The way of life envisaged for the people of India by the divine incarnation and by their sages and saints of yore from time immemorial is known as “ SANATHANA DHARMA ”.

‘Sanathana’ in Sanskrit means eternal and ‘Dharma’ means righteous way of life. Therefore, Sanathana Dharma simply means, “a way of life that leads man in the evolutionary direction (towards higher spiritual orders of life i.e., towards salvation) ”.

Dharma never means Religion as professed in the ordinary sense. Religion is a set of Do’s and Don’ts prescribed rightly or wrongly by it’s founder for his followers demanding unquestioning faith and loyalty to his teachings, and with certain punishments for not following them.

In this sense, Sanathana Dharma is NOT a religion, for it has neither a founder nor a beginning. It is as natural as Nature is.

Further, Sanathana Dharma is not wedded to or limited to any one man’s spiritual thought process. It is the collective spiritual wisdom (amalgam) of several divine incarnations, and infinite number of enlightened great sages, saints and philosophers of India from time immemorial. Therefore, it is NOT a religion but a way of life of Hindus in a very broader sense. It is Eternal and Universal as nature is, and all encompassing, and always catering to the evolutionary instincts of human beings at varied levels.

“Sanathana Dharma” is also known as Hinduism. The invaders from the north west frontier of the subcontinent who invaded India in the recent historical time, called the civilization beyond Sindhu River as Hindu and it became the name of Sanathana Dharma. In fact there is no such civilization called Hindu as seen in our Puranas (legends) and Ithihasas (history).

Sanathana Dharma envisages four directive principles i.e., DHARMA (righteous way of living), KARMA (The sum of good and bad actions that binds an entity to the creation or world), PUNARJANMA (rebirth) and MOKSHA (salvation).

One who leads life in accordance with Dharma (righteous way of living) i.e., following the divine principles like, love, compassion, non-violence mentally and physically except for self-protection or for protecting the dependents or for establishing the righteousness, and charity, doing allotted or accepted duties in the right and dedicated way, service to the Supreme BEING by way of serving the fellow-beings, abstaining from cheating or deceit, maliciousness, jealous etc., practising spiritual practices like devotion to the Supreme BEING, Meditation, Worship, Prayer etc. will not get into Karma which is the cause for re-birth.

Thus, one who leads life in accordance with Dharma, for him there is no Karma and therefore, no Punarjanma. Those who do not lead life in accordance with Dharma shall get into the bondage of Karma and therefore, take birth again and again (Punarjanma) to work out their Karma. Those who lead life according to Dharma, incur no new Karma and also wipe out accumulated Karma of the past through right spiritual practises, and when left with no Karma, there will be no cause to take rebirth (Punarjanma). Freeing oneself from all types of Karma is known as Mukthi (liberation from the bondage of Karma). Then, the Individual Consciousness (self or ego) dissolves into the Universal Consciousness, attaining eternal rest from the cycle of births and deaths as there is no Karma to take birth again. This is Moksha (Salvation). These are the four fundamental PILLARS of Sanathana Dharma.