Dharmic renaissance is a natural phenomenon that is unfolding right in front of our eyes. With information freely available Dharma will reassert itself in the minds of masses.
In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that whenever there is a decline in dharmic values, He descends to uphold dharmic values. What is dharmic? Dharmic can be very simply understood to be anything guided by teachings of Vedas and also practical situation. Dharma is very difficult to understand even by experts. Therefore Dharmic conclusions are situation specific and are usually derived through discussions of experts in different aspects of a situation. Therefore the principle of Dharmic evaluation can be applied to anything or anyone. Many faiths in the world especially Eastern faiths are bound together by dharma. In fact, they discuss dharma explicitly in different contexts.
In fact, most of the followers of Communal faiths have come from Dharmic faiths. However, highly educated individuals or free thinkers in communal faiths gradually become frustrated and leave them. They tend to go back to the dharmic group.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Atheism, Logicism and many other faiths in the unorganized religion world are bound together through the common bond of Dharma. If we add everyone then Dharma has the largest population amongst any practiced faith. Most people are guided by logic, reasoning, and practice of spirituality. That is Dharma. If I put this into numbers then the population of Dharma Followers is almost 5 billion people on the planet.
The world is divided into Communal faiths (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) and Dharmic faiths (as explained before). Communal faiths focus on their followers and are very very well organized in terms of community. Either you are one of them or not. That guides their existence. Most Communal faiths rely on active recruitment because their success is measured in terms of followers. They also need political power for coercive purposes. It is difficult to question anything in communal faiths because one needs to show absolute loyalty to the community. Often free ideas which are deemed a threat to the existence of communal faith are considered disrespectful and looked upon as disdainful. Free questioning is usually considered a heretic. Usually, the definition of sin and hell is propounded to demand absolute surrender. Laws of apostasy are freely applied so that no one leaves their community. Fear is the only way to keep a community together and the logic & reasoning is ignored.
Whereas Dharmic faiths are passive and are very individual driven. Dharmic faiths focus on individual spiritual progress and a democratic process to put an Organization for that organic growth. Some people call it Sanatana Dharma or Eternal Duties or Responsibility. Dharmic faiths are organized loosely and heavy emphasis is given to questions and answers. Importance is given to discussions, logic, and reasoning. Therefore the individual is very strongly empowered, however, this empowerment also brings free thinking. Usually, people in dharmic faiths stay independent while contributing to society. Greatest thinkers have come through dharmic principles. Since the Organization is loose, the followers tend to mix with everyone. Often time the dharmic individuals are the target of communals for their canvassing. In fact, most of the followers of Communal faiths have come from Dharmic faiths. However, highly educated individuals or free thinkers in communal faiths gradually become frustrated and leave them. They tend to go back to the dharmic group. This process continues.
As information flow has become more open, more and more individuals want to come out of any denomination and move to the dharmic side because they appreciate the open unorganized approach to the way of life. Free flow of information is the biggest threat to Communal faiths. They almost decry it. Renaissance has just begun because dharma being duty based has found the calling with the intelligentsia. With liberal movements gaining ground, dharma is becoming the obvious platform for the masses. It’s like open source software in technology. Initially, all software was open-source and then brands took over and now again with the advent of cloud open-source is the norm. Similarly, everything was Dharmic Faiths before, Communal Faiths took over in the middle and with the power of Technology, Dharmic faiths are reviving. Another great quality of Dharmic Faiths is that there is absolute freedom to disagree. In fact, the debate is the common way to establish dharmic values. This freedom can be mind-boggling to the communals in the first place. But when communals get used to it they almost relish it. They will never give up. Just like when a company gets used to open source they can never give up.
Dharmic renaissance is a natural phenomenon that is unfolding right in front of our eyes. Decades of corruption that kept communals flourishing has been exposed. With information freely available Dharma will reassert itself in the minds of masses. Lets hope the movement is faster.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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GURUS OF DHARMA have done GROSS INJUSTICE to dharma with their teachings. Unfortunately the tradition continues. The time for change needs to be realized by followers as much as the leaders.
Bhakti yoga without gyana yoga is a hopeless method to spread reason and logic .
Surrender could be by ignorance.
Bhakti gurus could be entrepreneurs in disguise, not necessarily dharmic themselves.
The author has lost it, as have people who insist, as in this headline, that Dharma is a Faith/Religion.
As many of us point out, Dharma is a Philosophy.
Philosophy and faith are incompatible.
Autor and others need to stop using Abrahamic terms to describe our philosophy
Nice article. I would put it in even simpler terms. When money and/ or political power take precedence over freedom, tradition, and humanity, it is adharma. Too much centralisation is Adharma.
Sometimes, I wonder if today’s government is leaning more towards adharma. Just a thought, but a scary one.
Dharma is a cosmic law which engulfs every living being on earth and maintains equilibrium in human society. This dharmic phenomenon vetoes EVERY man made law which is twisted to the whims and ideology of a judge based on correct / incorrect evidences. Any judgement given for the good of society = dharma. But Dharma is coificient of time, place and ambience, hence each individual practices dharma in own way, a freedom given to Hindus. Best example is Mahabharata.
Abrahamic faiths are governed by the interpretations of dharma by their respective prophets which are static in nature, hence they tend to disintegrate with time.
Nice…
Well said