Sanatana Dharma: Embracing an Infinity of Possibilities

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Sanatana Dharma: Embracing an Infinity of Possibilities

 

Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.

(Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya)

 

 

Sanatana Dharma is a religion that has faced over 1000 years of

brutal battering and horrendous persecution at the hands of adherents

of the Abrahamic religions - specifically Islam and Christianity.

First, the Islamic conquerors attempted to quite literally physically

annihilate Dharma – killing as many as 100 million Hindus, burning

our libraries and sacred institutions of learning to the ground,

denying us our right to worship, making us third-class citizens in

our own nation, and destroying almost every single Hindu temple in

North India. Then the British came. When the British Raj was

established, the Christians did not attempt to physically annihilate

Hinduism as the Muslims had earlier. Rather, they attempted a more

genteel and sophisticated intellectual/cultural/spiritual

annihilation of what remained of Vedic culture. We are dealing with

the negative effects of this less violent form of genocide to this

very day.

 

Today, as a direct result of this millennium-long persecution, we

have a Sanatana Dharma that finds itself only now beginning to arise

from the smoldering ashes of this 1000 Year Holocaust. Hinduism is

only now beginning to reconstruct itself as an authentic, shastra-

based Sanatana Dharma, to rid itself of all non-Dharmic influences

over its philosophy and culture, and to begin finally reasserting

itself again onto the world-stage. The horrific psychic remnants of

the anti-Hindu Holocaust have survived, however, and have manifested

themselves in today's Hindus in deeply self-destructive psychological

terms.

 

Hindus have been relentlessly forced to hear from our deceitful

persecutors for so very long the false propaganda that Hinduism is an

inferior and unworthy religion, and that Hinduism only leads to

superstition and poverty. As a direct result of generations of such

brainwashing, today even the most vocal Hindu activists often find

themselves suffering from agonizing bouts of self-doubt, passivity,

impotence, and feelings of utter powerlessness in the face of the

many challenges that Sanatana Dharma is currently facing. Most

Hindus today find themselves unable to defend Hinduism from our

persecutors in anything but the most passive, cursory, fearful, and

weakest of ways. Too much of the Hindu world has been

psychologically impacted, and strategically paralyzed, by what I call

Impossibility-Thinking – the idea that we can accomplish no large

task in the name of Sanatana Dharma, and that our religion is somehow

destined to extinction regardless of what we may attempt to save it.

This problem is especially seen when it comes to the majority of

Hindus venturing to acknowledge and embrace the vast potential that

Sanatana Dharma has to offer us personally, and that our religion has

to offer the world at-large.

 

The Hindu world has been infected by Impossibility-Thinking for too

long. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that we are

powerless, that we are incapable of achieving greatness in Dharma.

The time of such hopelessly negative thinking is over! The era of the

passive Hindu is over! We need to know that, with Bhagavan's

blessings and grace, anything and everything is possible in His

service. We need to adopt Possibility-Thinking, and know that there

is no barrier, no obstacle, no enemy, and no challenge that we cannot

overcome. With such thinking, we will see Sanatana Dharma change the

course of world history. We will see the beginning of the new

Dharmic Era that will affect every corner of the globe.

 

Sanatana Dharma is the most personally expansive and psychologically

empowering religion on earth. It is a path that teaches its

followers to be fearless, dedicated, focused, strong, assertive, self-

controlled, virtuous, self-reliant, and to strive for excellence in

all endeavors. This, however, is only the case when Dharma is

actually followed and practiced.

 

It is only by embracing the daily practice of Dharma that we can

begin to access the full potential that we all have lying within.

Through steadfast practice of the remarkable techniques of Yoga,

meditation, puja, and bhakti, all of which are at the very heart of

Hinduism, God has provided us with powerfully effective tools by

which we can perfect ourselves and manifest unparalleled excellence

in our lives. By practicing a strict regimen of Hindu sadhana, we

can achieve our utmost potential physically, emotionally, mentally,

intellectually, and spiritually. It is by practicing, and witnessing

the direct results, of these Dharmic disciplines that we can develop

the self-confidence, healthy assertiveness, fearlessness, inner

peace, and self-control that are the hallmark of any healthy and well-

balanced person. It is no longer enough merely to call ourselves

Hindus, to be merely Nominal-Hindus any more; it is incumbent upon us

all to practice Hinduism if we are to experience firsthand what it

means to live a life that is empowered by the grace of God, and to

know that in Dharma all things are possible.

 

Sanatana Dharma is a religion of the possible. It is a tradition

that teaches us that anything and everything we can dream is

attainable. In Sanatana Dharma, we are radically free to perform any

positive task, to reach out boldly toward any constructive goal, to

achieve any dream that our imaginations can reveal. Dharma frees us

from the bonds of ignorance and fear that bind us, and gives mighty

wings to realize our inner yearning for peace, joy, and unlimited

freedom.

 

Ours has historically been a religion that has fostered Possibility-

Thinking. Sanatana Dharma is a religion that reflects the very

essence of the diverse and infinite possibilities that the universe

has to offer us. The infinitely expansive range of thinking,

feeling, and experiential possibilities that the Dharmic world-view

offers is without limit. The Possibility-Thinking that Dharma

encourages is one reason why we find so many amazing stories,

wondrous deeds, and heroic feats in our scriptures that would

otherwise defy our common-day imagination. Only in Sanatana Dharma

do we find such stories as Lord Shiva having the ability to

fearlessly drink deadly poison from an ocean of milk and yet not die;

or stories of the divine Sage Narada freely traversing the length and

breadth of the universe at will in his unending mission to share

God's love with all sentient beings; or the story of Hanuman bravely

leaping to Lanka in a single monumental bound to seek out the beloved

of Lord Rama. The one thing that these and so many thousands of

similar sacred stories tell us in the boldest of voices is that there

is no challenge in this world that cannot be overcome in the service

of the Divine. There is no possibility that is beyond us.

 

The scriptures (shastras) and history of Sanatana Dharma are replete

with the examples of many thousands of brave men and women who

understood the principle of embracing the oceanic potential of

Possibility-Thinking. Numerous sages, rishis, yogis, kings and

queens, and leaders of the Hindu people throughout our history have

shown us what can be accomplished when we know that all things are

possible, and that we can achieve anything in Bhagavan's service.

Chanakya had the determination to drive the Greeks out of Hindu

India. Shankara used the power of resolute focus to revive Hinduism

when it was threatened with extinction. Ramanuja possessed the

determined will to revive pure bhakti throughout the length and

breadth of Bharat. Shivaji Maharaja had the fearless fortitude

necessary to route the mighty and seemingly invincible Moghul empire,

and to reestablish the Dharma Nation as a viable military-political

entity. Vivekananda showed us that Sanatana Dharma is not merely the

possession of India, but can be realized as the future pre-eminent

world-view of the entire globe. Prabhupada showed us that Americans

and Europeans and East Asians and Russians and the peoples of the

entire world can – and will - enthusiastically embrace pure and

authentic Sanatana Dharma in their millions.

 

Dharma, when practiced, provides us with Moksha – radical existential

freedom, and liberation from all the worldly impediments that bind

us. Such is the nature of the radical freedom of Moksha that we find

ourselves without the limiting bounds that so affect those who have

not tasted the nectar of Brahma-vidya (God-realization). As servants

of Dharma and devotees of God, we naturally find that our lives can

be lived without limits. When we experience the spiritual revolution

in our lives that the Dharma lifestyle can grant us, our

possibilities are then endless.

 

By God's grace, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya (Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.) is an

American of Italian and Spanish ancestry who has been studying,

practicing, and teaching Sanatana Dharma for over 30 years. He is the

Founder-President of the International Sanatana Dharma Society (a

dynamic world-wide movement dedicated to restoring Sanatana Dharma as

a global force) and the Resident Acharya of the Hindu Temple of

Omaha, Nebraska. He has a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Languages and

Cultures of Asia from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as

a B.A. in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. An unparalleled

contemporary leader of the Hindu world, he is recognized by the

global Hindu community as one of the leading Hindu Acharyas

(Spiritual Preceptors) in the world today. Sri Acharyaji has been

proclaimed as " …one of the most fearless Hindu leaders on earth. "

With a very large international following of both Indian and Western

students, Sri Acharyaji is especially renowned for his highly

authentic approach to Dharmic spirituality, his authoritative and

scholarly method of teaching, and his clear emphasis on serious

spiritual practice and direct experience of self-realization and

knowledge of God. He has lectured on Sanatana Dharma at dozens of

top universities, including such prestigious institutions as Harvard,

Columbia, Rutgers, Cornell, and Northwestern. He has also served as

a consultant for such Fortune 500 companies as Ford Motor Corporation

and Lucent Technology. His sole focus today is to revive Sanatana

Dharma as a powerful global force in our world. Contact the

International Sanatana Dharma Society if you would like to help:

info.

 

 

 

His primary websites are:

 

www.dharmacentral.com

 

drmoraleslist/

 

yoga-spirituality/

 

www.youtube.com/profile?user=DharmaNation

 

 

 

 

 

Please assist the revival of Sanatana Dharma by forwarding this

important article to all your friends, websites, chat-rooms, and

discussion groups.

 

 

 

 

International Sanatana Dharma Society

 

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