Introduction to Sanatana Dharma

“No beginning?” Meera frowned. “Everything has a beginning. Even the universe, we learned it, thirteen point eight billion years.” Thatha nodded. “Your universe, perhaps. But I did not say the universe. I said this. The dharma, the way. Sanatana means eternal: not founded on a date, not signed by an author. Sit. Tonight I will tell you what the word means, where the name ‘Hindu’ came from, and why every prayer in this house ends with peace said three times.”

Why the way is called eternal

Sanatana Dharma is a set of eternal principles, knowledge systems, and practices that people have followed since ancient times. Sanatana means eternal, without beginning or end. Dharma means that which upholds, the underlying order of things. In the tradition’s own account, these principles were not invented by any human on any date. They flow from Paramatma, the Supreme Self, the ground of the universe. The seers (drashtas) discovered them, the way Newton discovered gravity rather than inventing it.

People living in the ancient land of Bharat followed these ways of life. Much later, outsiders named the people living beyond the river Sindhu (Indus) “Hindus,” and the system became known to the world as “Hinduism.” The older, truer name remains Sanatana Dharma, the eternal way.

From the pages of history

Walk the history of that name and you walk half the map of the ancient world. The people of Bharat lived along great rivers: the Sindhu, the Ganga, and the Sarasvati of the old hymns. Archaeology keeps finding links which startle scholars. Fire-altars, ritual bathing tanks, and designs from the Sindhu-Sarasvati cities echo in practices still alive today. Ancient Persians, pronouncing Sindhu in their own way, said ‘Hindu’. The Greeks who came later softened it to ‘Indos,’ which gave the world ‘India.’ So the familiar names, Hindu, India, Hindustan, are all at root the name of a river as spoken by travelers. The people themselves needed no label. They spoke of dharma. The tradition is older than its own name.

Well-being of the whole universe

The purpose of Sanatana Dharma is not only to protect and guide humans. It is the well-being of the entire universe: trees, animals, rivers, planets, and all beings. This is visible in the tradition’s own prayers. No worship is complete without “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti”. It wishes peace three times: for oneself, for those around, and for the whole world. And the tradition’s most generous prayer asks nothing for the one praying:

“Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu.”“May all the worlds and all beings be happy.”traditional Sanskrit benediction

“Sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramayah.”“May all be happy; may all be free from illness.”traditional shanti mantra

One truth as its foundation

Underneath the countless practices lies one foundation-stone, stated in a single line of the Rig Veda:

“Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti.”“Truth is one; the wise describe it in many ways.”Rig Veda 1.164.46

If there is one reality and many honest descriptions of it, then many sincere paths are possible. This is exactly how science treats nature: one universe, many models that capture different parts of it. The Chandogya Upanishad sharpens the unity: “Ekam evadvitiyam”, “One only, without a second” (Chandogya 6.2.1). Many traditions uphold their own path as the only truth and the only way to liberation. Sanatana Dharma affirms that a single truth underlies all existence and is accessible to every being.

What dharma means

Pay attention to why this book keeps saying ‘dharma’ instead of ‘religion’. The words do not mean the same thing, and the difference is the whole subject. ‘Religion’ describes a system of belief. Dharma describes the nature and right function of a thing, any thing. The dharma of fire is to burn, of water to flow, of the sun to shine. Ask ‘what is the dharma of fire?’ and you are asking physics. Ask ‘what is the dharma of a student, a friend, a daughter?’ and you are asking ethics. Then ask ‘what is the dharma of a human being as such?’ and you have arrived at this book.

One word runs from the laws of nature to the duties of a person. Its meaning, what upholds, stays the same the whole way. The tradition never split the universe into a natural half and a moral half in the first place. This is also why each person’s duty is called svadharma, one’s own dharma. The right action of a thing follows from what the thing is. And you are not a copy of anyone else. The Gita presses this hard: better one’s own dharma done imperfectly than another’s done well (3.35).

And at the root of all human dharma the tradition placed one principle above the rest: ahimsa, non-harming. ‘Ahimsa paramo dharmah’ is the Mahabharata’s famous refrain. The same epic is full of warriors, so this is no advice to be weak. It is the default setting of a civilization which prays for all beings. Harm none where you have a choice, and let every departure from this rule carry the burden of proof. When a tradition’s first commandment is addressed to the welfare of every creature, its prayers for ‘all the worlds’ are policy, not decoration.

• Sanatana = eternal. Dharma = that which upholds. One word from physics to ethics.

• ‘Hindu’ is a river’s name pronounced by travelers. The tradition is older than its own label.

• Ekam sat, vipra bahudha vadanti: one truth, many honest descriptions. Like one universe, many models.

• Om Shanti ×3. The closing wish is always peace, and always for everyone.

• My dharma follows from what I specifically am. The fire should not envy the river.

• No founder, no founding date, hymns still recited unchanged. Checkable, not only claimed.

That night Meera wrote in her notebook: ‘Older than its own name.’ But a doubt itched at her. If the truth is one, why does Grandma do puja while Thatha just sits with closed eyes? Tomorrow, she decided, she would ask which of them was doing it right. ❖

There is no beginning.