'Sanatan' Dharm: Afflicted with Exclusivity Syndrome
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
4 October
2023
Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday emphasised the significance of
Sanatana Dharma, stating that it is the only religion and the rest of all are
sects and methods of worship.
Speaking at
the 'Shrimad Bhagwat Katha Gyan Yagya' event, Yogi Adityanath said,
"Sanatana Dharma is the only religion, the rest are all sects and methods
of worship. Sanatan is the religion of humanity and if it's attacked, then
there will be a crisis for humanity across the globe."
Among a
plethora of religions, cults and sects, it was pristine Hinduism which never
claimed to be the only TRUE path. All other religions suffered from this
obnoxious sense of religious superiority and considered themselves to be the
best and others as false and adulterated.
All three
Abrahamic faiths still believe that each one is the ONLY true faith and others
are interpolated.
Now that
affliction has crept into today's Hinduism which arrogantly calls itself
Sanatan Dharm. Eastern consciousness was never pontificating. It was all-embracing
and respectful to other religions. Even when Eastern or Oriental consciousness
degenerated into an ism and became an organised faith, called Hinduism or
Sanatan, it never professed to be the ONLY WAY.
In fact,
Bhamati school, named after Vachaspati Mishra's commentary on Adi Shankara's
Brahma Sutra Bhashya, mildly criticises Krishna's exasperating megalomania of I'm
the Way in Gita just the way Jesus claimed that He was the Only Way
(Savior of mankind) in the Bible.
"The
Exclusivity Syndrome is a bane of a religion," opined Dr Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan in his brilliant book, "The Hindu View of Life."
What an irony! What the greatest modern exponent of Hindu way of life observed
and cautioned in his book, spiralled down to the same religious megalomania in
today's horrific Sanatan Dharm and its hardcore exponents like Yogi and his
ilk.
Though I've
been explaining this recent religio-political construct Sanatan in different
publications, I feel that I should explain it again for the esteemed readers.
Those who've read Dr Radhakrishnan's book 'The Hindu View of Life,' may
recall that Radhakrishnan stated in his book that for want of a better name or
term, he was constrained to use Hinduism which was not exactly a doctrine or a
fixed system of beliefs. He used the word Sanatan very few times and that too,
not for Hinduism but for the continuation and evolution of Hindu view and way
of life. In the past, Sanatan was never used or employed as a synonym of
Hinduism. It was used with a view to underlining the ever-evolving nature of
the Eastern consciousness or thought process.
Sanatan
doesn't mean right from the beginning. It means qualitative development,
improvement and betterment in an existing or a given scenario. Sanatan is 'Nitya
Pratibhasit' (evolving and manifesting constantly). It has nothing to do
with any esoteric value system or religious mumbo-jumbo. It means ethical and
spiritual evolution (Naitik-Adhyatmik Samunnati). But today's uneducated
or at the most, semi-educated neo-Hindus and their political masters are
hell-bent upon proving that Sanatan is Hinduism. Sanatan is an attribute of
Hindu/Oriental/ Eastern way of life. Alas, who'll teach this simple and
straight concept to these brainless wonders who're forever at loggerheads with
reason, sense and sensibility?
------
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several
languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/sanatan-dharm-exclusivity-syndrome/d/130816