Namaste.
Recently a forty-something person born in a Dharmic (Hindu) family wrote to me saying that he did not like Krishna but adored Shiva. He said he did not like Krishna because he felt ‘Krishna plays with words, tries to follow Dharma and breaks laws’! He added that he believed that ‘Shiva is pure’. His lack of basic knowledge about the Santana Dharma even after his four decades as a Sanatani (Hindu) on the planet, instantly prompted me to create a new page with an index to some posts of mine regarding the Sanatana Dharma. It needs to be understood that the prime causes of the misconceptions that people born in Dharmic families have in their mind are threefold:
a. The improper or insufficient spiritual education that they received from their family and teachers.
b. The influence of the wrong ‘Sky-daddy God concept’ taught in missionary schools.
c. The sway that babas, swamies, gurus, matas, etc., who create their worlds of followers, have over them. They present themselves as avatars, lead people away from the path of Dharma and thrive as ‘ living Gods’.
People born in Dharmic (Hindu) families which are not converted to foreign religions need to take a moment to think about the amount of courage and determination their own ancestors must have had in order to resist temptation as well as fight fear due to the pressure from the then rulers when India was not free. Had even one of them converted, all the generations of people, that followed, who are now Dharmic (Hindus), would not have been Dharmic (Hindu), but would have been mental and physical slaves of some convoluted foreign organised religion.
The least Sanatana Dharmic (Hindu) people can do for their amazing ancestors is to learn, respect and preserve the traditions they followed. It is the Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) that they preserved, nurtured and left behind that has made the Dharmics (Hindus) what they are today and have given them the freedom to think and to live life the way they want.
Bhagavan Krishna said to Arjuna in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, (SBG 4:34) “Acquire knowledge through reverence to teachers who have known the Truth, serve them and ask them questions until all your questions are answered. The wise who know the Truth will teach it to you.” What He meant was, acquire knowledge from learned, wise, older and more experienced people but keep going ahead to discover the Divinity in you instead of settling down as a devotee at the feet of some god man or god woman who is also another mortal like you. In short, Bhagavan asked Arjuna to be a seeker until he reached the final goal of Super-Consciousness, Moksha or simply attaining Krishna.
The Sanatana Dharma, although ancient, is the most rational and advanced philosophy. There is no ‘sky daddy’ who punishes his own creation when they don’t listen to Him, no messengers, no satan, no hell, no evil guys to beat you up with red-hot spiked iron rods and boil you in oil for eternity, no heaven, no damsels in the heaven, no resurrection, no day of judgement and none of such other things that organised religions force their followers to believe in. You can start studying the Sanatana Dharma by reading scriptures such as Itihaasaas, Puranas and Upanishads and finally reach the stage of Super-consciousness. You are also absolutely free to decide whether you would need multiple Janmas (lifetimes) to reach the final goal, or if you would like to do it during the current one.
As compared to organised religions, the best part of the Sanatana Dharma, which was neither started by nor named after any individual, is that there is no compulsion to believe in anything at all. Being a nature loving, modest and sincere seeker should do.
Go to the new Index page on posts regarding the Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism)
Jai Shri Krishna
Tavamithram Sarvada 