BellaCH: Sanātana Dharma

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Sanātana Dharma

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{{Short description|"Eternal Law"; alternative name for Hinduism}}
{{redirect2|Sanatan|Sanatana|Sanatana the rishi|Four Kumaras}}
{{Hinduism}}
{{EngvarB|date=March 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}}

'''Sanātana Dharma''' ([[Devanagari]]: {{lang|sa|सनातन धर्म}}, meaning "eternal ''[[dharma]]''", "eternal order")<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web|title=Sanatana dharma {{!}} Hinduism|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sanatana-dharma|access-date=2021-07-04|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> is an [[Endonym and exonym|endonym]] used by Hindus to refer to [[Hinduism]]. It refers to the “eternal” truth and teachings of Hinduism. It can also be translated as “the natural and eternal way to live". The term is used in Indian languages alongside the more common ''Hindu Dharma'' for Hinduism.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rajarajan|first=R. K. K.|title=Drāviḍian/Tamil Concept of Religion is sanātanadharma a Religion?|url=https://www.academia.edu/44450087|journal=Into the Nuances of Culture. Essays on Culture Studies|date=January 2020|language=en}}</ref><ref name="ref70cumez"/> ''Sanatana Dharma'' can also denote the list of 'eternal' or absolute duties and practices.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=What is Sanatana Dharma?|url=http://www.yogapedia.com/definition/6240/sanatana-dharma|access-date=2022-02-18|website=Yogapedia|language=en}}</ref>

==Etymology==
In [[Sanskrit]], ''Sanātana Dharma'' translates approximately to "eternal law" or, less literally, "eternal way."<ref name="harvey2001">so {{cite book |author=Harvey, Andrew |title=Teachings of the Hindu Mystics |publisher=Shambhala |location=Boulder |year=2001 |pages=xiii |isbn=1-57062-449-6}}). See also [[René Guénon]], ''Introduction to the Study of the Hindu Doctrines'' (1921 ed.), Sophia Perennis, ISBN 0-900588-74-8, part III, chapter 5 "The Law of Manu", p. 146. On the meaning of the word "Dharma", see also [[René Guénon]], ''Studies in Hinduism'', Sophia Perennis, ISBN 0-900588-69-3, chapter 5, p. 45</ref> In [[Pali]], the equivalent term is ''Dhammo Sanātano'' (धम्मो सनन्तनो).<ref name="harvey2001"/> In Hindi, the Sanskrit [[tatsama]] ''[[dharma|dharm]]'' [[:hi:धर्म|धर्म]] is being used as "[[religion]]"<ref>its Sanskrit meaning has the sense of "law", or more literally "that which supports; what is firmly established", from an original meaning of "wooden post used as support".</ref> ([[:hi:सनातन धर्म|सनातन धर्म]]) roughly translates to "eternal religion".

''[[Dharma]]'' is often translated as "duty", "religion" or "religious duty", but has a deeper meaning. The word comes from the Sanskrit root "''dhri''" which means "to sustain" or "that which is integral to something" (e.g. ''dharma'' of sugar is to be sweet, fire to be hot). A person's ''dharma'' consists of duties that sustain them according to their innate characteristics which are both spiritual and material, generating two corresponding types:<ref name="sanatana-dharma">{{Cite web|title=Sanatana Dharma|url=https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/concepts/key-concepts/sanatana-dharma/|access-date=2020-04-17|website=The Heart of Hinduism|quote=Dharma is often translated as “duty,” “religion” or “religious duty” and yet its meaning is more profound, defying concise English translation. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit root “dhri,” which means “to sustain.” Another related meaning is “that which is integral to something.” For example, the dharma of sugar is to be sweet and the dharma of fire to be hot. Therefore, a person’s dharma consists of duties that sustain them, according to their innate characteristics. Such characteristics are both material and spiritual, generating two corresponding types of dharma: (a) Sanatana-dharma – duties which take into account the person’s spiritual (constitutional) identity as atman and are thus the same for everyone. (b) Varnashrama-dharma – duties performed according to one’s material (conditional) nature and specific to the individual at that particular time (see Varnashrama Dharma). According to the notion of sanatana-dharma, the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity (atman) is to perform seva (service). Sanatana-dharma, being transcendental, refers to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems. ...}}</ref>

# ''Sanatana-dharma'' – duties performed according to one's spiritual (constitutional) identity as ''[[Ātman (Hinduism)|atman]]'' (Self) and are thus the same for everyone. General duties include virtues such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, purity, goodwill, mercy, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, generosity, and asceticism.<ref name="Britannica"/>
# ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|Varnashrama-dharma]]'' ({{aka}} Svadharma) – duties performed according to one's material (conditional) [[Guṇa|nature]] and are specific to the individual at that particular time. One's "own duty" according to his or her class or caste and stage of life should win when in conflict with ''Sanatana-dharma'' (e.g. A warrior injuring others as explained in ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'').<ref name="Britannica"/>

According to the notion of ''sanatana-dharma'', the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity (''atman'') is to perform ''[[Seva (Indian religions)|seva]]'' (service). ''Sanatana-dharma'', being transcendental, refers to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems.<ref name="sanatana-dharma" />

==History==
The phrase ''dharma sanātana'' occurs in classical [[Sanskrit literature]], for example, in the ''[[Manusmrti]]'' (4-138)<ref name="manusmriti2345">{{Citation | title=Manusmriti (4-138) | url= | quote=''... "Satyam bruyatpriyam bruyanna bruyatsatyamapriyam. Priyam cha nanrtam bruyadesa dharmah sanatanah." (Translation: "Speak the truth, speak the truth that is pleasant. Do not speak the truth to manipulate. Do not speak falsely to please or flatter someone. This is the quality of the eternal [[dharma]]") ...''}}</ref> and in the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]''.<ref>{{Citation |title=Srimad-Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) (8.14.4) |url=https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/14/4/ |quote=''... "catur-yugānte kālena grastāñ chruti-gaṇān yathā । tapasā ṛṣayo ’paśyan yato dharmaḥ sanātanaḥ" (Translation: "At the end of every four yugas, the great saintly persons, upon seeing that the eternal [sanātanaḥ] occupational duties [dharmaḥ] of mankind have been misused, reestablish the principles of religion.") ...''}}. Other ''shlokas'' are [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/3/16/18/ 3.16.18] (''sanātano dharmo''); [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/7/11/2/ 7.11.2] (''dharmaṁ sanātanam''); [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/7/11/5/ 7.11.5] (''sanātanaṁ dharmaṁ''); [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/8/39-40/ 8.8.39], [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/8/14/4/ 8.14.4], [https://vedabase.io/en/library/sb/10/4/39/ 10.4.39] (''dharmaḥ sanātanaḥ'').</ref><ref name="patton1234">''Authority, Anxiety, and Canon'' By Laurie L. Patton, P. 103.</ref>

In the late 19th century, the term was revived during the [[Hindu revivalism]] movement as a name for [[Hinduism]] as a religion in order to avoid having to use the term "[[Hindu]]" which is of non-native [[Persian language|Persian]] origin.<ref name = san>The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Ed. John Bowker. Oxford University Press, 2000</ref><ref>J. Zavos, ''Defending Hindu Tradition: Sanatana Dharma as a Symbol of Orthodoxy in Colonial India'', Religion (Academic Press), Volume 31, Number 2, April 2001, pp. 109-123; see also R. D. Baird, "[[Swami Bhaktivedant]]a and the Encounter with Religions", ''Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism'', edited by Harold Coward, State University of New York Press, 1987)</ref>

Today, Sanatana Dharma is associated only with [[Hinduism]].<ref name="ref70cumez">{{Citation|author=Lester R. Kurtz|title=Gods in the global village: the world's religions in sociological perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7dEAk-C3hdwC|year=2007|publisher=Pine Forge Press, 2007|isbn=9781412927154|page=49|quote=''... Hinduism — or Sanatana Dharma, as some believers prefer to call it — is askewed now in religious tradition and the remenants of the Truth of it is what is being talked about here. It now encompass layers of complex deposits from many different cultures over the centuries. Its remarkable diversity and doctrinal tolerance ...''}}</ref> In current-day usage, the term ''sanatana dharma'' is diminished and used to emphasize a "traditional” or ''sanatani'' ("eternalist") outlook in contrast to the socio-political Hinduism embraced by movements such as the [[Arya Samaj]].<ref name="ref48zupul">{{Citation|author=Dansk etnografisk forening|title=Folk, Volumes 36-37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qM9KAAAAYAAJ|year=1995|publisher=Dansk etnografisk forening, 1995|quote=''... The Arya Samaj and their activities can be understood as representing a cultural revivalist movement ... the orthodox Hindus, the Sanatanis, who supported and protected Sanatan Dharm (eternal religion) ...''}}</ref><ref name="ref55micac">{{Citation|author=Anupama Arya|title=Religion and politics in India: a study of the role of Arya Samaj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h4bXAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=K.K. Publications, 2001|quote=''... the Samaj is opposed to idol worship which is practised in the traditional Sanatan Dharma of Hindu ... difference between the Arya Samaj and those movements was that the former was a revivalist and a fundamentalist movement ...''}}</ref><ref name="ref97dizel">{{Citation|author=Robin Rinehart|title=One lifetime, many lives: the experience of modern Hindu hagiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uF_ygz1CLHIC|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press US, 1999|isbn=9780788505553|quote=''... the Lahore Sanatana Dharma Sabha [society for the eternal dharma], which was an organization dedicated to preserving what it considered the true Hindu tradition against the onslaught of reform and revival groups ...''}}</ref> In sharp contrast to the efforts by Lahore Sanatana Dharma Sabha to preserve the Hindu tradition against the onslaught of reform, now it is being stressed that Sanatan Dharma cannot be rigid, it has to be inclusive without excluding the best and totality of knowledge to guide the karmic process, especially as Sanatan has no beginning and no end.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sanatan Mission|url=https://sanatanmission.com/|access-date=2019-11-12|website=Sanatan Mission|language=en}}</ref>

==Competition with other denominations==
Sanatanis and reformists (such as the [[Arya Samaj]], the [[Radha Soami]]s and the [[Ramakrishna Mission]]) have competed for adherents for more than a century, sometimes creating deep schisms in Hindu society, as in the case of [[South Africa]]n Hindus who were split between the Arya Samaj and Sanatanis.<ref name="ref64jirum">{{Citation | title=The Arya Samaj movement in South Africa | author=Thillayvel Naidoo | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1992 | isbn=978-81-208-0769-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2z1mnXSPmEC | quote=''... The reception accorded the Arya Samaj ... The Hindu community ... was split into two camps, one supportive and the other antagonistic ... attitudes of intransigence which characterised dialogue between the two groups ... the two terms "Samajists" and "Sanatanis" came into vogue ...''| year=1992 }}</ref> While the reformist groups were better organized initially, by the 1860s, a process of internal counter-reform was underway in Sanatani groups as well, and societies to propagate orthodox beliefs along modern lines emerged, such as Sanatan Dharm Rakshini Sabha in 1873.<ref name="ref13baqeb">{{Citation | title=The life of a text: performing the Rāmcaritmānas of Tulsidas | author=Philip Lutgendorf | author-link=Philip Lutgendorf | publisher=University of California Press, 1991 | isbn=978-0-520-06690-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=19zvfkwXyzUC | quote=''... Perhaps the most significant impact of the Arya Samaj, the most reformist ... came from the organizational model it presented, which increasingly came to be emulated by orthodox groups ... the Sanatan Dharm Rakshini Sabha ... formed in Calcutta in 1873 ...''| year=1991 }}</ref><ref name="ref48royoq">{{Citation | title=Essays on Rabindranath Tagore | author=Tika Ram Sharma, D. M. Gupta | publisher=Vimal Prakashan, 1987 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p7ljAAAAMAAJ | quote=''... The aftermath of the bitter and violent attack of Aryasamaj on idol-worship and an equally enthusiastic rebuttal by Sanatanis in the first three decades of this century presented as alarming a scene as a clash between Hindu and Muslim ...''| year=1987 }}</ref> Some religious commentators have compared the Sanatani-Samaji dichotomy within Hinduism as similar to the [[Catholic]]-[[Protestant]] division in [[Christianity]].<ref name="ref38ropil">{{Citation | title=The Asians in East Africa: Jayhind and UhuruProfessional-technical series | author=Agehananda Bharati (Swami) | publisher=Nelson-Hall Co., 1972 | isbn=978-0-911012-49-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWFyAAAAMAAJ | quote=''... If we regard the Arya Samaj as a Protestant movement— and it is that on all counts— and the sanatanis as the traditionalists, the Hindu "Catholics," so to speak ...''| year=1972 }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Hindu idealism]]
*[[Neo-Vedanta]]
*[[Hindu revivalism]]

== External links ==

* [https://www.thegaudiyatreasuresofbengal.com/2020/11/26/what-is-sanatan-dharma/ What is Sanatan Dharma?]
*[https://www.thegaudiyatreasuresofbengal.com/2020/12/11/sanatan-dharma-the-power-of-boundless-love/ Sanatan Dharma - The power of boundless love]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanatana Dharma}}
[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Sanskrit words and phrases]]
[[Category:Indigenous Aryanism]]

Sanātana Dharma - Revision history

BellaCH: Sanātana Dharma