Ask yourself, “Was I born into a Sanatana Dharmic (Hindu) family or am I one who had earlier belonged to some organised religion but have embraced the Sanatana Dharma?” Should your answer to either of the questions be ‘yes’, the first and foremost thing you could consider doing would be to give yourself a pat on your back for the wonderful past Karma you have created and collected.
Bhagavan Krishna said to Arjuna that even if a person had committed any Adharma in the past, but also has positive Karma credits to his or her account, they will certainly be born in a family of good Dharmic people. Such a birth or such a life happens only to blessed people who have been righteous in the past.
SBG 6:37 Arjuna said: He who is unable to control himself although he has the faith, and whose mind wanders away from Yoga, what end does he meet, having failed to attain perfection in Yoga, O Krishna?
SBG 6:38 Fallen from Yoga and Meditation, does he not perish like a detached cloud without any
support, being deluded on the path of the Ultimate Truth, O Krishna?
SBG 6:39 Please remove this doubt of mine completely, O Krishna, There is no one else who can remove it but You.
SBG 6:40 Bhagavan Krishna said: O Arjuna, neither in this world, nor in the next world is there destruction for him; because the one who does good, O My dear, never comes to evil.
SBG 6:41 After having attained the worlds of the righteous and after having dwelt there for many years, he who fell from Yoga, is reborn in the house of the pure and the prosperous.
SBG 6:42 Or he is born in a family of even the wise Yogis which is a kind of birth that is very difficult to obtain in this world.
SBG 6:43 There his previous divine consciousness is revived and he comes in contact with the knowledge acquired in his former body. He then works even harder in order to achieve perfection, O Arjuna.
SBG 6:44 With the divine consciousness from the previous birth, a person gets attracted to Yogic principles as they will come to him even if he does not go behind them. Such a person strives for yoga and is steadfast in Yogic principles.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term ‘religion’ as follows:
1. The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
2. A particular system of faith and worship. ‘the world’s great religions.’
Therefore, a person who follows a religion is expected to believe in a God, in a messenger, in a book or in a set of rules stipulated by the body that governs the religion and its followers. One who does not comply with the rules of the religion is either punished on earth or are threatened to be sent to an eternal hell after death.
In order to comprehend the greatness of being a Dharmic (Hindu) person who is naturally blessed with mental, physical and spiritual freedom, one could take a moment of their time to think how their life would have been had their heart, mind and soul been hijacked and placed under the control of dangerous ‘religious leaders’ or clergymen and if they were forced to believe in some book apart from being commanded to believe in a God in heaven and in someone else who lived a long time ago they neither saw nor experienced.
The Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism), which is founded on Universal Oneness, is a way of life that encourages seeking, learning, growing spiritually and perceiving the Divinity existing equally in all beings. There is no compulsion to believe in anyone or in anything. As against the rules of a typical organised religion, asking questions is not only a Dharmic person’s right but is also recommended to everyone.
SBG 13:27 The person who truly sees is the one who sees the Supreme Soul or the Supreme Bhagavan, existing equally in all beings, the unperishing within the perishing.
SBG 13:28 Such a person perceives the same Supreme Bhagavan dwelling equally everywhere and he does not degrade his own spiritual well-being by mistaking his ego to be the Self like the way ignorant people do. He therefore reaches the highest goal.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that after the entire discourse Bhagavan Krishna gave Arjuna, He did not order or force Arjuna to do anything or to follow a set of commandments, but asked him to reflect on the knowledge He had imparted and to act as he wished. Can anyone think of an organised religion that allows its followers to act as per their wish, not to mention thinking for themselves and not be accused of heresy or apostasy?
इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया |
विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु || १८ ६३ ||
iti te jnaana-maakhyaatam guhyaad-guhyataram mayaa
vim-rushyaita-dasheshena yathe-cchasi tathaa kuru
SBG 18:63 I have taught you the secret wisdom which is deeper than all that is confidential and profound. Reflect fully on what I declared to you and do what you wish to do.
Be grateful to yourself for the good person that you have been in the past, to your respectable ancestors who protected the Sanatana Dharma and have handed it over to you despite the threats and torture they received from barbaric invaders as well as from crafty and cruel colonisers and to the great Bharat Varsh or India that you were either born in or originate from.
Jai Shri Krishna
Tavamithram Sarvada 