250. diaspora
SANATANA DHARMA
In India, Hinduism is called Sanatana Dharma, which means literally “the eternal
religion.” There are two reasons why it is so called. First, unlike other religions, it
has no propounder, and consequently its beginnings cannot be traced to a specific
date in antiquity. Second, with all its subdivisions, it can be said to incorporate the
spirit of the world ’s diverse religions,^3 and thus can be equated with the eternalRe-
ligionitself. The Sanskrit worddharmarefers to both man’s nature and his religion.
Thus, according to the Hindu, religion is a means toward establishing a person’s
real nature, which is the fulfillment of the divinity in man—an inner harmony with
the world to which he belongs. The principle of harmony itself is his God. The way
to the realization of this harmony, of the one in many, varies according to the
seeker’s psychological makeup and is determined to a large extent by the beliefs of
the society in which he has been brought up. As Sri Ramakrishna, a Hindu mystic
of the nineteenth century, would say, “As many are the views, so many are the
ways.”
THE “PERSONALIZED RELIGION”
Victor Frankl, a guru of modern psychiatry, refers to the “profoundly personalized
religion” that Hinduism is.^4 “Hinduism,” observes the psychologist Gordon All-
port, “recognizes that the temperament, needs and capacities of the initiate himself
in large part determine his approach to religious verities,” reiterating what has al-
ready been pointed out. “Although other religions provide personal counsel for the
initiate at the threshold of maturity,” Allport continues, “probably none goes to
such lengths in making a close analysis of the youthful personality....In this prac-
tice we have a rare instance of an institutional religion recognizing the ultimate in-
dividuality of the religious sentiment.”^5
KARMA
Like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Hinduism believes that life does not end with
death. Hindus hold that everyone has a chance of being born again to undo the mis-
takes committed in past lives. The form of the future life is determined by the ac-
tions performed in previous lives.