Sanathana Dharma

There are countless articles on this subjects.

I hope to share my take on this topic. My thought process on this subject has developed due to the inspiration of Paramacharya of Kanchi, and some other great thinkers and saints.

Sanathana Dharma would mean the "Eternal Dharma".

Dharma is a unique indian word which can be loosely described as the principles that should govern an individual's life.

Should there be one?

Today science is trying to postulate the laws that govern the universe. It seeks to explain the behavior of all matter. Why is it looking for such an answer? The reason is that there is a principle that governs the property of all matter.

Moving from the realm of matter to the realm of thought we are slowly transcending to an area or a domain that is not exactly in the same class of objects as the materials dealt with by science. We are talking about psychology.

Human , animal psychology!

But it is not just that we can say. The behavior response to a circumstance from a plant can also be studied.

What I intend not to discuss is the similarity or difference of thoughts from matter. What I would like to point out is that the subject of psychology should also be governed by certain laws as which governs matter. It is not difficult to see why this seems possible. Every thought, every living being is not unrelated to its circumstance. Any idea holds its dependency on a previous idea or activity in the world. From birth to death, from the time in the womb to beyond, any kind of development in the mental and physical activity of a living being is dictated by the circumstance and by the thoughts and information received by it.

No scientific information or invention is possible without a source of information or without a surrounding circumstance. Thus thoughts by themselves can be shown to be never be independent of their circumstance. If one were to therefore refer back to the linked references one is likely to speculate that it may be possible to construct a particular behavior under a particular circumstance. This is thus something that pertains to a law of psychology.

We can also see that just as in the case of non living matter no part of a living matter is independent of circumstances in the universe. This seems to be a common experience.

Looking at the entire picture, we could suppose that all living and non living matter in this universe is part of the universal law which creates the circumstances for the matter to operate. If we could say that the primeval or elementary laws that governs the atoms must have been consistent since the beginning of universe the same may be said about living matter too. There does not seem to be an evidence to the opposite. Any new kind of rule that emerges in the universe must be as a consequence of these elementary laws that operate.

The idea of Sanathana Dharma must be seen in this way. The eternal law that an individual must be subject to is what Dharma is all about. Such a thing should be eternally in operation subjecting both living and non living matter. While we can speak about laws , can an individual show a behavior contrary to a law. The answer is no but we can show that following and creating certain circumstances around oneself one can help to create a situation that is more beneficial to one's contentment and thought process . Acting in another way, is likely to create an environment around one's mind which is likely to be less satisfactory. To say that the effect of all circumstances and thoughts is the same and has no effect on the individuals' own behavior and character development is nothing short of advocating that there is no such thing as a law of human behavior. It can easily be recognized that every circumstance in the world has a particular behavior syndrome associated with the living beings of the world who are part of that circumstance.

What constitutes this Dharma is a separate discussion!