Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism

 

The word Sastra denotes the beginningless and endless “Veda”. It is this Veda only that is capable of teaching religion.

 

The Puranas and other books are denoted by the word Smriti. They have authority only in so far as they have followed the Veda.

 

“Truth” is of two kinds: 1) that which is perceivable by the five senses of human beings and is deducible therefore by inference and 2) that which is perceivable by the subtle powers arising from Yoga.

The knowledge acquired by the first means is called science and that acquired by the second method is the Veda.

 

The beginningless and endless mass of infinite knowledge called the “Veda” is eternally existent. The Creator Himself is creating, maintaining and destroying this world with the help of the “Veda”.

 

The person in whom that power of intuition is manifested is called a Rishi, and the infinite knowledge that he comprehends through that power is called the “Veda”.

 

The attainment of this Rishi-hood or seer-ship, consisting in the immediate knowledge of the “Veda”, is the true realization of religion. Until the aspirant’s life opens out to it, religion for him is a “more meaningless word”, and he cannot be said to have set his foot on the threshold of religion.

 

The authority of the Veda holds good irrespective of time, place and person; i.e, its authority is not confined to a particular time, country or person.

 

The veda alone sets forth the Universal Religion. Although a little of that infinite knowledge is to be found in the Ithihasas, Puranas, etc., of our country and in the religious books of foreign countries, yet as the first complete and unaltered collection of the entire body of the eternal knowledge, this mass of words compiled into four books called the Veda and well known to the Hindus, is worthy of occupying the highest place in all respect, of being adored by the whole world and of being the ultimate proof of the truth of all scriptures, indigenous or alien.

 

Regarding the mass of words called the Veda, discovered by the Rishis, it must also be understood that that part alone of it, which is not Arthavada (eulogy) or Aitihya (tradition) or otherwise empirically known or knowable, is the Veda. This mass of words is divided into two parts, namely, that relating to knowledge and that relating to work. As the rituals of the Veda and their results described in the “work” portion exist for all time in the domain of Maya, they are subject to transformation according to the law of change with reference to time, place, person, circumstances, etc. Yes, they have been and will be changed. As social manners and customs depend on this “work” portion, they also do and will undergo change. Similarly, popular customs and manners too have been and will be accepted from time to time, only is so far as they are not contrary to the scriptures and the conduct of the wise. One of the main causes of the downfall of the Hindus is their subjection to such popular customs and manners as are contrary to the Veda.

 

The “knowledge” portion of the Veda, otherwise known as the Vedanta, aided by selfless action, concentration of mind, devotion and self-knowledge, is eternally taking men across the ocean of Maya to the other shore of liberation. As it is not at all influenced by time, place and agency, it alone is the teacher of the universal religion – a religion that is meant for all peoples, all countries and all times.

 

It is on the basis of the “Work” portion of the Veda that books on the social system like those of Manu and others have taught, in addition to other matters, those actions that are conducive to social welfare, varying with time, place and agency; while books like the Puranas have taken up the truths hidden in Vedanta and have explained them in detail in their descriptions of the achievements and excellences of Divine Incarnations and other manifestations of one or another of the numerous aspects of the Divine.

 

But, in course of time, the descendants of the Rishis deviated from right conduct, and lacking dispassion, devoted themselves to the prevailing popular customs and grew feeble in intellect. They failed to understand the import of even the Puranas, which appeared as contradictory to one another on account of their teaching those different divine aspects and preaching the subtle truths of the Vedanta in gross and concrete forms in detail for the consumption of weak brains. Hence they split into numerous divisions the integral eternal religion, which is an aggregate of innumerable religious moods; and kindling the fire of sectarian hatred and jealousy, they endeavoured to throw one another into that fire. When they thus turned Bharata, the land of religion, almost into a hell, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna incarnated himself in order to show what the real religion of the Rishis was and where lay the unity amongst the numberless sects and denominations of the Hindu religion scattered pell-mell over a vast range of time and place - the religion that has become a source of delusion to the people of the land and an object of contempt to those of other countries, owing to its apparent division into innumerable ever-warring sects bristling with contradictory customs. This he did by holding aloft before the gaze of all his own life as a living example of that religion eternal by concentrating in himself its universality lost by the lapse of time.

 

The Divine, whose embodiment the Veda is, gave no facilities of literary education to this incarnation, in order to show how the eternally existing Sastra - with the help of which Isvara evolves, maintains and dissolves the universe - reveals itself in the hearts of a Rishi wherefrom all Samskaras have been erased; so that, when the truth of the Sastras is thus proved, religion would be re-discovered and re-promulgated.

 

It is well known from such books as the Smritis that the Divine incarnates Himself again and again for the protection of the Veda, the true religion, and of Brahmana, that is, the teacher of religion.

 

Even as a stream falling down a precipice gains in speed, and a wave rising after a fall swells higher, so after each downfall, as history demonstrates, did the Hindu society shed its morbidities and emerge more glorious and vigorous under the compassionate guidance of the Divine.

 

Rising again after each fall, our society reveals more of the eternal perfection hidden within; and the Divine, the internal controller of all beings, likewise manifests more and more of His real nature in successive incarnations.

 

Again and again did this land of Bharata faint away, and again and again did its divine Lord manifest Himself and reawaken it.

 

The most compassionate divine Lord has manifested Himself far more fully in this modern age, in the aforesaid form (i.e., Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna) of the incarnation of the age, than He ever did in any other age, playing as He has done on the entire gamut of all the spiritual moods and experiences and utilizing to the utmost all arts and sciences.

 

In consequence of this fact, during this renascence, the descendants invigorated by this new strength, will be able not only to piece together the fragmented and scattered mass of spiritual knowledge, but also to rediscover the lost branches of arts and sciences, and to enrich their lives by the realisation of those ideas and ideals through proper understanding.

 

Hence is being preached the harmony of all noble ideas and ideals at the dawn of this great age. And this infinite and eternal grand ideal that lay embedded and hidden in the ancient scripture and religion of India is being loudly proclaimed in society.