Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati
In the contemporary world, there are many religions of recent origin. Likewise, many ancient religions that existed earlier are now extinct. Neo-religions are “founded” in the sense that they were started by individuals at specific points in time. When we trace the history of these religions, we find that they emerged at the cost of disturbing pre-existing religions, and destroying the indigenous cultural traditions in different parts of the world. In Europe, a new organization called “The World Congress of Ethnic religions” has been formed by some individuals who are interested in preserving indigenous religious traditions in Europe. Although the membership base of this organization is negligible, we must give them credit for having survived the onslaught of new religions and having come together to form an organization. The secretary of this organization recently appealed to Hindus on the internet, requesting the Hindus, as the representatives of the largest ethnic tradition, to come forward and lead a movement to preserve indigenous religions in the contemporary world.
Hinduism is “Sanatana Dharma”
The Hindu religion is the indigenous religion of India, and is different from the neo religions in the fact that it was not founded by any particular person. Krsna did not find the Hindu religion. Rama was born within the religion, which is testified by the fact that he was the product of a particular vedic ritual called putrakameshti. When he was born, he was given the name “Rama”, and a ritual known as jateshti was performed. Even though Rama and Krsna are worshiped as incarnations of the Lord within the Hindu tradition, they were not responsible for the Hindu religion. In fact they were born within the Hindu tradition, and their own lives exemplified the values unfolded by the Vedas. Just as we cannot trace the origin of Physics to a specific person or a given intellect, the Hindu religion cannot be traced to a specific individual. The Hindu religion is simply a view and way of life. The Hindu dharma offers a very clear view of life and a view of reality which can be accomplished by a self-conscious human being. The Hindu dharma is therefore called Sanatana-dharma. This compound can be broken in two ways: sanatanasya dharmah or sanatanascha dharmah. The first meaning of sanatana dharma is Isvarasya, sanatanasya dharmah. It is a dharma of the Lord, and therefore has no worldly beginnings or endings. The second meaning of this compound can be understood in the sense of pravaha-nityatvam. The dharma flows perennially, and keeps re-emerging with each cycle of creation.
Just as the science of Physics has no particular author, the Hindu dharma also cannot be attributed to any specific personality. Similarly, everyone has some knowledge of Physics, including the monkeys. A monkey cannot jump from one \ branch to another without some knowledge of gravity. Even a newborn monkey knows that if it lets go of its mother, it will fall down, which would have hazardous results for its health, and the propagation of the species. The only difference between the body of knowledge known as Physics and the body of knowledge known as sanatana dharma is that the first deals with a variable reality, and the second with the invariable. Even within sanatana dharma certain day-to-day aspects of the tradition may undergo a few changes: but the truth of this religion will always remain the same. In Sanskrit, truth is defined as abhaditam. Satyam, ot truth, is that which is not subject to negation or improvement. Anything that is subject to modification, or is dependent upon something else for its existence cannot be called Satyam. Expanding the nature of truth is the greatest asset of sanatana dharma.
Duality
The Hindu tradition encompasses a wide range of belief systems and theologies. Think of any theology, and you will find a home-grown version of it right here. For example, if you say that the world is different from God, and you are different from the world and God, we have a very cogently argued school of thought called dvaitam. The belief systems of neo-religions are predominantly dualistic. God, the world, and individuals are entities separate from one another. These religions have been engaged in the work of exporting their theology by spreading it to other cultures. I do not understand why I need to buy into their dualism. If at all I want a dualistic philosophy, I have it right here, much more consistently argued by our own acharyas. We have a Ramanuja to come and tell us, “ Hey, you are a part of the whole, just as a wave is a part of the ocean.” A miserable wave with a horoscope, born a few minutes ago, and destined to die a few minutes later, can never think of itself as the ocean. The wave thinks that it exists because of the ocean and therefore cannot be the cause of the ocean. There is a difference between the two. The wave is of the ocean, but it is not the ocean. If you subscribe to this point of view, the wave becomes an adjective to the ocean, that is, to the totality. It is no longer a noun. It is something like a modern marriage, where two individuals, who come together as nouns before the wedding, become adjectives after the ceremony is performed. One remains the noun and the other becomes tha adjective.
This is a very unfortunate thing. Usually it is the woman who ceases to be a noun after her wedding. Let us say she is called Saraswati. After the marriage she becomes Saraswati Ramakrishna. There can also be times when Ramakrishna becomes the adjective. The first scenario is a tragedy, the second one is a disaster. This is dvaitam – well argued duality. Why do we need to listen to someone that comes and tells as that there is God sitting there in heaven, looking down upon us ? This God, they tell us, is very loving but is ever ready to consign people to eternal damnation if they do not change their name and prefer to be called Ramakrisna or Subramaniam. Although this God is supposed to be very loving, he is also extremely judgemental. Come judgment day, this God is going to ask me my name. If I were to say “Dayananda”, I would be sent right to hell, where I will find all of you, who have decided not to change your name. Do you know what I would do ? There also I would start my own thing and become so popular that the fellows in heaven will be desperate to go to hell. Even in hell, I will attract people, because I have a lot of stories and jokes to tell. Since you will all be there with me, we can really make heaven out of hell.
“Lokas” referred in vedas
Most of the world’s religions talk exactly like advertisements promoting tourism. They are only interested in sending me to heaven. If I were interested in going to heaven, I would consult the Veda,which is the first book to talk about heaven. Western academic scholars have accepted the Veda as the most ancient body of knowledge available to humanity. The Veda discussed heaven and other celestial fields of experience, called lokas, in great detail.Heaven-going, according to the Veda, is never a permanent affair; it is just a temporary vacation based on good deeds in a previous life. Yad yatha iha karmachitho lokah kshiyate tat tatha amutra punyachito lokah kshiyate. In this sentence, the Veda is unambiguous about the temporary nature of pleasurable experiences in the hereafter. Just as your body was brought into being by karmic residues in a previous lifetime, the heavenly body that you will assume after death is also equally time bound. The earthly body is subject to death following the exhaustion of karma, likewise the heavenly body is also temporal, subject to exhaustion of your punyas, gathered during your life. Do not think for a moment that you can plan to permanently live in heaven by marrying celestial nymphs like Urvasi or Rambha. You cannot get an immigration visa, because Urvasi and Rambha are themselves on temporary visas in heaven. We therefore have theologies, a belief system, and even dualism that is backed up by our religious life . At this level everything can be accepted. These are points of view; we do not need scriptural study to expound a belief system.
SAT CIT ANANDA – The Whole
Hinduism has everything in it, no doubt, but what makes this religion unique is that it expounds a vision of the total, which includes the individual. You cannot exclude yourself from the total, and still deem it as “total”. If there is such a thing as a whole, it should include you, it should encompass you. If you want to take the example of the wave a little further, I will say that the wave cannot exist without being water. The top of the wave is water, the middle of the wave is water, the bottom of the wave is water. Therefore, the truth of both the ocean and the waves is water. Similarly, the truth of this world is a non-dual, undifferentiated consciousness that includes your body, mind and senses. Therefore, I can say that you are limitless – sat-cit-ananda. When I say that you are the whole, I have the last word, for you cannot improve upon the whole.
Hindus believe in “KARMA”
Over time, the Hindu religion has become subject to a number of misconceptions. People often say that the Hindus believe in karma, and this has made Indians fatalistic. Belief in karma is therefore responsible for India’s poverty. To go beyond these stereotypes, we must look at other political developments in the contemporary world. For example, why there has never been a coup in India after independence? Among post-war independent countries, India is the only country that has had no coup. This is the best example that we can give to show that believing in karma does not make you a fatalist. On the contrary, belief in karma makes a society more responsible. When we look at the world, which is given to us, we find that all matter conserves itself in one form or another. It does not get destroyed. For example, the water that is there on this planet is always there in one form or another – ocean, underground, cloud, vapor, dew, tear drops. The quantity of water is the same, no matter how it is stored or manifested. The same is true of energy as well. It always exists in one form or another. You cannot destroy an ounce of matter or energy. An interesting thing to note is that while matter is jadam, and not conscious of me, I am conscious of matter and energy. If matter and energy cannot be destroyed, why should the individual, the conscious being come to an end? There is no decimation for consciousness. If this is acceptable, then the law of karma talked about by the sastra is also acceptable. Nothing comes to an end.
Everything always perpetuates itself in time. The jiva also never comes to an end. Even when the jiva discovers the truth, “I am the whole”, there is no decimation. I can make use of this logic to assimilate the fact that I am the product of my past and present karma. Karma is not pure destiny. In fact, destiny itself depends on karma. Karma is what you have gathered in other lives. You cannot gather karma without exercising free will and the faculty of choice. The same free will that is used to gather karma is used to neutralize bad karmas. It all depends upon you.
Despite the use of free will, there are factors that cannot be controlled. This is what we refer to as fortune or luck. Every culture in the world has some word that is equivalent to “luck”. Even the primitive man must have had some sound that indicated the word “luck”. You can visualize the paleolithic man going for a hunt and come back very late with just a tiny squirrel in his hand. His wife, who was waiting for him, might have inquired about his measly catch. In response, he would have had nothing to say except that he was not lucky, and that he was unable to trap anything larger no matter how hard he tried. The word “luck” is therefore a universal expression of human experience and human reality.
Indeed, the luck factor plays an important role in your lives. You consider yourself lucky if you catch the bus and unlucky if you miss it. This is nothing but karma. We must take responsibility for our karma. Unlike other theologies, we do not say that there is some devil sitting in hell, forcing you to do wrong things. In these theologies, the devil becomes another force equivalent to God, contesting for control over the unfolding of human life. The devil does not allow you to live a righteous life. He puts spokes in the wheel of God’s will. This can only imply that such a God also needs help to extricate himself from the devil’s clutches. You may use the word “almighty” to describe God, but it amounts to mere lip service. God’s might becomes a power separate from your little might, my little might, and the might of mosquitoes. In this separation, God exists as a mighty entity but he definitely cannot be almighty because his might excludes that of other creatures. The devil cannot be a second force equivalent to God. It is extremely problematic to classify your thoughts as divine or devilish. A thought is just a thought; by the time we recognize it , it is gone. How can you control something that is momentary by nature – ksanika vrtti ? Our rishis understood this. If you understand the fundamental truth, everything falls in place. On the contrary, if you miss the basic truth that everything in the world is non-separate from you, you make mistakes at every step. Therefore it is not surprising that many theologies look upon the world as something to be consumed and enjoyed. Such a belief sanctions the destruction of the environment and the killing of animals for food. We look upon the world entirely differently from other theologies. We do not understand the suffering in the world as something that God created for his own amusement. This is a very damaging notion.
That is why our Lord is ananta-sayana. This means that he rests in his own glory. Lying on a coiled snake that represents all power (shakti), he sustains everything, and constitutes the truth of everything – sayanah sarvam bibharti. Lakshmi is at his feet, which is appropriate because he needs unlimited resources to run the show. Such a conception of God is necessary so that we do not reduce him to yet another entity in the jagat. In this conception of God, my own body, mind, senses and power are included. This being the case, I alone am responsible for my karma, not some devil. The Lord of course is karma-phala-data – the one who is in charge of the results of action. I reap what I sow. If I stick my finger in the fire, the fire will burn my finger. If I then ask the fire, “Did you burn my finger?,” the fire will say “Yes”. Then I can ask, “Why did you burn my finger?” The fire will say, “I am sorry, I did not burn your finger. You touched me and then I gave you what you asked for.” Thus you alone are responsible for your karma, you can change your life here and now. Karma makes you responsible, not fatalistic.
No Devil or Divine thoughts
If you create a devil, then you will have to deal with the devil. This creates a dichotomy, a permanent division. This is one of the greatest disasters of western Christian society. This division between God and the devil leads to tension and conflict in the individual. The entire life is spent avoiding “devilish” thoughts and actions and this can become a big problem. It is therefore easy for a westerner to praise the Hindu religion for its validation of human emotions. Rama can get angry and still be worshiped. Rama can also be sad, because there is nothing wrong in being sad. The Hindu religion makes a distinction between the acceptance of human emotions such as anger, sadness, jealousy and their inappropriate expression. While it is natural to have these emotions,it is wrong to act upon them, or make others the target of our emotions. The law of karma therefore makes the individual responsible. People say that India is economically poor because of the belief in karma . This is a very narrow view, for each person is trying to better his lot through the use of free will. Even if the person is a lowly clerk, he will somehow find a way to go to Saudi Arabia for upward mobility. In fact, most educated Indians are out of this country, not because of karma, but because of responsibility to society and family.
Karma makes one socially responsible
Karma also makes you socially responsible and aware. India is not poor because of karma; in spite of all the problems we face, India is sane because of karma. Otherwise, seeing the state of our country and our politicians, we would all become insane. Karma teaches social responsibility. For example, we are not supposed to occupy other’s land. It is considered ksetraapaharanam – land encroachment. According to the penal codes in vedic India, the encroacher, the atatayi, was eligible for capital punishment. This is why India is one of the few countries in the world that did not go about conquering and looting others. In Rochester, New York, I was invited for a live TV interview. There was a big hype, because the programme had been billed as an interview with a “real life Swami !” The interviewer was very hostile towards India, and went on asking provocative questions that demonstrated his bias against India. He asked me why all these westerners were talking to oriental religions. I said that maybe it was because they thought that they would find solutions to their problems. Perhaps they could not find solutions in their own religions. The interviewer then asked me if Indians go to the west in search of religious alternatives. I made it clear to him that Indians never go to the west for religion; they have enough of it here in India. Indians go to the west only for money or education. The interviewer then asked me why India is overpopulated. Although I never thought of this issue earlier, the answer hit me like a bullet ! Without batting my eyelids I said that our country was overpopulated because we did not occupy North America. We did not occupy South America, Rhodesia, South Africa, or Australia. In fact we did not occupy any of the places colonized by European countries in the recent past. “If all the people living in these places were to go back to Europe,” I said, “let us see whether they will have any place to put their toes on !”
Hindus worship only God
The misconceptions about Hindu religion are endless. Time and again, we have been accused of polytheism, of worshiping many Gods. I want to share a true story with you. When I was a brahmachari, I was traveling by train from Madras to Delhi with two other people. One of my co-passengers was reading the Bhagavad-Gita. The third man, who was sitting across from us, fell into a conversation by asking about the book. The man sitting next to me told him that it was the Gita, given by Lord Krsna. The man proceeded to inquire about various other Gods such as Rama, Siva, Ganesa. “How many Gods do you have ? Don’t you ever get confused?” My co-passenger answered in the negative and said, “In our puja room we have all these pictures and we show arti to all of them equally so that nobody gets upset.” The fellow sitting opposite us began to tell a story: Two wayfarers happened to meet along the way and became friends. In the course of their journey, they came across a huge river. As they were trying to cross the river, there was a sudden flash flood, and water was everywhere. When the water came up to the neck of the first fellow, he started to shout, “Hare Rama!” “Hare Krsna!” “Hara Hara Mahadeva!”, and “Ganesa” one by one. As he was shouting each name in succession, Rama, Krsna, Mahadeva, each came and went one by one. Ultimately, the first man drowned. Meanwhile, the second man, who was also drowning in the water, was a firm believer in Jesus. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O! Jesus, please save me !” And behold ! a sturdy log of wood came floating along down the river, and he was saved.
By this time I understood that the fellow was a paid missionary. This was his job, and he had told his story at least a hundred other times. “See the confusion in the faith of the first man?” he said. I said, “When did this happen? Can we set a time for this incident ? Can we say for argument’s sake, that the flash floods occurred at 4 o’ clock on a Friday afternoon?” The missionary had no problem with this. I then pointed out that at that particular time and day, in the streets of Paris, one fellow was being knocked down by a car and bleeding to death and crying, “O! Lord Jesus save me!” In London, at the same time, somebody was being attacked with a knife and was also bleeding to death and was crying out to Jesus. In Germany, a woman was admitted into a maternity ward with severe labor pains, and was pleading for Jesus to come and save her. I then said, “ Where will your Jesus go ? For us we have no problem. Ramam can go to one place, while Krsna can attend to the cries of another!”
From this I learned one thing very early on in life: if someone is ridiculous in their thinking, you can outwit them only by being even more ridiculous. I was not being reasonable, but then neither was he. God does not get confused if you address him by different names. If he does, then he is even worse off than our own Narayanamurthy. Narayanamurthy is known as “Nanu” to his parents. His nieces and nephews call him “Mama”. His wife, being an orthodox woman, does not call him anything, but just stands by the kitchen door and makes a peculiar grunting sound whenever she needs to talk to him. You can see the fellow jump as soon as he hears the grunt. If our Nanu can be so versatile, then God can certainly respond to any number of names. Therefore it is a very silly thing to say that Hindus worship many Gods. In fact, we can afford to have a few more.
Many westerners cannot fathom the fact that we really do not worship many Gods. When we worship the Lord in the form of a tree, rat, or snake, we invoke him in specific forms to remind us of the divine in all its aspects. If we were indeed worshiping trees, we would never be able to use fire wood. Therefore, I say that we are not worshiping the tree. The tree is a pratika, a symbol, just as the cross is a symbol. If the Christians were indeed cross worshippers, then they should go about worshiping every telephone pole. The cross is a form in which they relate to Jesus. There is nothing wrong with that. Otherwise the absence of forms makes it very difficult to understand or relate to God. It is not easy to relate to God as formless and omniscient. Most people do not even know how to spell the word “omniscient”, and end up making God into yet another unknown entity. We are not even worshiping one God. We do not say that there is one God. We do not say that there are many Gods. We say that there is only God. Modern Physics has proved that the jagat is not a creation as much as it is a manifestation. Creation implies the presence of some entity, situated within space and time, who created this world. The modern scientist has already proven that when he sees the stars, he is seeing a manifestation that has been unfolding itself methodically over 12 billion light years. He is stumped by this intelligent unfolding, and consequently, is not able to debunk Hindu philosophy in the manner in which he criticizes the Creationists. Our understanding of the world is not separate from Isvara. God cannot exist in space and also create time and space. Time and space are not absolutes; they are a part of this jagat. If God cannot exist in time and space, then does God have to be outside space? There is nothing outside space. All notions of outside and inside are within space itself. God definitely cannot be outside space. We already said that God cannot be inside space and create space. Therefore, we have to look at the third and only possibility – space must be non-separate from God. There is no fourth possibility. This is the truth, and it is exportable. Generally, all exportable items are not locally available. The truth must be first assimilated here and then exported.
The Veda says that God created the world, and became what he created. Here the word creation is used only in the sense of knowledge. It is an intelligent manifestation of Isvara , who we accept as God. If the world is only God, then it follows that I can invoke the Lord in any particular form, name, or in any given aspect or phenomenon. For example, we worship death as the Lord. This is a really amazing thing, since it takes away the fear of death. Invoking the particular, I can invoke the whole. Therefore, I can look upon the sun as God, an aspect of Isvara. In the sun itself, I can invoke the total. For example, if I go to an orthopedic surgeon to consult with him about my little finger and he treats it, the bill does not come to Dayananda’s little finger. Dayananada himself has to foot the bill. This is how it is with God. You can invoke the Lord in any given form, name and aspect, because every phenomenon is Isvara , every law is Isvara.
Conversion – a Violation of Trust
When the British colonized India, they wanted to introduce a “decent” God. We do not want this decent God, especially if they did not have the decency to respect our forms of worship. The other day, somebody told me that he did not accept forcible conversions to Christianity. I say that there is no such thing as forcible conversion, because every conversion implies force. Proselytization is based on rank criticism of the native religion, and violence to the religious beliefs of the individuals concerned. There can be no decent conversion. Conversion is violence. It is a violation of our trust. When the missionaries came to this country, we allowed them to build churches, respecting their need to worship certain forms.They violated our trust, and they continue to violate our trust. This is no ordinary crime. Every conversion is primarily due to the criticism leveled against Hinduism. There is no such thing as a decent conversion , because there is no way of converting the heart without hurting the heart. The profundity and vastness inherent in worshiping God as air, water, fire, sun, moon and stars is destroyed, only to be replaced by the belief that God is an entity sitting somewhere in a place called heaven, and judging people. This is both deceitful and hurtful, as it not only destroys religious forms , but also uproots the culture that sustains the spirit of these forms. In this respect , proselytization does not help anyone. I therefore want to tell the missionaries to put a freeze on conversion. Examine your own religion or that of your ancestors. In fact you will be saving Jesus when you stop conversions. I do not think that Jesus wanted people to be converted. He wanted people to be more compassionate, loving, and more giving. You need not make a Subramaniam into a Samuel to make him more compassionate. There is something drastically wrong with this kind of thinking. I cannot change people’s thinking, because everyone is committed to their own theologies. I can only talk to my people and say, “Wake up ! Understand your religion ! Revel in your own glory. Understand yourself and help others to understand.”
Bully the weak Parley the strong
The poet Bhartrhari said that if there is a small flame, like the flame of a matchstick, the wind becomes an enemy and wants to put out the flame. If somehow the little flame manages to become strong, then the wind becomes its ally and says, “ Come on, my friend, let us go together to the next house.” Strength is nothing but knowing your religion and culture. Ignorant of your culture and religious tradition, you are a nobody. You are just an assemblage of flesh and bones that somehow manages to earn some money. You are a nobody, unless you understand your relationship to the whole, the total. Who is that person in realtion to the total? Understand this person. You can never do this without understanding the total, that is Isvara. As an individual connected to the whole, you can never feel alienated. You are born connected, you live connected, and you die connected. That is why when you die away, we are bereaved, because we are connected to you. In other words, know yourself.
Contemporary Hindus have been totally neutralized, to the extent that they are unable to take a definite stand about their religion or culture. If you want to dismiss the Hindu religion, examine it properly. It will take twelve years. Give yourself twelve years to understand and practice this religion before dismissing it. Only then you can be considered intellectually honest. The influence of the Hindu religion is so deep rooted that if you go to even the remotest village in India and ask the people, “Where is God?” the people will respond by saying that God is everywhere. This is a very common thing in India. The villagers may not know the intricacies of the religion, but they definitely have a strong feel for it. This sense is what makes the villager accept the worship of all other forms. He has no quarrel with people worshiping the Lord as Jesus or Allah. This feeling can only emerge from a profound background of understanding.
Your strength is only your knowledge, weakness is your only ignorance. The Hindu religion is unique as it exists without an organized church. We have managed to keep this culture intact and transmit it from generation to generation, with only parents and grandparents filling the role of teachers and clergy. This tradition, therefore, runs in our blood. This culture was able to appreciate the finer nuances of music and dance as early as 2000 B.C., when the rest of the world was struggling to express itself through language. This land was the home of Panini, the father of linguistics. He reorganized the entire Sanskrit language in the form of Sutras. He certainly was a pioneer, but there were many other sutrakaaras who preceded him, such as Sakalya. All this implies there was a thriving linguistic tradition even before Panini. This is a marvelous tradition. Whether you take language, art, religion or music, we have a clear and profound message to be heard by all. I am very happy that I am a Hindu. I can talk about my religion without guilt. In fact, I can talk about it for ages. Whether I talk about art, music or architecture, I know my subject matter. This is because I know the one thing that counts, in fact, the only thing that counts: I am secure in the knowledge of myself. The Chandogya Upanishad stresses the need for one to acquire this knowledge, knowing which, everything is as well known , “Yena vijnanena sarvam vijnatam bhavati”. This is our sastra. We have it all.
The Hindu offers a lot of opportunities for charity. Hindus need not be told that they have to give money to charities, as it is built into the culture. The definition of a rich person is not according to how much money he has. What makes you rich is how deep you can dive into your pocket and share the wealth. The Veda details the different ways of giving – “shraddaya deyam, asraddhaya adheyam, sriya deyam, hriya deyam, bhiya deyam.” India need not be taught how to give. The best knowledge of charity rests with India. If I have to run a Gurukulam in the west, I have to beg people to give money. In India, I do not have to beg much. In the west however, it is difficult for people to give without expectation because they do not know how to give. Caught in the rat race of competition and survival, we
are, unfortunately, losing sight of the most profound aspects of our culture. Our charities are confined to the cities. Perhaps that has reached a few rural areas, but they have yet to touch people in remote and tribal areas. Most of us are not even familiar with what these places look like. Naturally, our charity has not reached the places that we have not frequented. The solution is simple, and it will entail that we go to these areas and validate the culture and history of the people living there. We will go to every corner in the country and bring the message to each and every tribal that his culture is right, and his form of worship is perfectly in keeping with our wonderful heritage. He does not have to change his religion, just in order to be able to get some medical care. We can provide this care. We can support their religious tradition and their forms of worship, while at the same time meeting some of their fundamental needs. All through this movement, I want you to be with me..
Om Tat Sat
