Sanatana Dharma/Arsha Dharma

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Dear All, Dharma(following the innate nature, the right path) is one, and is not related to any religion, methodologies, philosophy - if not understood in the narrow meaning as 'religion'. Dharma is beyond all religions - the true religion of the self - the Dharma patha. The usual innate meaning of the word Dharma is Path. I am using this word below with all the major trends to denote 'Path'. In other words 'Agama Dharma' means 'Agama Patha' or 'Agama path'.

1) Agamsa Dharma:

Agama mainly refters to the ancient Saiva-Agama path. Flourished in north west india in the ancient past it was the path followed by the Sindhu-Sarasvati civilization. The various Tantric cults originated from the same. Life and nature was accepted as a whole - and there was no effort to renounce the existence. This was/is the most wide spread path followed by the people all over india, in its various modified forms. Its period is approximately BC 6000 onwards or prior to that, and is still prevalent till date. Tantra Yoga is part of Agama stream. Even though Upasana methodologies are important in Agama (Tantra), Bhakti does not play an important role since it was NOT considered as a major tool for realization - but instead Yoga and Pranayama were given importance.

2) Nigama (Vedic) Dharma Nigama mainly refers to the Vedic path. Propagated by the people who lived in the eastern bank of Sarasvati riiver (Kalibangan) who later migrated to Ganges plannes. The Nigama path gave raise to many texts ranging from yanjna like karma kanda related texts to the contribution of the highly eveolved souls like the Upanishads. The nigama path never became the path of the people - and never made much impact among the common people of india, and all the Vedic gods already lost their importance. But due to the merit of the texts originated in this branch during BC 3000 to BC 500, and the astonishing knowledge inherent in them it is still much valued and revered. Yoga was NOT originally part of this stream, but later it adopted the same from the Nigama path in a modified form. 3) Sanatana Dharma

This term and trend originated from the mixture of Agama and Nigama paths. We see the use of this term mainly in the epics like Mahabharata. Examples of Sanatana Dharma are 'Narayaneeya Dharama' (depicted in Mahabharata, one of the major text of which is Bhagavata and Bhagavat Geeta), 'Devi Bhagavata Dharma' etc. Or in other words - this trend started giving more importance to Bhakti and Temple worship, along with the worship of newly elevated gods like - Siva, Vishnu, Brahma, Saraswati, Kali, Bhagavati, Durga, Krishna and so on. The term 'Sanatana dharma' is derived from a sage's name 'Sanatana'. Who was Sanatana? He is one among the 4 great sages or gurus of this trend the others being - Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatkumara and Sanatana. The clear history or teachings of these 4 sages are not clearly available - but a study of the text 'Sanaka Samhita' and the epic and puranas can reveal much about the change of trend they caused in indian history, based on one of them even the very popular word 'Sanatana Dharma' originated. Now a days more and more people are trying to ascribe the meaning 'Everlasting' to the word Sanatana, may be in an effort to hide its historical association with these sages. This system of Sanatana Dharma (Bhakti+Temples), must have originated around BC 1500 and in any case now it is one very popular throughout india, usually almost very difficult to identify seperately from Agama (Tantric) system.

4) Jain Dharma

The first Theerthankara of Jains is Rishabha Deva who is mentioned in the Vedas. It is from his son King Bharata's name that India got the name 'Bharata'. Many later Theerthankaras like Nemi, Janaka (father of Seeta) also gets mentioned in many Upanishads, epics and puranas. The Jain sage Garga and his son Rishiputra lived around BC 1400, as clear from the quotes describing seasons available from their texts. Thus its clear that Jain got a great history and the tradition is as ancient as the Vedas. It was the revolt against killing of animals done in yagas, and the fight against caste based discrimination that made this religion unique and the favorite of people. Thus Ahimsa and Equality are at the core of Jain Dharma. It must have started around BC 2000 and prevailed for many centuries but by now - got almost merged with Hindu religion (A common term used for Agama, Nigama, Sanatana Dharma + many small divergent cults). Now it is almost indistinguishable from the common Hindu religion.

5) Bhuddha Dharma

The first Buddha was 'Saka Muni' or 'Sakya Muni'. His period is around BC 1800. Saka is another term for Parthians who attacted the north west part of India and ruled over north west India including Iran and Afghanistan for many centuries. Parthians were a belligerent horse riding tribe who conquered many lands and famous for their cruelty. But the later day Pathidan kings adopted Buddhist religion which gave much importance to Ahimsa and compassion. Even though the Buddhist religion originated with Saka Muni or BC 1800, the most popular Buddha was Gautama of BC 500. It was with Gautama buddha and also with the efforts of King Asoka of Maurya dynasty to spread the Buddhist religion throughout the world that this religion became very popular and got a strong footing. Ahimsa and Vegetarianism lies at the core of Buddhist religion (even though many napal buddhists and lamas are non-vegetarians). Note that even the common word 'Sakahari' (in Hindi) refers to 'Saka-Ahari' (the one who follows the food trend of Saka people (Parthians), i.e. buddists, Sakahari meansa Vegitarians). Just like Jains the Buddhist religion was also a revolt against the animal killing rituals of the vedic yajnas, and the cast system propogated by vedic brahmins. Buddist religion considered every Buddhist as equal, and gave importance to Ahimsa. In the back drop of the popularity of Jain religion and the common people's revolt agaisnt caste system Buddhism spread very fast and got adopted by the common people of India. But unlike Jain Dharma, Buddhists were against idol worship and the existence of god, atma etc. This caused a strong hatred towards the buddhist people from the then prevailing Hindu religion - and a strong fight started (with the rise of Sunga kingdom in around AD 200) and Buddhists were the major victims.

 

These Dharmas are all part of ancient indian history. And now with this understanding what should we call them? Agama dharma, Vaidika dharma, Sanatana dharma? It is clear that NONE of those words can reflect the reality as depicted above. The only word I could find that clearly reflects the total innate trends of all thes Dharmas (paths) is - Arsha Dharma. Arsha means - Originated by Rishis, Advised by the sages. Thus is it is neither Hinduism (which keeps Buddhism and Jainism outside) nor Sanatana Dharma (which cannot reflect Vaidika dharma, Buddhism etc) - but the word 'Arsha Dharma' is more apt - in my opinion.

Love and regards,

Sreenadh