BC DHARMAITI
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1. Is ‘Dharma’ not ‘Religion’?

If not, then what is it? Is it free for all?

It is true that ‘dharma’ isn't ‘religion’. It is a non-translatable & can't be translated as ‘religion’ in English. That much is true. But it is not free for all at all. Here is how.

 2. To discuss religion first, religion is what we know as Prophetic Monotheism with features like: One True God, Last Prophet, Divided Time, Divided Humanity, Historic Origin and Last Judgment.
3. All that matters in a religion is Belief. Actions are null and void against belief. If you have right belief, you go to heaven. If you have wrong belief, you go to hell. Actions mean nothing. This is where it differs starkly from a dharmic system.
4. Dharma dictates that one can never escape one’s karma. He can be shown the right path by a guru, he can put in course correction, but he has to undergo his prarabdha; the fruits of his own actions. So everyone is responsible for his own actions.
5. This thread is not to list out the differences between Dharma and Religion. That is job for another day; another thread. This thread is to clarify whether dharma is free for all or not? The clear answer is no. It is not free for all. Unlike some filmi celebrities today claim.
6. It is also not just a ‘way of life’. That is a meaningless phrase when it comes to dharma and religion. Anything can be a way of life, including pedophilia. Do we call it dharma? (I know it is shocking but the ‘way of life’ idiocy has to be called out.)
7. So what is dharma anyway? It is not religion. That is okay. We are different. Yes. But while we are different, we also have an identity; a clear sense of us and them; a clear bodha of who we are and who we are not. Seeing it like this, what is dharma?
8. There are a specific set of actions that a Hindu is expected to do if calls himself a Hindu. It is true that dharma is more anchored in actions, but the actions (duties – kartavyas) enjoined upon Hindus cannot be missed. They are a must.
9. The Hindu cosmos functions on basis of duties, responsibilities that individuals and groups have to fulfill. These responsibilities are both towards nature and culture. It is through the fulfillment of these kartavyas, duties that one is a Hindu.
10. The operating principle of being Hindu is: there is a cosmic rhythm ऋत (ṛta), the hidden order of saṃsāra, as in both nature and culture. Every living being benefits from this order, ‘ṛta’ from the moment he is born. This creates a ऋण ‘ṛṇa’ on us.
11. To repay those (ṛṇas) is धर्म ‘dharma’. The Vedic tradition defines five kinds of ṛṇas – panca ṛṇa. deva ṛṇa; ṛṣi ṛṇa; pitṛ ṛṇa; brāhmaṇa ṛṇa & nṛu ṛṇa – the debt paid to deities, saints, ancestors, Brahmins and fellow men.
12. That is why a Hindu is supposed to worship the deities by offering correct rituals; he is supposed to honor and support the sanyāsīs; he is supposed to support the ancestors who are alive and pay homage through rituals to those who are gone.
13. A Hindu is supposed to uphold the knowledge tradition by paying homage to the Brahmins; and a Hindu is supposed to uphold saṃsāra by paying debts to all his fellow human beings through a web of relationships.
14. Hindu dharma is a specific set of rituals, customs and actions that every Hindu is supposed to do. It is the exact opposite of ‘anything goes’, and the inanity of a ‘way of life’.

In manifestation & practice, Hindu dharma is a concrete set of rituals.
15. A Hindu cannot be a nihilist who does anything that strikes his fancy; follows any cult that suits his idiosyncrasy; holds no beliefs of any kind; maintains no sanctity of any kind in his life. To make it sound like cool-WOKE cult is farthest from truth.
16. And there is a bit of religion inside dharma too. The good part. The part with rituals, customs, pilgrimages and also beliefs although actions as in karmic responsibilities dominate.
17. But belief in the sense of shraddha is also there. A Hindu, being dharmic, is also expected to accept the authority of the Vedas; ‘know’ the truth of punarjanma and karma-phala siddhanta and have shraddha in it. Bhakti cannot do without this shraddha.
18. Shraddha is not belief or faith, but it is an unflinching oneness of the story of the deity and the devotee, and it is precisely this quality which helps a śiṣya proceed on his path of sādhanā under the guidance of a guru, it is this quality which helps a bhakta.
https://t.co/QrWWz8XJ5r, yes, we are different. No dharma is not religion. And yet Hindu dharma is not free for all, or anything goes, & it isn't ‘way of life’. In concrete manifestation, dharma is a set of rituals & customs which have to be followed.

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1. Christian Colonialism in India

Hindu Society Under Siege – 3

The British left another monotheistic residue in India which converted a few Hindus & states and these converts now act as an anti-Hindu force now. What are the traits of ‘Christianism’(as Sita Ram Goel calls it)?


2. The 8 traits of this force, Christianism (residue of Christianity) which is laying siege to Hindu society are provided by Sita Ram Goel in his book, ‘Hindu Society Under Siege’. He considers this Christianism as the second force which lays siege to India. Quotes are by SRG.


3. “(a) That the Hindus have never had a Saviour whose historicity can be ascertained, with the possible exception of the Buddha;”

4. “(b) That Jesus Christ whose historicity cannot be questioned has superseded all earlier Saviours of Hinduism (if they were Saviours at all and not disciples of Lucifer) and rendered superfluous all subsequent Hindu saints and sages;”

5. “(c) That St. Thomas, an apostle of Jesus himself, was specially chosen by the Church to win India for his Master’s message:”
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1. How Christianity created the lethal blend of Prophetic Monotheism

Hindu View of Christianity and Islam – Part 2

Shri Ram Swarup explains how the lethal blend of Prophetic Monotheism was created by Christianity. Judaism wasn't particular on conversion. Christianity added it.


2. Jesus started his career by trying to become a Jewish prophet. The initial times are marked by his words which seek audience only in Jews. It was only when Jews considered him dangerous enough to bring Roman ire on Israel that he turned his attention to Gentiles.


3. Gentiles were the pagans of Israel/ Palestine of those times. And this change of audience in attention from Jews (monotheistic people) to Gentiles (pagan people) has its marks on the character of Christianity, mainly in the things that it borrowed from both cultures.

4. From Messiah to Savior

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5. Jesus's story is sold as a unique happening in the history of mankind. But that’s false. When Christianity was born there were too many saviors around. Mithras, a Persian god, famous in Roman Empire had a story too similar to Jesus. (All quotes are Shri Ram Swarup’s words)
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@PankajSaxena84
1. How Our Eyes Lie to Us

Cognitive Psychologists in the past two decades have been experimenting on narrative fallacy. They say that our minds create stories or narratives which do not portray reality as it is, but as our minds perceive them.


2. Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, Daniel Gilbert etc. have published ground breaking works where they discuss the narrative fallacy. They tell us how our mind fools us in our behavior and we may think we are in control of our behaviors but our mind has different designs for us.

3. Daniel Gilbert in ‘Stumbling Upon Happiness’ tells us how our eyes betray us and we can’t even be sure of what we see, let alone what we think. Michael Gazzaniga tells us that how our instincts are not in our control and it seems we act according to a pre-written script.

4. These are very serious subjects and only future will tell us what is going to happen in these disciplines. But the bottomline of all this research is that: our mind and our senses lie to us and we cannot be sure of what we think or what we even see.

5. That our senses create a narrative fallacy is something that has been alluded to in many of our spiritual texts. Modern West is just rediscovering it through tests and experiments. But there is an experiment in our daily lives that gives us a clue of what narrative fallacy is.
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Pankaj Saxena
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@PankajSaxena84
1. List of Essential Books to Read for Civilizational Education

You folks were asking me about the sources of my threads and books on which I base my accounts. Here is a list of great books to read. A lot of them are available for free online. Others can be bought on amazon.


1.India’s Secularism – Sita Ram Goel
2.The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India – Sita Ram Goel
3.Arise Arjuna – David Frawley
4.Hindu Society Under Siege – Sita Ram Goel
5.Islam vis-à-vis Hindu Temples – Sita Ram Goel
6.Breaking India – Rajiv Malhotra

7.Ram and Ayodhya – Meenakshi Jain
8.The Beautiful Tree – Dharampal
9.Gandhi and Godse – Koenraad Elst
10.Jesus Christ: An Artifice for Aggression – Sita Ram Goel
11.Hinduism: The Eternal Tradition – David Frawley
12.Jizya and the Spread of Islam – Harsh Narain

13.Defense of Hindu Society – Sita Ram Goel
14.The Dark Side of Christian History – Helen Ellerbe
15.Specific Hindu Grievances – Koenraad Elst
16.मार्क्सवाद के खँडहर - शंकर शरण
17.Indra’s Net – Rajiv Malhotra
18.The Sabarimala Confusion – Nithin Sridhar

19.Sati – Meenakshi Jain
20.Perversion of India’s Political Parlance – Sita Ram Goel
21.The Myth of Aryan Invasion of India – David Frawley & the intro of Talageri’s book
22.Negationism in India – Koenraad Elst
23.The Calcutta Quran Petition – Sita Ram Goel
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@PankajSaxena84
1. Hindu Iconography and Knowledge Distribution in Ancient India

Hindu Iconography is a reservoir of powerful symbols. Symbols lead to meaning. Meaning leads to an understanding of Truth. But looking at this ancient process, we also realize a great truth about our society.


2. Just like Vaikhari in language is incapable of expressing the Ultimate Truth, Symbols in themselves are incapable of conveying the Divine Truth about the Supreme Consciousness. They are a ladder to a great meaning and realization.


3. But just as our ṛṣis created a language, Sanskrit, which could most closely approximate the Ultimate Truth and lead the devotees towards it, similarly in Hindu iconography, mudrā and poses were invented by the ṛṣis to lead the devotee towards the path of Self Realization.


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