The Religions of India: Hinduism and Sanatana Dharma

India has been a great land of spirituality and mysticism since time immemorial. It is not merely a country but a subcontinent held together not by a force of arms but by a common spiritual aspiration. The great beings of this land, men and women, have focused on the spiritual life, the development of higher consciousness as their primary pursuit, giving military expansion, economic development, intellectual pursuits and religious ritual - the prime goals of other cultures - a secondary role.

Because of the emphasis on spiritual experience in all its forms, India has promoted the idea of a universal tradition and has given birth to a number of religions and to the greatest diversity of spiritual teachings and yogic practices in the world. Hinduism itself is not merely a single religion, one among many, but a harmony of many different religious teachings that maintained a peaceful coexistence with each other as parts of a universal tradition.

It has not forced or molded these different teachings into uniformity, in fact this diversity itself has manifested because of the universality of the Hindu view, which is that it is not the many who become One but the One that expresses itself as all. This recognition of the One in all and all in One is the basis of the creative and yet synthetic Hindu vision that can produce ever new teachings without losing track of the underlying eternality of Truth.

[ David Frawley ] [ Up ] [ Next ]