SANATHANA DHARMA
Embodiments
of Love! The reconstruction of man is indeed the reconstruction of
the world. Only when man becomes better can the world be bettered.
Only when the individual becomes good can society be happy. Progress
in externals like political, economic, and social spheres, is not
enough. The mind of man has to be reformed. This cannot be affected
through food only. Materialists who argued that human problems can
be solved by ensuring food, clothing and shelter reached their climax
when in the Twentieth Century the atom bomb was exploded. Man can
reach full¬ness only when the three lines of progress material,
mental and spiritual—are all pursued with earnestness.
Sanathana Dharma
enables one to attain this Fullness. Really speaking, very few have
grasped the uniqueness and the importance of this Religion. Nowadays,
many elders and political leaders are afraid to utter even the name
"Religion" before the gatherings they address. They shape
their lives in accordance with a new order, which has no religious
slant whatsoever. In fact, they have not understood what religion
really means. They do not attempt to discover the significance and
the role of religion. Many talk from platforms on Hinduism and Sanathana
Faith but very few of them have understood the genuine core. The 
Sanathana
Dharma is the very basis of living. It deals with the total personality.
It embraces all Faiths and has established worldwide influence. Sanathana
means Eternal; only a Dharma which can win universal acceptance can
be named Sanathana. The religions we know about are all derived from
a person or prophet who is adored as the Ideal. Islam has Muhammad,
Christianity has Jesus, Buddhism has the Buddha. But Sanathana
Dharma is not derived from or through a person. It is the primal
essen¬ce of all other faiths. It is the essence of all the messages
prophets proclaimed. It is welcomed by all mankind, for it welcomes
all mankind. It is therefore to be deplored that some Indians boast
selfishly, "Sanathana Dharma is our religion."
Newton, a Westerner,
discovered after a series of experiments, that the earth had the force
of gravitation. But, we cannot conclude that the earth had no such
force until Newton's discovery. So too, though the principles of Sanathana
Dharma are inherent in human consciousness, and have their impact
all over the world, the people of Bharat have long practised and experienced
them and discovered their value and validity. They have earned invaluable
Bliss there from. Just as atomic science developed in one country
and later spread to other countries, the Sanathana Faith, developed
in India, has spread to other countries. Even a material process like
atomic science cannot be held down in one place; in the same manner,
this spiritual science too spreads all over the wide world.
Sanathana Dharma
is bound to overcome today's rampant materialism, for it can harmonise
the secular and the spiritual into a single way of life. It can bring
together into closer kinship both man and God. It is based on the
Divine which is the reality of the self. So, it is not limited to
one country, one individual, one period of time, or one sect. It has
a variety of procedures, points of view, disciplines and guidelines,
in accordance with the special features of the region, the age, and
the environment. This Faith, though first explicit on Bharat, between
the Himalayan range and the three seas, has become a world faith,
through its innate divine strength. - Baba
