World Needs More ‘Dharma’ and Less ‘Religion’ !

India’s Vedic civilization has always revolved around on thing: “Dharma”.  Those who knew ‘Dharma’ and assimilated it their conduct were called “Arya”. Sanskrit word ‘Ved’ is rooted in ‘Vedana’ implying feelings or experiences. Thus, all 4 Vedas (world’s oldest written texts) were so called because they resulted from the personal experiences of countless highly adept meditators and “Self-explorers” known as ‘sages’ and ‘rishis”. The path of self-exploration starts with experiential familiarity of feelings such as fear, greed and lust and mastering ways to tackle them. They were people who devoted their whole life only towards exploration of human life, its meaning and purpose at the subtlest level. It was only possible by achieving the highest forms of meditation when all mysteries of the mind-body complex (human being) unraveled themselves. Being good meditator demanded having a sound body and a sound mind — it gave birth to the science of Yogic practices and Ayurveda.  In the process of self-realization, rishis acquired ‘knowledge’ of all life forms and their intimate connections with the Nature. Thus, the 4 Vedas cover the entire gamut of factors dealing with human life and its connections with the entire “existence” covering the planet and beyond. On the “path of Dharma”, words like ‘almighty god’ or ‘creator’ have absolutely no relevance.

Here let’s restrict only to ‘dharma’ that deals with the human living. Leading a Dharmic life is prescribed as the sole purpose of human living. Even today Indians inherently tend to follow this path, even if they have never read Vedas or any other practical Dharmic guide like Bhagwat Gita. Past 1000 year of foreign rule has badly distorted the Indian psyche. But the fact remains that all India born philosophies, seen by the foreigners as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc stress only on leading a Dharmic life; of course, in different languages and forms. Different saintly persons born in different parts of India, in different times, speaking different languages guided people to lead Dharmic life in their own ways. Being true saints they merely described Dharma to the best of their ability and people grasped according to their own mental capacity. No one ever forced anything on anyone. The silly concept of ‘conversion’ came to India from outside as Christians and Muslims arrived.

Situation beyond boundaries of Indian civilization was completely different. Practically everywhere on the planet people remained in the grip of base human instincts – fear, greed and lust. Societies relied for security on numbers and behaved like mobs ever ready to kill. Violence was the only means of conflict resolution and refuge for safety. Their eternal search for security led to imagination of powerful almighty gods. People merely prayed (begged) before these non-existent entities for solace in times of distress. In such primitive societies no one could even imagine that people have tremendous amount of hidden abilities to make them masters of their own destiny – without the mumbo-jumbo of god, heaven and hell. Thus, they always remained mentally dependent upon outside forces to look after them.

“Religions” were born in such social atmosphere where presence of saintly people was a rarest of rare thing. Christianity and Islam are “religions” built around two saintly people, Christ (2000 years ago) and Mohammad (1400 years ago). Both the enlightened saints did their best to uplift their followers, who then created literature for Christianity and Islam based on “their understanding” of the words of Christ and Mohammad. The followers were merely supposed to ‘believe’ in the written text without applying their minds. Although they were supposed to translate the ‘words’ in their conduct, but in reality they got stuck in rituals, customs and costumes. For the clergy class it became a ‘business’ to grow numbers; they started the dirty game of ‘conversions’. Thus, piousness of conduct lost its relevance right from the beginning and the medieval herd mentality became dominant. Even today, listen to any Muslim maulana or Christian priest and ‘converting’ more and more people emerges as their central theme, not the conduct.

In India, translating “dharma” as “religion” under foreign influence has badly distorted the essence of Indian philosophies and the political discourse. It has also created a barrier for people from abroad to grasp Indian philosophies untainted by their ‘faith conditioning‘. One thing must be made very clear: “Dharma” and “religion” are two completely different things. The closest cousins of ‘religions’ are other man made philosophies like communism, socialism and so on. They all grow with numbers.

Dharma vs Religion 

In India, people call their philosophical identities as Hindu Dharma, Buddha Dharma, Jain Dharma, Sikh Dharma, and so on. “Dharma” is a profound word with several meanings depending upon the context. But superficial ‘experts’ translated the phrases in English as Hindu religion, Buddhist religion, Jain religion, Sikh religion, and so on. It was a very serious translation error. One can understand their difficulty since no foreign language has any equivalent word for ‘dharma’ because such a holistic and wholesome culture has never existed anywhere beyond boundaries of Indian influence in the past. But with this error, Indians totally devalued the very core of their life science – the ‘dharma.’

‘Dharma’ points to the universal truth relevant for the whole humanity. Thus, all India-born philosophies see humanity as “One Global family”, vasudhaiva kutumbakam – regardless of different beliefs of different people.  The focus is on developing basic human virtues like honesty, compassionate, gratitude, non-violence etc. Dharma is all about picking up right human values and putting them into practice, keeping in mind the natural law of Karma which means doing good deeds bring good fruits and bad Karmas surely invite pain and misery at a future date. The ‘universalism’ of Indian philosophies allow full freedom to pick and choose and evolve into better human being. There is no compulsion of any kind, there is no need to declare ‘belief’ in something or someone, and there is no need to even believe or disbelieve in some unseen God.

Religion says: “My God is Bigger Than Your God” !

On the contrary, a ‘religion’ permanently imprisons its ‘believers’ within the narrow and rigid boundaries of the ‘holy Book’ – with no freedom of human inquiry.  This is the biggest difference foreign ‘religions’ and India’s dharma based systems of living. One binds; the other liberates. When the followers of Jesus and then of Mohammad first came to India, they got accepted as any other human beings, but their ‘faith’ came in the way of mingling freely with the benevolent hosts. And for the hosts it was weird to discover their unusual attachment to ‘faith identity’ and the associated negative bias based on it.

Let’s now explore religion a bit deeper.

What is a Religion?

Jesus and Mohammad had saintly qualities and they taught good things to people around them so that they could lead pious and meaningful human life, which their followers compiled into Bible and Quran. Both these enlightened saints gave the best possible guidance to people around them who had practically zero understanding of morals and ethics. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of their followers got stuck only with the ‘literal’ meanings of they said and failed to absorb the real ‘essence’ of what they taught. Very often enlightened people say things whose ‘essence‘ must be grasped; literal or verbal translation is meaningless or misleading.

Thus, ‘words’ vs ‘essence’ dichotomy emerged right from the beginning in the religions. Another important issue is the context in which the enlightened words were spoken. Those who had the capacity to grasp the ‘essence’ behind the words of Jesus or Mohammad evolved spiritually into better human-beings. But the vast numbers of mediocres could not comprehend the subtle ‘essence’ of Bible or Quran; they got lost in the costumes, customs and rituals encouraged by the self serving clergy class. It is no surprise that the clergymen started giving political color to words that had profound spiritual meaning. It created serious confusion for the true followers who look for honest spiritual interpretation of ‘holy words.’

In the hands of mentally deranged or unworthy people, a religion can be highly dangerous because there are phrases in the ‘Holy Books’ that they can interpret to mean violence against non-believers (even believers who disagree!). The so-called ‘believers’ have been responsible for all the bloodshed in the history done in the name of holy Crusade or holy Jihad. These twisted brained ‘holy warriors’ have killed more people than rest of the wars in the human history of 2000 years. Even today their violent acts remains the biggest threat to the world peace. It is a big relief for the humanity that no other ‘religion’ has emerged in the last 1400 years.

Typically, a religion revolves around an imagined God – an entity who watches things from “somewhere above”.  He reveals the so-called “Only Truth” through a Messenger (in Islam) or Son of God (in Christianity) that gets written in the Book – Bible or Quran. Everything outside the Holy Book is simply false. And believers must believe in it entirely, unquestioningly. History is full of conflicts between Christians and Muslims – because of the my-god-is-bigger-than-your-god syndrome.

If you take away the God, a religion collapses. Or if you don’t believe in God, again religion becomes irrelevant. Therefore, religions have no relevance for atheists – who steer clear of god and god fiction.

Characteristics of ‘Religion’

Here are some common features of of the ‘belief systems’ called religions.

By nature, a religion is restrictive and imposes a pre-fixed “belief system” on people. Thus, blind beliefs and dogmas are the foundation stones of religion. As a ‘believer’ you must believe in the entire package; there is no room for editing, disagreement or innovation. Religions are particularly comforting for people who don’t want to think with their own brains and lack confidence to be in-charge of their lives.

1. Religions are Divisive and Confrontational

When a religion says that it teaches the “Only Truth”, it is giving you the final conclusion. Moreover, a religion divides the humanity into “believers” and “non-believers”. If you believe in our theory you belong to us, else you are alien. Clearly, it sets the stage for confrontation: you are “either with us or against us.”

As part of its unspoken political agenda, a religion also ordains the believers to “convert” others into the religion. Thus, there is big conversion industry associated with Christianity and Islam. The conversion sharks employ all types of filthy tricks to lure gullible people into their fold. They particularly hunt for people in need of emotional support, assurance and security. They are the easiest ‘targets’ of missionaries and Mullahs. They normally offer some material and emotional support in exchange for ‘conversion.’ Missionaries are also notorious for staging ridiculous dramas of ‘miracle’ to fool people! Just google to find out how ridiculous they can get.

Once the population of Muslims or Christians in any society becomes “politically significant” they start demanding fancy things in the name of religion and, if denied, they pretend persecution! You can easily spot this tendency all over the world. So, whenever they cry persecution, their coreligionist elsewhere in the world become spokespersons of the ‘holy victims’ – this opens a new channel for outside interference in any society. Lately, China has been facing the dirty political game of missionaries who have converted significant numbers in some parts of China.  In some other areas with significant population of ‘Muslim converts’, Chinese authorities had to cut their so-called ‘religious freedoms’ to restore social harmony and prevent radicalization.

2. Religions are Possessive and Exclusionary

Becoming a ‘believer’ means you accept the authority of the religion and its clergy-class. It also means that you can’t ‘believe’ in another religion. Many people say that Islam is even a one way road, you can’t come out alive!

3. Religions Need God!

A wise man has famously said: I am not sure whether God created man, but I can definitely say that man created God with all the qualities that he wanted in him!!

The concept of God (who sits somewhere ‘up there’ and watches you) is central to the definition of religion; so much so that a “religion” are its followers are married to its God forever!!  So, there is a supermanish ‘Allah’ for Muslims Islam and a miracle performing ‘God’ for Christians.

There is no place for an atheist in any religion – there can’t be a “Christian atheist” or a “Muslim atheist”. In the not very distant past, when the clergymen ruled the Christian societies and even now in Islamic societies, saying anything against the religion or even trivial criticism could be seen as a serious crime – serious enough to invite imprisonment or execution!

Secularism, the anti-dote to “Religious Tyranny”!

Some 3-4 centuries ago. the Christian West began to realize that the “Christian clergy rule” was restricting free human thinking.  It was the time when scientific discoveries had started to emerge and people needed the freedom to think freely, without fear of punishment by religious authorities, the State.  Thus, they dumped the dictatorial theocratic governance in favor of administration based on non-religious broader humanistic principles.  This gave birth to the idea of ‘secularism‘ – separation of Religion and State. Thus, secular Western democracies evolved so that people could think and express freely and harness their individual enterprise in a much better way; thus, they got rid of stifling clergy dictatorship.  Any one knowledgeable in “Dharma” would tell that while doing so, they only accidentally recognized the universal ‘Oneness’ of human beings‘ that Indians call “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam – disregarding differences in ‘faiths’ and ‘beliefs’ of people!

The Islamic societies, on the other hand, continue to remain stifled by insane dictates of the clergy class, called “mullah mafia” for good reasons. The mullah mafia has become even more powerful than Mohammad or Allah and turned the “religion of peace” into a cult of violence and terrorism. This is what happens when insane amount of “workless” petrodollars fall in unworthy hands of cocky Wahhabi/Deobandi mullahs devoid of slightest sense of morality.

Dharma Encourages Free Inquiry

Indian civilization is the only “Knowledge based” ancient civilization. That’s the reason why even the most devilish Islamic rule for centuries failed to exterminate it. Post 1947, freed of slavery Indians again got busy creating a prosperous society based on knowledge and human enterprise. 

Quite in contrast with foreign born religions, Indian philosophies encourage people to explore themselves and be responsible in deciding what is right for them. There are absolutely no impositions or bondages on people regarding what to believe or not believe. People are squarely responsible for their good and bad actions (karmas) and the ensuing consequences. Thus, they are their own masters.

A non-religious society may still be ethical without belief in God (for instance, the Buddhist society), but an adharmic society soon loses its ethical foundation and falls in the hands of corrupt and decaying forces.

Dharma is all about ethics and morality. Therefore, all the India born philosophies focus on moral conduct. They can never encourage violence, oppression or misconduct – doing so is adharmic!

What is ‘Dharma’ in Simplest Words ?

2500 years ago the greatest spiritual scientist, Gautama the Buddha, explained “Dharma” in his 8-fold path (Arya Ashtangic Magga) in the most lucid ordinary language. It can be further summarized for the lay people: continuously practicing Right Thinking, Right Speech, and Right Livelihood using the tools of  Right Awareness and Right Efforts. Here “Right” implies not harming any being or hurting society. At mental level, it means not harboring ill-will, jealousy, anger, hatred, greed or lust — and at the same time making efforts to be compassionate, forgiving and helpful towards all.

That’s all !! Dharma has to be simple for people to practice it. There is no need to get into the man made Western philosophies revolving around God, heaven, hell or Prophethood.

Both Christ and Mohammad repeatedly pointed towards the good virtues of compassion, kindness and forgiveness and cautioned against indulging in negative feelings. Of course, the words were different. But where there are saints, there is “Dharma” !! If people don’t understand, it’s their shortcoming.

‘God’  in  Indian Spiritual  Philosophies

All the India born philosophies are different paramparas (traditions) that originated in the teachings of different enlightened saints – who all basically taught ‘Dharma’ (universal ethics and morality) in different words and languages.

When knowledgeable people in India talk of God they may be seeing it as personified in some shape (Saakar) or without form (Niraakar) as cosmic energy that pervades everywhere. Unlike ‘believers’ of religions, they are not constrained to a specific pre-written idea. It is perfectly ‘normal’ to have different views because the ultimate focus is on the conduct and virtuous living. It is also perfectly alright to reject God, for the same reason. After all, a pious atheist is far better than a fanatic theist!

Around the world, it is fashionable to wear religious symbols or perform rituals and rites. Indulging in these things without ever questioning them is plain stupidity. This is a reflection of blind faith, visible everywhere, East or West. But it is always nonsensical and and foolish; thus, adharmic.

The nature of Dharma is emphasized in this Hindi Doha:

 “Dharan Kare So Dharma Hai, Varna Kori Baat.”

It says – Dharma is Dharma only if it shows up in the conduct, else it is useless empty talk.

Dharma described in the scriptures or written in the Books has no meaning unless it is put to practice and experientially realized. It certainly demands consistent hard work on oneself, sincere reflection, investigation, prayers, meditation etc. Mere declaring that you believe in Dharma scriptures doesn’t make you dharmic! Although mere declaration of belief in Bible or Quran is enough to make you a Christian or Muslim! In reality, becoming Dharmic is not easy.  This is the VITAL difference between the East and the West, between Dharma and religion!

What if Jesus and Mohammad were Born in India!

Since ancient times India has been a land of Yogis, sages and rishis. They were all explorers of universal Truth, in order to come out of pains and sufferings of life. As a result, spirituality and presence of saintly people has been the way of life – as can also be seen from the constructs of indigenous Indian languages. Despite the onslaught of materialism and Western philosophies, even today the Indian psyche longs for spiritual enlightenment. Leading a life of purity is still considered a virtuous goal worth aiming for.

Now coming to the imaginary question of what if Jesus and Mohammad were born in India. For one, they would have been respected as saintly people with evolved consciousness and people would have looked towards them also for spiritual guidance. At the same time, they could have preached in far more subtler ways to people of already developed spiritual inclinations.

For sure, there would have been two more spiritual traditions in a country in the multitude of diverse philosophies and their followers would be naturally mingling freely with the followers of other traditions. Thus, their teachings certainly would not have been ‘boxed as religions’ – instead the “essence” of their teachings would have only enriched the Dharma atmosphere of India! And, then certainly there would have been no cult of faith identification or faith based discrimination!

Acceptance of Diverse Beliefs  is ‘Tolerance’

Not just the Jews, even Muslims, Christians and Zoroastrians took refuge on Indian soil among accepting locals. The idea of ‘religious persecution’ was brought to India by them. Today, India is home to the largest  population of Parsis (Zoroastrians) who had to escape when Muslims invaded Iran centuries ago. 

Coming from the monolithic Christian or Islamic culture, foreigners feel totally confused in India when they see mind boggling philosophical diversity. But they soon begin to like India because people happily accept them without even asking their faith or background. Indians intrinsically accept that the ultimate Truth (or Reality) can be reached through different paths. For instance, the Rig Veda (I.164.46) explains:

Ekam sad; vipra bahudha vadanti. (while Truth is One, the wise describe it in different ways).

Even in ancient India, when the influence of Indian culture extended to most of East Asia and to Afghanistan and beyond, the foreign travelers saw just “One India” everywhere, despite so much diversity. Even early Christians and Muslims who had to escape their homeland to avoid ‘religious persecution’ always found safe shelter on the Indian soil. Locals happily accepted them despite their foreign appearance and very different belief system.

Hence all types of religious faiths, various forms of worship or spiritual practices, diverse rituals and customs have found their place, side by side, within Indian society; they all coexist and grow in harmony with one another. After all ‘diversity’ is inherent in nature’s order — and accepting it is respecting ‘Dharma’!!

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