I was writing a book on Vedic dharma. I wrote a few paragraphs. I have now decided to change my mind. I do not feel ready to write this book. Saraswati has not yet flowed. So I am going to share it here as open source. Take it, and do whatever you want with it.
What is Vedic dharma?
Vedic dharma comes from two sanskrit words. Vedic comes from the root Vid meaning to know and dharma from dhr, meaning the essential qualities or nature of something which distinguish that something from another. In short, Vedic dharma is the knowledge of the essential qualities of things.
Vedic dharma is also known as the eternal way, the way of knowledge, the religion of knowledge, the natural religion or the scientific religion. It is for this reason that Vedic dharma is said to be eternal and not authored by any humans. The general belief of followers of Vedic dharma is that Vedic knowledge is rediscovered in every civilisation in every epoch when it reaches a certain level of scientific maturity and this body of knowledge is then compiled and transmitted from one generation to the other. This knowledge becomes immediately recognizable to all individuals and groups who hear about it and naturally humans gravitate towards it and seek out teachers of it.
The great Oppenheimer once opined, “The greatest privilage the 20th century holds over all previous centuries, is humanity has access to the Vedas”
Is Vedic dharma a religion and is it compatible with other religions?
It is problematic to call Vedic dharma a religion, because of the associations the word “religion” conjours up. If religion is seen as a faith based system full of dogmas that are imposed from outside on an individual, then Vedic dharma is categorically not a religion. Howeverr, if religion is seen as a body of knowledge made up of truths which reveal the essential nature of things, answer the important questions of humanity and life and guides humanity to moral and spiritual transformation, then Vedic dharma is indeed a religion.
Does this mean that Vedic dharma prescribes what god you should worship, what rituals you should practice, what language you should speak, what scriptures you should read? And does this mean that if you adopt Vedic dharma you are converting from your religion to another religion? No, because all these things are culture specific, they are particulars, and Vedic dharma being a universal and scientific tradition only deals with universals and not particulars. This means that it is possible to be a member of any religion, and still be an follower of Vedic dharma.
In every epoch in humanity, Vedic dharma will appear dressed in a different way, with different names for god/s, different interpretations of god and soul, different rituals, different languages and scriptures, but the universal or core truths will remain the same. Yet, this is not to imply that Vedic dharma is a collection of beliefs that one selects for themselves. Vedic dharma is constituted of certain universals truths which you must accept to demonstrate your membership of this religion. These truths are obvious and appear in every religion and tradition.
God
Since the dawn of humanity this concept of god has appeared over and over again, in every period in history and in every society and culture. The first primitive cultures on this planet expressed this concept through the worship of nature, mainly though the worship of fire or the sun. Later, this concept became expressed as a single supreme deity, with each culture on the planet having their own interpretation of this deity and developed their own mythology about this deity. In the modern world, this concept did not disappear but was replaced with secular terms like truth, justice, knowledge, harmony etc. Thus, this concept of god has endured with humanity ever since we can trace its beginnings.
Now, we must ask ourselves what is the common denominator that links all these various concepts of god? One thing we can agree on that the concept of god is something ideal, perfect, whole and something we all aspire to, regard as worthy of worship and attribute divinity to. It would be foodhardy to deny that such a truth does not exist in human psychology for that would be the denial of an essential truth of human life and human history on this planet. Even today billions of people on this planet believe in god. What is this God concept, why is it part of human psychology and how do we realise its truth?
Soul
The concept of soul is another universal that cannot be denied. The essential truth of “I am” is axiomatic. If I were to deny this truth, then I can deny this truth only because I am here to deny it. I could indeed deny the nature of who I am, but the fact that there is an “I am” and this “I am” has the power to ask this question and many other questions is undeniable. This “I am” is the one who perceives this world, the one that feels, and the one who knows.
Some of the most important questions this “I am” asks is: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Everyone of us in our solititude have at one time contemplated these questions. Do we not owe it to ourselves to find answers to these questions?
Notice how intimately the concept of soul is tied with the concept of god. The soul aspires naturally towards an ideal of knowing its ultimate truth and thereby attaining to a supreme good. This is found echoed in the concept of god, something which is perfect and whole and which which we regard as worthy of worship. Everybody regards themselves as worthy of worship because everybody cherishes themselves. It is easy to prove, try to end somebodies life and watch how the instinct for self preservation kicks in immediately. What is this vital principle within us that wants to survive and endure?
Laws
Since humanity started thinking about the world they found themselves in, humanity noted something about it: it had laws, it was not random. Humanity noted in everything there were regularities and patterns, which they could utilize for their own benefit. They noted the regularity in the waxing and waning of the moon, the regularity in the motion of the sun in the sky, the regularity in the passage of seasons and used this knowledge skillfully to measure time, predict the weather, grow crops and innovate technologies and techniques to improve their quality of life. Today, we have discovered so many laws from the classical laws which govern the macrocosm, to the laws in in quantum physics which govern the microcosm. In fact, we have discovered not only the natural world obeys laws, but even the human mind and it’s behaviour obeys laws.
In order to live harmoniously humanity has had to create laws, some which are just observations of natural laws and some which are man-made. Morality and ethics are man-made laws, and yet they are not completely arbitrary, as all socieities agree generally on the golden rule that we should not do to others, what we ourselves do not want done to us.
We should not steal, we should not murder, we should not lie, we should not cheat. We discover that when we transgress either moral laws or natural laws, we suffer.
If we could discover all the laws and principles that govern the world as well as our mind then we could live in a very harmonious world bereft of suffering. What are those laws that govern the world and how do we discover them all?
Practice
Tied into fact that there are laws governining everything, is the fact of practice. We all know that nothing ever happens for free in the world. If any result needs to be bought about, then we have work with whatever we have and make a concerted effort to make the changes we desire. This truth operates in the natural world as well, which we call the third law of thermodynamics: energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to the other. That is, energy needs to be exerted to attain whatever transformation one desires. We live in a world wrought with human suffering in the form of wars, disease, selfishness, existential angst and this suffering is not going to end untill humanity makes an effort to solve these problems. If humanity makes no effort, then how is it at all possible that the problems will get resolved?
There are the wider problems of humanity and then there are individual problems which contribute towards them. The greatest of these problems are embedded in our own human psychology itself: anger, lust, arrogance, violence, jealousy. These negative thoughts and feelings tear us apart from within. Some, have opined that these vices are just a part of human nature and we must learn to live with this fact. However, would it be correct to say that these are our essential nature? If this was true, then we would always be angry, lustful, arrogant, violent and jealous. This is not the case as the natural state of the human mind is to be in balance like the natural state of the ocean is to be steady. Negative thoughts and feelings are disturbances of our balance. Therefore it should be possible to restore the balance of our mind so that negative thoughts and feelings do not take place. Henceforth there is a possibility of moral and spiritual transformation, but this is only possible if we understand the laws of human psychology and then practice in accordance with those laws to bring about this transformation. What are those practices that will bring moral and spiritual transformation?
Notice how each universal truth that has been introduced above ends with a question. That is why Vedic dharma is not a religion in the traditional sense of the word, because it does not prescribe any belief or dogma, but what it does do is identify the core questions of humanity and invites you to answer those questions. Obviously presupposing that there are answers to these questions and that god, soul, laws and practices that bring about moral and spiritual transformation are real things that can be known.
A question is not an answer. Vedic dharma does not answer the question for you, but merely gets you to ask those questions. It places you in the position of a seeker or investigator to find the answers. However, Vedic dharma as you will recall is also body of knowledge that is transmitted from one generation to the other, from one human epoch to another. This body of knowledge gives you the answers to the above questions that previous seekers have arrived at. The rest of this book is going to present the answers to these questions previous seekers have arrived at, so that our generation does not have to re-invent the wheel. How do you know the answers in this book are the true answers and not just the opinions of somebody? We know an answer is right and satisfactory when all doubts are cleared so we have doubless knowledge. If I ask you when was the Battle of Hastings, you will immediately respond with confidence that it was in 1066. Why? Because this knowledge is doubtless. Similarly, the answers to the above questions must be as such that they leave no room for doubt. If they leave significant doubt, then the answers cannot be accepted as true. In Vedic logic known as Nyaya, the Nyaya sutras the definition of doubt is given as follows: “Doubt occurs when there is conflicting truths for something, but doubt also is the beginning of all inquiries” The classic example is when we see in the distance an object that looks like a lamp post, but also like a man. Here there are two possiblities for what this object can be, in order to determine what the truth is one possibility must be eliminated to determine the true possibility. In order to resolve the doubt here we can approach the object in the distance, we may see the object now has a form of a person and is speaking, and thus we have now doubltless knowledge that this is a man.
An inquiry can be made of any matter. Such as what happens after we die? Let us say there are three possibilities: 1) Non-existence 2) Go onto an eternal afterlife and 3) Reincarnate in another body. There is an occasion for doubt here and hence inquiry. In order to resolve this doubt two possiblities must be eliminated. This is exactly how the questions will be answered in this book. We will look at all the main possiblities for what the answer could be, and then eliminate the possibilities that we can to resolve the doubt. Thus leaving you with doubtless knowledge.
Why Vedic dharma?
Why should you be a seeker of Vedic dharma? Why should you seek the answers to the above questions about god, soul, laws and practices to bring about moral and spiritual transformation? Well, to answer this question, let us look at the reasons why not.
You may not seek the answers because you already know the answers from your religion. If you are Muslim you might answer the first question what is god by saying God is almighty Allah, whose last prophet was Mohammed and last revelation is the holy Quran. He created us and this world to test our loyalty to him. If you are Christian you might answer the first question by saying God is Jesus, who came down to this world to take away our sins and we must accept Jesus as the truth to be saved. If you are atheist you might answer the first question by saying god is just a man-made concept to control society and keep them humanity in line.
This is all well and good, but we have so many conflicting answers how do we know which one is correct? There is therefore an occasion for doubt and hence inquiry. Now you may appeal to faith and say you believe your answer is correct and there is no need to inquire - but then it will always just remain your faith. It will never be your knowledge.
An agnostic may not ask these questions because they have no concern for them, they just want to live their life in ignorance of these questions and they will find out in the end anyway. However, what if they found out in the end god was Jesus and because they did not worship Jesus they were not saved and are going to hell. Is it sensible to gamble an infinite life for a finite life?
Here are reasons why these questions are very important to get answered: If there really is a god, then there is a perfect existence or being that we can realise and attain this supreme good. Is it sensible to deny yourself the opportunity to attain to such a divine reality? If there really is a practice whereby all human suffering can be ended, then is it not sensible to find out what that practice is and do it?
By not asking these important and fundamental questions an individual is depriving themselves of real possibilities. To answer the first question will reveal to the individual a supreme good and perfect beingness. To answer the second question will reveal to them the truth about themselves. To answer the third question will improve ones quality of life and to answer the fourth question will end all their suffering. Therefore, these are the most important questions and they need to be asked.