Is Hinduism Different from Sanatan Dharma?
The word “Hindu” is more reflective of a geographical location than a religion.
The word “Sanatan Dharma” was referenced in the Vedas, thousands of years before the term “Hindu” was coined. While some historians may differ about its origin, the Bhawad Gita clarifies the set of Dharmas or Laws a person needs to follow to achieve liberation. The word is also mentioned several times in Shrimad Bhagwadam. The term “Sanatan Dharma” is interesting because it does not describe a particular religion or sect, instead, it is a set of “eternal laws” prescribed by ancient seers to lead a good moral life eventually leading to “Moksha” or liberation.
How did the word “Hindu” get into the scheme of things?
While many theories are doing the rounds, let us explore the most common ones. The word “Hindu” is a foreign word used to describe a group of people living across the Sindhu River who followed a completely different style of living than the ones who coined the term.
The word Hindu is nowhere to be found in the Vedas or other spiritual literature. The word, according to several scholars, was coined by the Persians who used the word to describe the people living across the river Sindhu. The confusion of pronunciation between the letters “S” and “H” created difficulties for researchers and historians for several centuries.
An article published on the Difference Between mentions the following:
“…Before Persians gave Indians the name Hindu, the geographical territory was known as Aryavarata. When Greek conqueror Alexander the Great invaded this part of the world, Greeks used the term Indu instead of Hindu to denote people living in this territory. This ‘Indu’ later became India and the people came to be known as Indian.”
India, Indians, and Hindus are foreign words used to describe a geographical location and people residing therein. The word does not describe a religion; however, Hindus do follow a set of eternal laws known as Sanatan Dharma, which again, is not a religion. So the only similarity between Hindu and Sanatan Dharma is that they do not have a religion.
Not only have philosophers or spiritual seekers been impressed by Hinduism or Santana but great scientists, such as Oppenheimer and Carl Sagan, have spoken about the greatness of the Dharma.
The great planetary scientist and astronomer, Carl Sagan, said the following about Hinduism or Santan Dharma:
“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths.
It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.”
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