Santana Dharma or Vedic Religion means Atmic religion because the Santana Dharma or Vedic Religion accepts only Athma as God.
Atama is Brahman or God in truth. The nature of God is Advaita.
In Tattireya Upanishad: ~ "SatyaM Vada. DharmaM Cara." Speak the truth, practice dharma. Now if you want to practice dharma, you should first know what it means. (1.11.1)
The word, “dharma “is found in the karikas, which means Atma in Advaita Vedanta.
Vedas clearly mentions that God is “One”. And never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman.
Thus, wherever they accept another God in place of Atman or worship other than the Atman is not of the Santana Dharma or Vedic Religion. If the seeker is seeking truth Such Gods has to be rejected without mercy. Worshipping of such Gods is barred by Vedas.
If you think your religion is Santana Dharma or Vedic religion then you have to discard non-Vedic religion, non-Vedic sects, and non-Vedic Gods and non-Vedic rituals have to be discarded and stick to the Vedic God alone as the ultimate truth or Brahman.
Santana Dharma or Vedic religion is the only spiritualistic religion in the world, which emphasis on Self-realization.
In Santana Dharma or the Vedic Religion, the Atman the ‘Self’ is God. This Self –realization is God-realization and God-realization itself is real worship.
The vast ocean of Vedic religion or Santana Dharma was consistently steady and calm for a very long period. It appears that as a consequence of the rage of the Buddhist revolution it got suddenly disturbed and flowed down to us in disorder. Even today Vedic religion or Santana Dharma has not recovered from the onslaught of Buddhism and Jainism and is not able to settle in people's hearts in its original form in the same old measure.
The Buddhist influence is seen in a great measure in the Vedic philosophy which is followed by the majority of Indians. Thus, it is clear that the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma has not retained its original form, but been influenced by other religions has undergone a sea change. Thus, the influence of Buddhism on Santana Dharma is extraordinary. Even Kumarila Bhatta, who fought with great heroism for the revival of Vedic religion, was so much influenced by Buddhism that he established for the first time in the country, an atheist Vedic religion or Santana Dharma.
There is no room for any doubt to assert that the Kumarila Bhatta School was influenced by atheist Buddhism because the school which is based on the validity of the Vedas and rituals refutes the existence of God.
Sage Sankara endeavored towards establishing the Vedic religion overthrowing Buddhism. But even he was not able to avoid the influence of Buddhism. The influence of the revolutionary atmosphere of Buddhism has reappeared in the Advaita of Sage Sankara. His inability to revive the Vedic religion that flourished before the Buddhist revolution in its pure form is discernible.
Many thinkers since his time have said about Sage Sankara that he made use of many important tenets of Buddhism and presented to the people the very Buddhism in the guise of Vedic religion. Though the Vedic religion represented by Sage Sankara is like a conglomeration of many things he deserves the credit of having turned the Indian mindset that was once averse to Vedas -the root of the Indian populace, towards the Vedas once again. For this, the followers of the Vedic religion should be grateful to Sage Sankara.
Supreme Court of India:~ Hinduism, as a religion, incorporates all forms of belief without mandating the selection or elimination of any one single belief,“ It is a religion that has no single founder, no single scripture, and no single set of teachings. It has been described as Santana Dharma, namely, eternal faith, as it is the collective wisdom and inspiration of the centuries that Hinduism seeks to preach and propagate,” ---Hinduism has no single founder or scripture: SC, The Times of India (Delhi) Dec 17, 2015
Hinduism is not an Ancient Vedic religion or Santana Dharma. And all Hindus indulge in non-Vedic practice barred by the Vedas introduced by the different founders of the different sects of Hinduism at a different time, whereas the Vedic religion or Santana Dharma is ancient and has no founder. Thus to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana, the seeker has to realize his inherited religion is adulterated in the past and it becomes a great obstacle is realizing the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.
Hinduism has different founders with different caste and ideologies and different ideas of personal Gods and different scriptures. The Santana Dharma or Vedic Religion is nothing to with present-day Hinduism. Since the Indian populace think Hinduism is Santana Dharma or Vedic religion is inherited ignorance injected in the past.
Indian populace is emotionally and sentimentally involved with their religion and they do not want to accept the truth of their inherited ignorance. Talking against Vedas is Blasphemous in Hinduism but all the Hindus indulge in non-~Vedic activities without being aware of it.
The Vedic system did not have a castes system. The caste system was a fake created in the name of Hinduism. This non~Vedic belief system called Hinduism has created hatred in the low caste Hindu for the higher caste.
Sage Sankara:~ VC Let erudite scholars quote all the scripture, let Gods be invoked through sacrifices, let elaborate rituals be performed, let personal Gods be propitiated---yet, without the realization of one‘s identity With the Self, there shall be no liberation for the individual, not even in the lifetimes of a hundred Brahmas put together (verses-6)
You will realize you, your body, and your experience of the world is nothing but consciousness.
By realizing you, your body, and your experience of the world is created out of single clay and that single clay is the Soul, which is present in the form of consciousness. Thus, you, your body, and your experience of the world are nothing but consciousness. Thus, the Soul, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman. Brahman is God in truth.
The Soul, the God in truth is the fullness of consciousness. Everything is God nothing but God in truth.
Do not waste time attending sermons and Satsang on mythical God. Real Satsanga knows the real God which is hidden by the religion. On the Vedic perspective, the Religious Gods are a myth. Vedic God is Athma.
The diverse rituals and ceremonies are based on the mythical Gods keep the Soul in the cage of ignorance.
The mythical Gods are myths not God in truth. All the mythical Gods are non-~Vedic Gods. Believing worshipping non-Vedic Gods causes suffering. Vedic God is spiritual.
Yajurveda – chapter- 32:~ God is Supreme Spirit has no ‘Pratima’ (idol) or material shape. God cannot be seen directly by anyone. God pervades all beings and all directions.
Thus, Idolatry does not find any support from the Vedas.
Rig-Veda 1-164-46 and Y.V 32-1 clearly mention that God is “One”. And never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman
Even Rig Veda: ~ The Atman is the cause; Atman is the support of all that exists in this universe. May ye never turn away from the Atman the innermost self. May ye never accept another God in place of the Atman nor worship other than the Atman?" (10:48, 5)
Even Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: ~ Brahman (God) is present in the form of the Athma, and it is indeed Athma itself.
Upanishads say in effect that: ~ If you believe that the Soul is one and God (Brahman) is another you cannot understand Truth.
Brihad Upanishad: ~ “If you think there is another entity, whether man or God there is no truth."
Attachment to the belief of mythical Gods and rituals is an attachment to ignorance. Attachment to ignorance is an attachment to the myth as truth. All mythical Gods and their rituals are not of Vedic origin.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter:~ All those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires, they worship many God s. (7- Verse -20)
All blind faith or beliefs based on Gods of all religions have no universality in their belief of God. Thus, diverse beliefs create divisions between one religion and another. Therefore, the rituals and ceremonies keep the populace permanently in the prison of ignorance.
Yajur Veda indicates that: ~
They sink deeper in darkness those who worship sambhuti. (Sambhuti means created things, for example, table, chair, idol, etc (Yajurveda 40:9)
Those who worship visible things born of the prakrti, such as the earth, trees, bodies (human and the like) in place of God are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time." (Yajur Veda 40:9.)
Why worship and glorify the mythical Gods in place of God when Veda bars such activities and it also warns people who indulge in such activities are enveloped in still greater darkness, in other words, they are extremely foolish, fall into an awful hell of pain and sorrow, and suffer terribly for a long time.
God exists prior to the form, time, and space. The form, time, and space cease to exist as a reality when wisdom dawns. Thus, the mythical Gods have no place in the domain of the Advaitic reality. Advaita is the nature of the Soul, which is real God. Thus, Self-realization is the only way to God-realization.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: "He who worships the deities as entities entirely separate from the Self does not know the truth. For the Gods, he is like a pasu (beast)". (1. 4. 10)
Therefore, it is necessary for everyone to know what God supposed to be in truth according to their own scriptures.
Vedas and Upanishad confirm the Soul, the innermost Self, is present in the form of the Spirit or consciousness.
Even Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material).. (14.27
When Bhagavad Gita says, God is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material then nothing has to be accepted as God other than consciousness.
Those who indulge in a perverted argument on their own standpoint and opinion about God are not seeking the truth, which is beyond form, time, and space.
It is time, humanity has become fanatics of the truth to bring the universal brotherhood. The truth is the only thing that can cure all propagated by the belief system.
Lord Krishna Says Ch ~V: ~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God.
The dualistic worship of "God” is only for the ignorant populace. The God in truth is only Atman, the Self. In reality, there is no dualities, no differentiation. Only Atman exists.
Mundaka Upanishad condemns rituals. The Para or Higher knowledge is the knowledge of the Supreme Being while the Apara or Lower Knowledge is that of following sacrificial rites and ceremonies. (1/2/ 1 – 6)
The religious-based knowledge is Apara therefore, the religious-based knowledge is lower knowledge, and Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is higher knowledge is Para. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the knowledge of the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth.
Katha Upanishad says ~ Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking themselves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. (Ch II-5 P-14)
Reflecting on Soul, which is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God in truth, is real Satsanga. : ~ Santthosh Kumaar
