FAQ

What is Dharma?

Dharma is that entity which regulates the wellbeing of society and the universe at large. For the wellbeing of society, every individual, as part of society, has a role to play and that role is defined by his Dharma. This entity Dharma has to be the guide for every human being to achieve personal wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the society – every individual has a stake in this global wellbeing and that stake is his individual Dharma. There is an ordinary dharma applicable to everyone and there are additional layers of Dharma depending on his/her place in society. This ordinary Dharma has 10 components described by the following verse from Manusmṛuti–

dhṛtiḥ kṣamā damoऽsteyam

Śaucam indriyanigrahaḥ

dhīḥ vidya satyaṁ akrodhaḥ

daśakaṁ dharma lakṣaṇaṁ

Resoluteness, Forgiveness, Control of Sense Organs, Non-stealing, Purity, Control of Mind, Wisdom, Knowledge, Truthful, and Serenity are 10 Characteristics of dharma

Dhṛuti is severally translated as bravery, resoluteness or enthusiasm or all the three - mental demeanor - required in a person in completing a task even under the most challenging circumstances.

Kshamā Is generally described as forgiveness.

Asteya is generally understood as not seeking other peoples’ property without consent or broadly refraining from taking more from an individual or system than contribution to an individual or system.

Dama is managing the craving of sense organs for sense objects. The indulgence of sense organs in sense objects indiscriminately drives the person towards hoarding, which ultimately leads towards Asteya.

Śoucha is described at two levels; at the external level, maintaining the physical body by appropriate washing of the body. Internally śoucha is maintaining purity of thoughts in the mind - free from violence and malice.

Indriya nigraha is controlling the mind; the mind has a tendency to wander; holding the mind in the task being discharged is one aspect of Indriya nigraha.

Dhī is intellect and/or wisdom – the ability of the mind to discriminate between right and wrong. Dhī depends on the knowledge of the scriptures to interpret and discriminate between right and wrong.

Vidyā is knowledge; knowledge of the scriptures helps the individual to exercise the intellect to navigate life for maximum efficacy.

Satyaṁ is truthfulness; Being truthful of the words spoken and acting in accordance with spoken words are two sides of Satya.

Akrodha is restraining anger even when the person experiences physical or psychological violence inflicted on him.

These aspects of Dharma, described as ordinary Dharma are not necessarily just Hindu values, but have a universal appeal to all rational minded human beings. These attitudes of Dharma don’t just spring up in a person from nowhere. A much disciplined way of living will help build these attitudes. Dharma prescribes many actions and prohibits certain other actions that promote or develop these disciplined attitudes of the Ordinary Dharma.

What is Sanātana?

The literal meaning of Sanātana is ‘the eternal’ – that which does not have a beginning and end.

What is Sanātana Dharma?

Sanātana Dharma is an eternal code of living for global wellbeing. Sanātana Dharma is not a labeled word. There existed no other religion and there was no need for people to label their code of living at that time, to distinguish it from anything else. As other religions came on the scene, the beginning less code of living has been referred to as Sanātana Dharma – that which has been in existence without a beginning.

In addition to the Ordinary Dharma described above, the Sanātana Dharma describes additional codes of living based on the Varṇa and Āshrama of the Individual ( to be described later).

What is Hinduism?

The civilization that existed which was following the Sanātana Dharma, lived in the land now recognized as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and even parts of Iran; this entire region was called Āryāvarta at that time. With the birth (generally believed to be in Mecca and Madina, now in Saudi Arabia) of Islam and its growth over a period of several centuries, the regions of Iran and Afghanistan became strongholds of Islam and the people of the region became entrenched in following the Islamic faith. In the 12^th and 13^th centuries, the Muslim kings of the time, spreading as far as Central Asia, began to invade India (current Pakistan was also part of India at that time). In the course of their invasion, they had to cross the Sindhu river- recognized as River Śutadri in the Vedas - (which is now called Indus River located in Pakistan); over a period of time, people living in the plains of the Sindhu river were identified as Hindus and the Sanātana Dharma they practiced has come to be known as Hinduism.

Prior ti Independence in 1947, current India and Pakistan was called India, with people practicing Hinduism and Islam. The United Kingdom, which occupied India during the 17^th- 20^th centuries, split the erstwhile India to India and Pakistan. Now both India and Pakistan are home to people practicing Hinduism and Islam. In today’s world, Hinduism is generally accepted as the religion of people following Sanātana Dharma.

What is Rebirth?

The Hindu philosophy posits that every living being goes through a continuous cycle of birth and death. Rebirth is the process by which the living being leaves the current physical body – let us say a human body - at the time of birth and is reborn in another physical body, called a new birth – this new physical body need not necessarily be a human body; it can be a divine body, human body, animal body or a plant body. When this living being acquires a human body it is called a human birth; similarly a divine birth with a divine body, an animal birth with an animal body or a plant birth with a plant body. The entity leaving the dying body and re-entering another body causing a new birth is called the jīva (a subtle body).

Is there no end to this cycle of Rebirth?

There is an end to the cycle of birth and death; this end is called Mokṣa or Liberation. The attainment of Mokṣa is possible only from a human birth. It takes a very sustained renounced living, mostly extending through several human births to achieve liberation. The Upaniṣhads, Bhagavad Gīta and other texts describe the process of achieving Liberation.

What determines future human birth(s) or other births?

We observe in the physical world that any occurrence of an event is an outcome of a cause; the scientific description of a cause producing an effect or an effect following a cause is stated through the Newton’s first law of motion – “a body at rest or in motion needs an external force (cause) to change its state of rest or motion (effect).” This cause – effect relationship was discovered by the Hindu sages millenniums ago, even in the case of human living. This then presupposes that the current human birth is a consequence of a set of causes resulting from certain modes of living in previous births. Therefore the kind of future birth – human or otherwise - depends on the mode of living in the current birth.

What is the mode of living for securing human birth?

The Hindu scriptures describe four goals – Chatur-vidha Puruṣhartha - of life for a human being to pursue. The four goals are Dharma (code of living described earlier), Artha (accumulation of wealth), Kāma (fulfillment of desires) and Mokṣa (liberation). The prospect of a future human birth greatly increases as the human being stays close to Dharma in the pursuit of Artha and Kāma . Therefore Dharma is stated as the first goal of human life to pursue, so that he has the greatest opportunity to be born as a human being again and again.

With continuous human births, associating with spiritually inclined people, his desire (Kāma) for worldly objects turns towards desire for spiritual enrichment and evolution, which paves the way towards Liberation.

What is Ātma?

In order to understand Ātma, it is necessary to understand the spiritual anatomy of a human being (or any being; since human being is the most evolved and allows for voluntary living, we will follow the human example). Everyone grasps a physical body through his sense organs and therefore has no difficulty in perceiving this physical body, called the Gross Body, in the context of spiritual anatomy.

The human being functions through the gross body using the five sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch) and through the organs of action called the motor organs (hands, feet, speech, organ of excretion and organ of reproduction). The visible external sense organs are the receptors of collecting worldly information; the collected information is communicated to the mind in a format the mind can recognize; those communication agents between the external sense organs and the mind are the internal sense organs, which are not perceptible and are very subtle. The mind (manas) receives the information from the sense organs, the intellect (buddhi) processes the information with the help of the storage (chitta) and recognized by the Ego (ahankāra). The body itself is maintained in a functioning state by wind currents flowing through the entire body and these wind currents are classified in to five components – prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna and samāna, together called the prāṇa(Vital air). Each of the five wind currents has a role to play in the maintenance of the body functions for a healthy living. The internal sense organs, with the prāṇa, the mind, intellect, storage and ego along with some additional entities (not described here at this time) for a total of 24 components are together called the ‘Subtle Body’ – It is called subtle body, because it is not perceived by the sense organs.

Both the gross body and the subtle body are made up of matter and are therefore inert. But the human beings (and other beings also) are sentient. The entity that provides the sentiency to the gross and subtle bodies is called the Ātma or Consciousness. Just like a magnet being in proximate association with an iron object makes it move, the Ātma in close proximity with the mind and intellect (the most subtle components of the human body) gives sentiency to the body through which the entire body is functioning. This Ātma appears to be limited to individual bodies; but in reality, the Ātma pervades everything in this universe and there is only one Ātma pervading the universe. Every human and living being derives its sentiency from this one Ātma.

This Ātma is imperceptible to the five sense organs; however its presence has to be ascertained by the existence of the body and its transactions – the body being matter and inert cannot by itself act; so the Ātma is manifested by the body and its actions.

The Ātma is not taking part in any transactions of the body, but is an enabler of the transactions happening in the body internally or with outside environment. Without the presence of the Ātma, no transaction can take place. That is why it was stated earlier that Ātma has to be ascertained by the activities happening in the body and with the body.

Ātma is a passive observer in the Jīva; It does not engage in any actions and so there is no karma accumulation for the Ātman.

Does the dead body have an Ātma?

This is a very interesting question and the answer is in the affirmative - Yes! The Ātma is associated with the dead body also; this should be a no brainer since the Ātma pervades everything and everywhere, which includes the dead body also. Then the obvious next question is – why is not the dead body sentient? That is because, death is characterized by the exit of the subtle body from the gross body. Even as the physical or gross body survives death, it does not have the capability to absorb sentiency from the Ātma – only the subtle body has that capability. Therefore death marks the loss of sentiency and therefore the dead body has no sentiency.

Is Ātma and Soul mean the same?

One need to clearly understand the distinction between Ātma and Soul – Soul described in the Western philosophies. Many commentaries on Hindu texts equate Ātma with Soul, which is strictly not true. The Western and most other philosophies posit a single birth and the Soul is described variously as

Soul is that entity which is the part of you that makes you who you are and that will live on after your death.

Soul is defined as one person, or is the spirit and essence of a person. An example of your soul is the part of you that will go to heaven and be immortal, according to the teachings of certain religions.

The Mormons posit that the soul is the union of a pre-existing, God-made spirit and a temporal body, which is formed by physical conception on earth. After death, the spirit continues to live and progress in the Spirit world until the resurrection, when it is reunited with the body that once housed it.

There may be other descriptions of souls in other faith systems.

From the above definitions of Soul, it is clear that the Soul survives the physical body (which includes mind also) alright, but leaves the body at the time of death. While the western philosophies describe the soul leaving the body at the time of death, the Hindu Philosophy supported by the re-birth and karma theory does not support the Ātma leaving the body at the time of death. Then what leaves the body at the time of death? What leaves the body at the time of death is the subtle body introduced earlier; we will describe the spiritual anatomy of the individual and the role of the subtle body in the birth/death transactions. We will focus on the human body, since this is the most evolved of all living beings, though they are generally applicable to lower or higher forms of life as well.

Broadly speaking the human spiritual anatomy consists of (1) gross body, (2) subtle body and (3) Ātma.

The Gross Body (made of the five gross elements – space, air, fire, water and earth) is the body we can see and touch consisting of the bones, flesh, blood, skin etc. The Subtle body is a combination of several components - mind, intellect, storage and ego; the mind is supported by the five subtle sense organs, and supports the five subtle organs of action also called motor organs. In addition the five prāṇas (vital air), five subtle elements (the subtle space, subtle air, subtle fire, subtle water and subtle earth) are also part of the subtle body. The storage (citta), which is part of the subtle body, carries in it the karma phala or the fruits of actions accrued by the individual, in his current and past lives. It is this package of subtle body (which has all the above components) that leaves the body at the time of death and re-enters a new body at the time of re-birth. Generally a certain time elapses between the subtle body leaving the dead body and reentering a new body through conception, as it navigates through the Nature towards its destination body.

The Ātma is the supporting sub-stratum providing sentiency to the combination of gross and the subtle bodies. The embodied (in a gross body) subtle body deriving its sentiency from the Ātma is called the “Jīva”. The Ātma does not leave the body at the time of death. This is because the Ātma is single and whole and is omni-present in the entire universe; where can it go, when it pervades the entire universe? The dead body is inert though the Ātma is still present, because the subtle body, the principle entity deriving the sentiency from the Ātman is missing and of course the gross body does not have the capability to derive sentiency on its own. The absence of the subtle body reduces the gross body to a ”shava” or dead body and is no more called a Jīva.

Every Jīva accumulates good and bad karma during its human lives and this bag of karma is carried by the subtle body as a backpack, during the journey of the Jīva from birth to birth. In every human life, a Jīva may accumulate enough karma to seed hundreds of future births. Thus a Jīva generally accumulates loads of karma to be born thousands of times as humans (mixed karma), or plants/animals (predominantly negative karma begets lower life forms) or Celestials and demi-gods (predominantly positive karma begets higher forms of life).

[The subject of rebirth can be exemplified by a simple model of the current computer technology. The computer has a microprocessor, which is generally called the hardware. It has a hard disk, which contains the operating software, application programs and personal files. It has a power source. In the rebirth model, there is the gross body, subtle body and the Ātman. The following comparisons can be made, with some limitations – gross body is like the computer hardware, the hard disk is like the subtle body and the power source is the Ātma. You can remove the hard disk from one computer and install in another computer; this is similar to the subtle body leaving the dead body and replanting in a new body. The operating software and application programs in the hard disk are executed using the microprocessor in the new computer, powered by the power source – likewise the subtle body brings to life the Jīva in the new gross body aided by the Ātma. The personal files stored in the hard disk can be modified in the new computer – likewise the karma content and the tendencies stored in the subtle body can be modified in the new gross body, identified as a new Jīva]

What is the role of Ātma?

Ātman as the indwelling entity, otherwise called God or Consciousness, supports cognizing capability in the Jīva – the Jīva deriving its sentiency from the Consciousness. Consider the following example to understand this. An object, in a pitch dark room cannot be seen because the object being inert, does not have the capability to show itself. If you open the window, the object is at once recognized, aided by the sun light – sunlight reflected off of the object is received by the eye, processed by the mind; the Ātman shines on the mind, reflecting the mental modification (of the object being presented to it) on to the intellect and recognized by the intellect as so and so object. Now instead of the object, you stand yourself in the dark room, you recognize your presence in the dark room. How did this happen? A mental modification of your standing in the dark room happens in your mind. Where did the light come from? The light from the Ātman in you, is reflected off your mind, captured in the intellect allowed your cognizance in the dark room.

How to understand a liberated person coming back in a human body again?

The Hindu philosophy recognizes two kinds of births – (1) birth necessitated by karma to experience the fruits of karma of past lives. Very few people (probably one in say 100 years) would have wiped off their bag of karma by a very disciplined effort. Such people would have their bag of karma nullified – such a state is called realized state or Mokṣ̄ha, by which they are liberated from the cycle of births and deaths. Such liberated people could voluntarily come back to be born, at their will, for establishing righteousness in the world. These people could be called spiritual leaders. Since their bag of karma has already been nullified, their birth is not compelled by the law of karma, but a voluntary birth to help mankind.

Do animals accrue Karma?

No! animals don’t accumulate karma during their animal birth, because they don’t have the faculty of discrimination to distinguish between good and bad actions. Their karma bag is zipped up during this life and no additional karma gets in to the bag during the entire life of the animal – a tiger killing a deer or cow to quench its hunger will not have negative fruit of karma, nor if it goes hungry all day without getting a prey will not accrue positive karma for fasting.

How can an animal get a human birth?

This is a very good question. This has to be understood in two different contexts - (1) this animal did not have a human body before and (2) this animal got this body following a deed in a previous human birth.

1. The Purāṇas (mythology) describe the passage of 840,000 animal lives before attaining human life. The animals do not have the intellect to differentiate good and bad karma and therefore does not accumulate karma during its entire life. At the end of the life, it may get another similar life or higher animal life (a time based promotion to the next species, which the Science calls as the evolution theory); there may be multiple births in the same species, before evolving into the next higher species. After advancing through these 840,000 animal lives, he takes the first human birth and thereafter is under the law of karma, because he now has the gift of intellect to guide him in discriminating the right from the wrong.
2. On the other hand if a human life has deteriorated to an animal life due to ignoring his dharma in human life, his return to a human life will depend on the mix of karma in his karma bag (accumulated karma); if he has karma in his bag to deserve or necessitate a human birth, he will come back to human life, but the time line cannot be defined. The Jīvātma does not accumulate any karma – bad or good – during its programmed existence of animal life. Following one or more of such lives, the JIv ātma has to come back to the human life – if it has karma warranting a human life - to continue its quest of mokṣa.

If God is everywhere and in everything, am I hurting God by my actions?

A very good question! Yes God is in everything; according to the Advaita (non-dual) philosophy, there is only God in this universe or universe is God.

God in His supreme state is not affected by any human activity – No weapon can hurt Him, fire cannot burn Him, water cannot wet him, and air cannot dry Him -Bhagavad Gīta, 2-23).

However, God appears Himself as this universe and has allowed human beings to use the universe to transact in their life. But it takes a very disciplined life style on the part of humans to understand the presence of God in everything anddevelop the sensitivity in the mind to be able to perceive the presence of God in her or him and the world around them. The mind and intellect of very exceptional humans (may be one in hundred million or a billion) has probably developed the sensitivity to perceive God in everything.

But what about other human beings and their actions? It should be noted here that life is not possible without impact of one object with another object (both objects are God, right!). One could develop a musical rhythm by striking a stick on a table, thus entertaining people; in which case you can say, you are using your intellect and God to entertain people aided by your intellect. You are accumulating good karma. On the other hand, if you make a loud annoying noise by striking a stick on a table, you are accumulating negative or bad karma, because you did not use your intellect to discriminate the ill effects of the undesirable sound. It is the attitude with which the action is performed that is more important than the act itself. For example, a doctor would cut open the body of the patient during surgery to relieve the pain in the patient – this is not an act of violence warranting negative karma; on the other hand he could accumulate positive karma for the service rendered. If on the other hand, he uses the same knife to cut the body of his enemy to inflict pain on him, he accumulates bad karma. In both cases the act is the same – cutting the body, but the motive and attitude are different, resulting in different karma outcome.

This is the discretion everyone has to use in her or his life – be conscious of the presence of God in everyone and every object and use Him as tool, what God has generously allowed us to use.

What is Haṭhayoga?

Haṭhayoga – Haṭayoga is a particular mode of yoga. Yoga is the process of uniting an effect with its cause -Yoga is a discipline for achieving or acquiring a desired goal for the body and mind. Haṭayoga is a specific discipline involving regulation of breathing in a defined sequence or pattern. Such a discipline enables the seeker to achieve mind control and focus her energy on the work at hand. The most important benefits of Haṭayoga are stress-free life, lengthening the life span and healthy living.

What are Indriyas?

Indriya is an organ in a living being. In human beings the Indriyas are of two kinds - (1) Karma indriya – organs of action or Motor organs and (2) jñāna indriya – sense organs or organs of perception. The karma indriyas (together called karmendriyas) are hands, feet, tongue (speech), organs of excretions and organs of reproduction. The jñāna indriyas (together called jñānendriyas) are eyes – organ of sight, ears – organ of sound, nose – organ of smell, tongue – organ of taste and skin – organ of touch. What we see externally are generally considered the hardware. There is a software associated with each organ, called the adhiṣṭhāna devata – presiding deity. The respective presiding deities are Surya (Sun), Dikpālakas(Directional deities), Aświni devatas (Aświni deities -twins), Prāchetas (presiding deity of water), and Vāyu (Wind God).

What is Viveka / Vairagya?

Viveka is the faculty of discrimination, whereby, one is able to distinguish between what is good for him/her and what is NOT. For example, recognition that fatty foods are not healthy is Viveka from the health point of view. Having developed this Viveka, Vairagya is the ability to give up those things that are not good. In the example above, abstaining from fatty foods (or consuming in moderation) is vairagya for fatty foods. Both these faculties are very important in spiritual practice. For example, Dharma Viveka - the ability to discriminate between what is dharma and what is adharma (opposed to dharma) is very important in developing a discipline to practice adharma vairagya (avoid adharma). Likewise we can talk about Viveka and Vairagya for Mokṣa or liberation – in this context, the ability to discriminate between real and unreal is Viveka and vairagya is the renunciation of unreal, so that the practice of real could lead to liberation.

What is Preyas and Śreyas?

The dictionary meaning of the word Preyas is ‘dear’. In the context of Dharma or Spirituality, this meaning is extended to mean something that is appealing to us in real time – appealing as soon as one comes into contact with the object (love at first sight may be classified as preyas). Even seeking heaven is also classified under Preyas. However the preyas may not be desirable in the long run, because anything that is dear has a finitude and does not last forever and therefore Preyas is short lived. On the other hand, the dictionary describes Śreyas as mokṣha or mukti, which is permanent, though reaching there could require significant hardship. In the Bhagavd Gita, Krishna describes Sāttvik happiness and Rājasic happiness (18-37,38) ; In this context, the Sāttvik happiness can be equated with Śreyas and the Rājasic happiness can be equated with Preyas.