji Maharaj, we find that while Military forces played an important role in defense and conquests of the state, there was a lack of elaborate Police forces to control internal disturbances and crime till before the advent of Islamic rule. This was because our Sanatan Dharma believed in and promoted the concept of self-regulation and fear of God.

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Out temples were the places of learning, art, culture, education, research, and penance. They were all self-sufficient and not dependent on state for survival. One example in Tirupathi Temple, which even today generates enough revenues every year to surpass the budget of a small state. Just imagine having such temples at every 50-100 kilometers and taking care of a large population in their command area. Our caste system, which is so abused and reviled today, also appears to have originated to promote division of labour with expertise in certain skills, which even under a modern management system is a fundamental requirement. And this division of labour and skills enabled Bharat to remain one of the world’s two largest economies (other than China) since Mauryan empire in second century BC till as late as 17th century.

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And can we ignore the contributions of Sanatan Dharma to science, mathematics, surgery, astronomy, philosophy, architecture, metallurgy, literature, art and many other fields. This dharma only gave birth to Aryabhatta, Valmiki, Charaka, Sushruta, Chanakya, Kalidas and Sant Tulsidas. They gave identity and meaning to idea of Bharat and if we compare their contributions with all those greats of western civilizations whether it is Adam Smith, Rossouw, Robespierre, Shakespeare, Einstein, Newton, Pythagoras, Archimedes, Karl Mark etc. we will find that they knew and were propagating many similar ideas at least 1800 to 2000 years before these western greats came into picture. ?

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In this blog, I am not trying to defend and justify Sanatan Dharma but trying to present a balanced picture based on my limited knowledge of the subject. I agree that somewhere down the line, some deficiencies, rigidities, and anomalies did develop among the practitioners of Sanatan dharma. But for that we cannot blame the Sanatan Dharma itself for the failure of its followers. It was the misdemeanors of the followers, who sometime failed to grasp the true meaning and intent of preachings of our Vedas, Sutras, holy books like Ramayana and Gita and went overboard by emphasizing more and ?more elaborate procedures and processes (like elaborate Havanas, daan-dakshina and other religious ceremonies) and dividing castes into touchable and untouchables depending on their occupation. Such actions led to a deeply divided society and made it easy for foreign invaders to have a go at this enormously successful civilization.

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But I think we as a civilization, have already suffered enough punishments for such transgressions by living under foreign rule for more than thousand years and losing not only our riches, our grand temples, our world-famous libraries, our intricate pieces of art and culture, our standing in world economy and last but not the least, our self-confidence. Now our beloved Prime Minister is trying the mend these fissures and delinquencies built up in the society over a period due to ignorance of certain classes of people about true meaning of underlying concepts of Sanatan Dharma or due to systematic and deliberate attempts by foreign (British) and some local rulers (you know what I mean) by adopting divide and rule policies.

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I have observed that whatever fresh ideas PM Modi presented before the grand forum of G20, the basic common concept was “Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam”, that is we are all citizens of one earth and hence must strive to work together to save it, an idea which has its origins in Sanatan Dharma. The concept of ahimsa propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, which has now become very relevant due to Ukraine Russia war, also originated in our scriptures based on Sanatan Dharma. If we wish to survive the epidemics, wars, climate change and global warming, hunger, disease, unemployment and so many other ills, the solutions can be found in the concepts and preaching of Sanatan dharma, because, ultimately it is only due to these time tested concepts the Sanatan Dharma has survived, sustained and proliferated over multiple centuries and millennia.

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