Why is Sanatan Dharma needed at all? || Acharya Prashant, with 'Virat Hindustan Sangam' (2021)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00How is Sanatana Dharma related to Hindutva or whether Hinduism, what is the

00:08relationship between Sanatana Dharma and Hinduism or Hindutva ideology?

00:15See, Sanatana Dharma really is the authentic thing. Let alone Hindutva, even

00:34Hinduism does not really come close to or stand representative to Sanatana

00:43Dharma. It's just that when you want to move to the Sanatana truth, then you do

00:57it in your own contemporary way. So Sanatana Dharma needs to have a timely,

01:08topical, contemporary face today. That face can be given any name. What matters

01:23however is that the face must be truthfully of the Sanatana. Just as we

01:34talk of the nirguna and the saguna, the saguna appears as somewhat of a

01:45representative to the nirguna. Similarly, in every age, in every time, depending on

01:53the place, the conditions, lot of things, history, geography, everything, there will

01:59be a need to realize what the right action, what the right code of living for

02:09these situations, these circumstances is. So that needs to be meditated over, thought out

02:20and practiced. And that will change from time to time. Now there is another question which has,

02:31there are two questions which are coming in the same flow. One is by Narpath Singh Gaur. He asks,

02:40does any other Dharma exists which has similar fundamentals? And then there is one more

02:48question which comes sort of close to it. It is by Swami Atmo Sanatan. Is that when

02:54civilizations are evolving, do we need Sanatana Dharma? I'll take the first one first. You see,

03:02Vedanta is very austere, very direct. It does not dabble in belief. It starts with something

03:18that is indisputable and that is the sufferer exists. The experiencer exists. Beyond that,

03:28I do not know anything. And if I am suffering, if I am the experiencer of my misery, then

03:35how credible can I be because I am the suffering mind. If I am the suffering mind, how do I

03:42take the contents or suggestions of the suffering mind as reliable or authentic? I will not.

03:49So Vedanta has zero respect for what we think or what we believe in. Vedanta has acknowledgement

04:01only for our de facto condition. It's like this, a patient goes to the doctor and the

04:11patient is having mental problems, some kind of neurosis, some malfunctioning in the brain or in

04:19the mental system. This much is clear that the patient can neither think nor talk nor experience

04:27correctly, authentically. This much is clear. Now if this is clear, will the doctor pay any

04:36attention to what the patient is saying? No. The doctor will acknowledge the patient's condition

04:43but will not respect the patient's words or beliefs. Please get the situation. And that

04:49is the best that a loving physician or doctor can do for this patient. The Rishis were very

04:57loving people. They operated from a center of compassion and therefore they gave zero respect

05:04to what we think of. So this fellow has come and he's practically a madman as we all are. And he's

05:11saying, doctor this is what is happening to me, this is what I dream of, this is what I believe

05:15in, this is what I say, this is what the tradition in my tribe is. And the doctor will say, keep all

05:22that aside. I don't want to hear that. I just see that you're not alright and I'll go into your

05:28condition, not into your beliefs. So look at all these religious streams that you are referring to.

05:36Do they operate in beliefs? And if they operate in beliefs, then they are not taking you to the

05:42Sanatan. If a scripture opens by saying that unless you believe in such and such thing, then you are

05:52not a true follower. Then what that scripture is saying is that you first of all take the words

06:00of the madman seriously. Is the doctor to treat the patient according to the patient's fancies?

06:09Would be a very bad doctor, no? So when you say, are there other religious streams that take you

06:20to the truth? I do not know. I'm asking you to find out for yourself and that is the Vedantic way,

06:27find out for yourself. You have a book in your hand or if you have a preacher in front of you

06:34who wants to convert you or who wants to impress you with his cult, with his religion or whatever,

06:42you ask him these fundamental questions. Are you coming from a belief? Is there something that you

06:51are totally committed to without ever having any direct proof of it? And if somebody is committed

07:00to something without having a very direct proof of it, then he is actually committed to his own

07:07ego rather than the truth. And that is not Dharma, that is Adharma. What else is Adharma? To be

07:15committed to Ahamkara. Ahamkara says something and you start venerating that as a gospel, as truth,

07:22as spiritual or religious. So that is not Sanatan, that is not even Dharma. Allegiance, loyalty,

07:35devotion to what you have been practicing, what you have seen happening all around you, what a

07:44majority of people believe in, that is not Dharma. Because Dharma is supposed to take you to a peace

07:52beyond yourself and instead of going to a point beyond yourself, you are committing yourself to

08:00objects within your own mental universe, thoughts, feelings, this, that. That is not Dharma. Also,

08:10it is timely here to refute the popular notion that all religions take you towards the same

08:22end. No, that is not the truth at all. A religion that begins in just belief will ultimately make

08:32you a big storehouse of beliefs. And you know who is a person who lives too much in beliefs? As we

08:41said a madman. What differentiates an insane person from a healthy one? The insane person has a lot of

08:52beliefs. He will say, I believe that I have six legs. I believe that I am the richest person in

08:59the world. And he is totally convinced of what he is saying. This is what you can also call as bigotry.

09:07This is bigotry. I am convinced of what I am saying. Why? Because the fellow who indoctrinated me was

09:17convinced of what he was saying. So this way, this is a chain of very insane kind of foundationless

09:32confidence, baseless assertion of one's thoughts. So, the next question was regarding evolution of

09:52a civilization. And then when a civilization evolves, do we need Sanatana Dharma? What is

09:59the basis of the question, first of all? Why do we need civilization? And why will a civilization

10:05evolve at all, you see? We could have as well continued to live in the jungle, right? We came

10:12out of the jungle, and we built these houses, these roads, these schools, these institutions,

10:17that's what we call as civilization, right? And then we taught our children a few things. And we

10:23said there has to be a certain way of life, there has to be a way you address your juniors,

10:29your seniors, there has to be a certain decorum in relationships, and we said that is culture.

10:33Why do we need civilization and culture? We need civilization and culture because we want peace.

10:40Otherwise, the jungle is sufficient. Jungle is our prakritic habitat. So, civilization is just

10:53an imperative of dharma. Our dharma is to move towards liberation. Therefore, we need civilization

11:05of the kind that assists our movement towards liberation. Civilization is not an end in itself.

11:13Civilization is a means towards fulfilling your dharma. We do not just need broader roads and

11:25taller buildings to amplify our ego. If we need broader roads at all, then we need them to be

11:39relatively peaceful to engage ourselves in deeper pursuits. Otherwise, a two-hour journey takes

11:49eight hours, and all the time, these eight hours, you are worrying about an impending accident.

11:56Obviously, that will not allow you to be meditative or attentive towards any deep

12:03thing in life. When we were in the jungle, we didn't have houses, so there were bugs and

12:12mosquitoes pestering us all the time. So, in such a situation, it became very difficult to concentrate,

12:21let alone meditate. Can you imagine? You are sitting on the ground, and there are insects

12:30around, and some insect is biting on your thigh, and the odd mosquito, and a really big one is

12:37sitting on your nose, and you want to think about life and death. How will you do that?

12:42Instead of life and death, you are thinking about flies and mosquitoes. So, to move from flies to

12:50life, we came to the cities, and that has to be remembered. We didn't come to the cities so that

13:01we could consume more, or gratiate ourselves more. We did not come to the cities so that we

13:11could please our ego all the more. That was not at all the objective, though that's what we might

13:19be doing today. The objective was to have more peace in our external space, so that we can devote

13:30ourselves to higher pursuits in life. That's why we build these houses, these communities, these

13:37roads, these schools, these hospitals. Otherwise, you know, how will you really think and

13:45discuss with people? You want company of like-minded people, of people of high consciousness, and as you

13:55are sitting with them to discuss and deliberate on something, you are also worrying about the

14:04hyenas and the jackals, and some beast growls in the distance, and all your meditation is gone. So,

14:15that's the reason why civilization is needed. Similarly, culture. We do not need culture to

14:26boast of a rich tradition as we do these days. We keep saying, oh, we have a rich tradition,

14:31we have a very ancient tradition. Life itself is so small, what will you do with things ancient?

14:38Tomorrow, you too will become ancient like everybody who is gone and done and dusted. So,

14:47neither civilization nor culture carry any importance by themselves. They are means towards

14:57the ultimate end of life, and the ultimate end of life is mukti, liberation, realization,

15:05whatever you want to call it. So, I just do not know, I am still wondering over the question,

15:12how one can say that since we are very civilized now, hence we do not need dharma. It's like saying

15:20that since I have a Mercedes now, therefore, I do not need a steering. I mean, fine, civilization is

15:30the material thing like the Mercedes. The steering denotes the consciousness that drives the material

15:36thing. So, what will you do with the steering if you have a Mercedes? What do I say about it?

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