Dharmic religions

Dharmic religions are a family of religions whose theology and philosophy center on the concept of Dharma, a Sanskrit term for "fixed decree, law, duty", especially in a spiritual sense of "natural law, reality". All Dharmic religions were born in India. It is mostly influential across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia and South East Asia with influence felt throughout the world. These Dharmic religions are very closely interrelated. The main Dharmic religions are: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

The Dharmic faiths

Dharmic faiths have a close and irreversible influence with the history, society and cultures of India and every other Asian nation they have proliferated into. They also have a very diverse and large body of mythology whose roots stretch to pre-Dharmic times.

Buddhism

Buddhism is the second-largest Dharmic tradition, with over 700 million adherents across East Asia and South East Asia. It has deeply affected the synthesis of societies across Asia, and has been the most popular symbol of eastern philosophy to Western civilization.

Hinduism

Hinduism (Devanagari: हिन्दू धर्म – Sanātana Dharma or eternal dharma) is the oldest existing religion and its dharmic roots, according to tradition, might trace back 7,000 years. Hindu philosophy represents a microcosm for the complex and diverse body of theology and philosophy indicated by the term 'Dharmic faiths'.

More than a billion Hindus live across the world, making it the 3rd largest religion. More than 800 million Hindus live in the Republic of India alone. Large Hindu communities can be found in other parts of the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, North America, the West Indies, Western Europe, the Middle East, East Africa and South Africa. In Indonesia, Balinese Hinduism and Agama Hindu Dharma are the two main schools of Hindu philosophy.

Jainism

Perhaps the smallest, Jainism is also the second-oldest Dharmic religion. It is a religious system that does not recognize a Godhead, and revere liberated souls known as Siddhas. The followers of Jainism firmly reject the Vedas, but strongly adhere to dharma, moksha and nirvana.

Sikhism

Sikhism is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of ten Gurus who lived in northern India during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Status in India

Followers of the Jain and Sikh faiths are considered broader Hindus according to the social fabric of India. Constitutionally, by an order of the Supreme Court of India in 2005, it was stated "Sikhs and Jains are part of the wider Hindu community". These two faiths are either regarded as subsects, or sub-castes of the broader Hindu religion, primarily due to the coherence in ideologies, interworship and social intermingling of the followers of these religions. The expatriot Sikh community in UK is strongly opposed to this ruling and believe that they should be recognised as religion of their own.

Other

Sufism and Kabbalism are considered a "dharmic" view of Islam and Judaism.

What is Dharma?

The word Dharma (Sanskrit; "धर्म" in the Devanagari script) or dhamma (Pali) is used in most or all philosophies and religions of Indian origin, the dharmic faiths, namely Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism, Jainism. Dharma also is practiced in the Surat Shabda Yoga traditions. In its oldest form, dharman, it first appears in the Vedas.

It is difficult to provide a single concise definition for Dharma (life fails to convey its connoted complexity). The word has a long and varied history and complex set of meanings and interpretations. Certain Westerners and Orientalists have proposed a number of possible translations, from "justice" to "religion", however these definitions have evolved with their associated usage in Western culture.

"Dharma" derives from the verbal root dhri, which simply means "manner of being." The term must therefore be understood in its original (i.e. metaphysical) context, that of a conformity to a divine or creative principle at work in an individual and in nature. It represents the individual's internal law, to which obedience must be given if that individual life is to live in accordance with a Divine Will. This is what Hindus consider the sole or primary purpose of life. It explains how justice finds its place among the many modern definitions of the word dharma.

Rene Guenon, father of the 20th century school of perennial philosophy, defines it as such:

It ^* is, so to speak, the essential nature of a being, comprising the sum of its particular qualities or characteristics, and determining, by virtue of the tendencies or dispositions it implies, the manner in which this being will conduct itself, either in a general way or in relation to each particular circumstance. The same idea may be applied, not only to a single being, but also to an organized collectivity, to a species, to all the beings included in a cosmic cycle or state of existence, or even to the whole order of the Universe; it then, at one level or another, signifies conformity with the essential nature of beings… (from Guenon's "Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines")

This said, certain Western definitions of the word must be considered in the light of this original definition—that is, as branches from a single root. Monier Monier-Williams, for example (while covering the entire scope it would seem), gives its primary definition as:

that which is established or firm, steadfast decree, statute, ordinance, law; usage, practice, customary observance or prescribed conduct, duty; right, justice (often as a synonym of punishment); virtue, morality, religion, religious merit, good works,

of which the first, "that which is established or firm" seems to be the most ancient and etymological. Dharma is cognate with the Latin firmus, the origin of the word firm. Meanings related to law, morality, scripture, and teachings were probably acquired through analogy, by being regarded as firm and called as such. For the phenomenological or psychological meaning, see below.

Dr. David Frawley, an expert on Hindu philosophy and religion, describes Dharma as:

a universal tradition has room for all faiths and all religious and spiritual practices regardless of the time or country of their origin. Yet it places religious and spiritual teachings in their appropriate place relative to the ultimate goal of Self-realization, to which secondary practices are subordinated. Sanatan Dharma also recognizes that the greater portion of human religious aspirations has always been unknown, undefined and outside of any institutionalized belief. Sanatan Dharma thereby gives reverence to individual spiritual experience over any formal religious doctrine. Wherever the Universal Truth is manifest; there is Sanatan Dharma—whether it is in a field of religion, art or science, or in the life of a person or community. Wherever the Universal Truth is not recognized, or is scaled down or limited to a particular group, book or person, even if done so in the name of God, there Sanatan Dharma ceases to function, whatever the activity is called.

According to the Natchintanai Scripture:

By the laws of Dharma that govern body and mind, you must fear sin and act righteously. Wise men by thinking and behaving in this way become worthy to gain bliss both here and hereafter.

Yama, the lord of death, is also known as Dharma, since he works within the laws of karma and morality, regulated by divine principles. More familiar is the embodiment of Dharma in Lord Rama, an avatar of Vishnu. The eldest Pandava, Yudhishthira was referred to as DharmaRaj owing to his steadfastness to Truth & Dharma.

The teachings, doctrines, philosophies and practices associated with furthering Dharma are also referred to as such. Sometimes, specific qualifiers are used - viz. Bauddha-Dharma and Jain-Dharma to distinguish them from Sanatana Dharma.

For many Buddhists, the Dharma most often means the body of teachings expounded by the Buddha. The word is also used in Buddhist phenomenology as a term roughly equivalent to phenomenon, a basic unit of existence and/or experience.

In scripture translations dharma is often best left untranslated, as it has acquired a lively life of its own in English that is more expressive than any simplistic translation. Common translations and glosses include "right way of living," Divine Law, Path of Righteousness, order, faith, "natural harmony," rule, fundamental, and duty. Dharma may be used to refer to rules of the operation of the mind or universe in a metaphysical system, or to rules of comportment in an ethical system.

Birth and history

The earliest ancestor of Dharmic religions was the Vedic religion of the ancient Vedic civilization in ancient India. It is considered likely that aspects of these religious and spiritual influences arrived in India over 3,500 years ago, brought by Indo-Aryan migrants from Central Asia, while other aspects may have been native to India. However This theory is frequently criticised by some nationalist elements in India.

Common modern practices

Dharmic religions share a variety of theological, philosophical and ceremonial similarities.

Exchanges with Abrahamic religions

Dharmic religions and Abrahamic religions were conceived over 7,000 years ago in two opposite parts of Asia, and share a complex and conflicting dynamic. Possible connections between Indo-Aryan traditions and Hebrew culture may date back to Abraham himself, since the Mitanni influenced areas associated with him, notably Haran. The root of the words "Abraham" and "Brahma" (Hindu God of Creation) also appear to be the same. The inscriptions found from excavations in ancient Mitanni sites reveal agreements entered into by invoking the names of Vedic gods such as Mitra and Varuna, thus possibly indicating that the Vedic religion predated the Abrahamic religions by a fair amount of time. More direct connections would have followed the absorption of Judea into the Persian empire in which Zoroastrianism was the dominant faith.

Some speculative writers have claimed that Jesus visited India and learned spiritual practices there from Buddhist and Hindu monks. There is a passage in Bhavishya Purana mentioning a man named Issa from the Middle East that have been used to support this theory. This and other passages in this particular Purana are however later insertions as seen from an Arabic-styled spelling.

In Indonesia, many Javanese Muslims practice a version of Islam deeply influenced by the Agama Hindu Dharma, known as Abangan.

Dharma and Daoism

Taoism which has its roots in ancient Chineese philosophies, has some philosophical concepts of the Tao, which are similar to Dharmic concepts - for eg Tao has been transalated by some Chinese scholars as 'The way' or 'The Natural Way'.

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