Beyond Religion: Sadhguru Defines Sanatana Dharma's True Essence Amid Anti-Hindu Rhetoric

Sadhguru: Sanatana Dharma is a commonly misused word today. There is a misunderstanding that dharma means religion. Dharma does not mean religion, it means a law. This is why we are talking about different types of dharma - Grihasta Dharma, Swadharma and various other kinds of dharmas. Essentially, dharma means certain laws which are relevant for us to function in this existence.

For example, today, being in the twenty-first century, you have to know English to make things work. This is a relative thing. Maybe in five hundred to thousand years, it may be some other language. A thousand years ago, it was a different language. Those are dharmas of the day - they keep changing. But Sanatana Dharma is the eternal law. There are certain elements or fundamental aspects of life which will always work. Sanatana Dharma means that we have had insights into how life works for always. Despite invasions, loot, murder, and rape for over a thousand years, Sanatana Dharma has retained its essence because it is not an invention of the human mind, but a profound observation of creation and a striving to be in tune with it.

But how to access this Sanatana Dharma, how to be cognizant of these laws and how to implement it in our lives, these aspects have to be spoken about in the current language, style, and mode, as it appeals to this generation of people. They are not going to take it up because you say it is valuable. You cannot beat it into their head. You must make them see the value, you must make them see how it works. Only then will they take it up. Sanatana Dharma does not need preservation. It has to be enlivened, it must be alive in all of us in the way we live. If we do not do this, protecting it will become an isolated work.

To make Sanatana Dharma mainstream has been my effort. Without uttering the word dharma, I am bringing it into people's life because it has to become mainstream if it has to live. The larger population should subscribe to it. If just a small group of people subscribe to it and think that they know better and that they are above everyone else, it is not going to be preserved for too long. We will end up killing the most precious aspect of this culture, in the sense, this is the only culture on the planet where the highest goal is liberation. We are not planning to go to heaven or sit in God's lap. Mukti is our goal, because if you search deep within the very core of who you are, you will understand that it does not matter whether it is pleasures, knowledge, love, relationships, wealth, power or fame, you will get bored of all these things at some point. The only thing that truly matters is freedom, and that's why this culture is important - not just for today but for future generations.

People in the past were not really ready for Sanatana Dharma, because except for a few people in every generation, there was no large-scale intellectual development. So they could never appreciate what it means to be free, they only sought protection. If you look at all the prayers on the planet, ninety percent of them are simply about - "Give me this, give me that, save me, protect me!" These prayers are not about liberation, they are about survival.
But today, human intellect is evolving in such a way that anything that is illogical will not fly in the world. Heavens are collapsing in people's minds, so promises of "I will take you to heaven" are not going to work. No one wants to go to heaven anymore.

This is the right time for Sanatana Dharma. This is the only culture which has looked at the human mechanism with such profoundness that if you present it to the world properly, this will be the future of the world. This is the only thing that will appeal to an evolved intellect because this is not a belief system. This is the science and technology of wellbeing, of living and liberating oneself. So Sanatana Dharma is not of the past. It is not our tradition. It is our future!