Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

Quote by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

“On the question of the nature of the Absolute, Sanatana Dharma falls very clearly under the heading of a monotheistic religion. We believe that there is only one supreme being who is the origin and sustainer of all reality, and that the highest goal (artha) in life is to know, to love, to serve, and to come to a eventual state of intimate communion with the Divine Being, God. (p. 25)”

Quote by Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

Work

Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya. more

You May Also Like

“There is no place where God is not. Indeed, for Sanatana Dharma, it is the very presence of God itself within the very core of all things that gives all things their very existence ontologically, and their very raison d'être spiritually. God is present within all of the material creation, within all of nature, in the hearts of every living being, and ever-present within our own essential being as the very Soul of our soul, the very foundation of our being, and the sustainer of our existence. Indeed, it is understood that if you were capable of pointing to anything either perceivable or conceivable in which God were not present - you would actually be pointing to nothing at all! This is the reason why the very highest name for God in the tradition of Sanatana Dharma is the Sanskrit term "Sriman Narayana", or "the Auspicious Sustainer of All Beings." (p 28)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“Being the Eternal Natural Way, Sanatana Dharma is a world-view that is universal in nature, and that can be followed by all. It is not relegated only to a particular people, nation, ethnicity or geographical region. Dharma is not a race, a parochial cultural expression, a nationality, or a geographically-bound phenomenon. Rather, Dharma is as universally applicable a truth and a systematic methodology as are the knowledge-revealing intellectual realms of mathematics, science, logic, or philosophy. As a result of the universalism of Dharma, this path is open to any sincere seeker on Earth, regardless of the person's national or ethnic heritage. Sanatana Dharma is not a race, a nationality or an ethnicity. Sanatana Dharma is not Indian, Asian or Eastern. Sanatana Dharma is he Eternal Natural Way, and it is the spiritual inheritance of all living being. (p. 28)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“Being the Eternal Natural Way, Sanatana Dharma is a world-view that is universal in nature, and that can be followed by all. It is not relegated only to a particular people, nation, ethnicity or geographical region. Dharma is not a race, a parochial cultural expression, a nationality, or a geographically-bound phenomenon. Rather, Dharma is as universally applicable a truth and a systematic methodology as are the knowledge-revealing intellectual realms of mathematics, science, logic, or philosophy. As a result of the universalism of Dharma, this path is open to any sincere seeker on Earth, regardless of the person's national or ethnic heritage. Sanatana Dharma is not a race, a nationality or an ethnicity. Sanatana Dharma is not Indian, Asian or Eastern. Sanatana Dharma is the Eternal Natural Way, and it is the spiritual inheritance of all living being. (p. 28)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“Throughout the unceasing course of human history, there have been a small number of revolutionary ideas that have served to define the nature and shape of an entire era and people. These ground-breaking ideas have been neither parochially limited, nor culturally demarcated in scope, but rather have served as meta-cultural, trans-geographical ideological principles that have assisted in guiding and molding the direction and purpose of entire civilizations and epochs in history. Such world-views are weltanschauung, a German word which has no English equivalent. The closest translation is perhaps the phrase "world-perspective", or a “world-view”. It is a way of perceiving reality, a way of seeing. A weltanschauung can be of either a positive and life-enhancing nature, while others can be devastatingly destructive. Some of the meta-ideas responsible for such civilizational transformation have included the world-altering ideas of theism, science, secularism, materialism, Marxism, hierarchy, equality, and democracy, among others. Of all the known ideological world-views to have arisen in human memory, the ancient principle of Dharma (“Natural Law” one can say) is by far the most important, universal, compelling, and surprisingly least known in our age, of all weltanschauung. It is a world-view that has shaped entire intercontinental civilizations in the ancient past, and that is still making its presence known today. It is also the one world-view destined to shape the future of our new global civilization in the 21 st Century and beyond. (p. 39)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“The Vedas were first composed in Sanskrit approximately 3800 BC. Previous to even this time, this literature is known to have been preserved orally, and passed down from generation to generation of priests, seers and sages before finally being committed to writing. Thus, no one can accurately date the antiquity of the Vedas and consequently of Dharma. Dharma is one of the most ancient concepts known to humanity. The word “Dharma” is found repeatedly throughout the entire corpus of the Vedic scriptures, from the earliest Rig Veda to the Bhagavad Gita. There is almost no scripture in the entirety of the Vedic literature where one will not come across the word “Dharma” as the preeminent name of the religio-philosophical world-view taught in these ancient, sacred texts. Sometimes the word “Dharma” is used by itself; at other times it is used in conjunction with other qualifying words, such as “Vaidika Dharma” (Vedic Dharma), “Vishva Dharma” (Global Dharma), “Yoga Dharma” (the Dharma of Union), or more frequently as "Sanatana Dharma" (the Eternal Natural Way). The diversity of adjectival emphases will vary in accordance with the precise context in which the word is used. Of these terms, the name “Sanatana Dharma” has been the most widely used name of the path of Truth, and is used as far back as the Rig Veda (3800 BC), the very earliest scripture of the Indo-European peoples, and the earliest written text known to humanity. It is also the most philosophically profound and conceptually beautiful name for the path of Truth. (p. 42)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“Our world, according to Dharma, is a place that is replete with inherent meaning, value, and an intelligent design underlying its physical principles and laws, as well as a transcendent purpose that, while not necessarily discernible via empirical means, nonetheless forms a very concrete spiritual basis of all empirical reality. The material, according to Dharma, finds its origin and sustaining ground in the spiritual. The measurable is grounded upon the infinite. The spiritual necessarily precedes the material. The world is here for a purpose – and that purpose is God’s purpose. The word “dharma”, in this more important philosophical sense, refers to those underlying natural principles that are inherent in the very structure of reality, ordering our world as the metaphysical backdrop to the drama of everyday phenomenal existence, and that has their origin in the causeless will and grace of God. Dharma is Natural Law. Thus, if we needed to render the entire term Sanatana Dharma into English, we can cautiously translate it as „The Eternal Natural Way“. (p. 47)”

Spiritual LifeNatural LawVedantaSanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“Dharma has no recognized founder, or prophet, or originator, other than the direct will and causeless overflowing grace of the Absolute. At one time Dharma was the sole expression of humanity’s yearning to stretch its hearts and intellects beyond the known world, and to intimately know and experience the source of all reality. Dharma was humanity’s attempt to incorporate the will of the transcendent Divine into the everyday, phenomenal concerns of this world, and to live and explore politics, economics, the arts, music, philosophy, literary expression, and life itself as an everyday, every-moment celebration of the omnipresent imminence of the Divine. When the rational and divinely inspired laws of Dharma governed the world, spirituality served as a source of unity, tolerance, joy, and mutual understanding. It is only with the later rise of the denominations that religion was then used to divide people, and to aggressively conquer others in the name of a god. Being thus a pre-religious phenomenon, Dharma serves as the spiritual foundation of all later denominational expressions of spirituality, and thus, by extension, as the very source of all important civilizations on earth. Dharma is the common heritage of all humanity, whether or not individual humans today are ready to acknowledge this fact or not. (p. 51)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image

“For the Dharmi, the world around us is seen as being alive with sentiency and personality. Some of this life is readily seen through the senses, while other forms of life exist on more subtle realms and cannot be as readily detected. Consciousness – life – inhabits the four corners of our cosmos in all its myriad forms, and is all meant to be appreciated for its own inherent value. As a result of this unique way of perceiving reality, the Dharmi has deep respect and reverence for his surroundings, including respect for all life-forms, all natural phenomena, as well as for the Earth Herself. The trees, mountains, the oceans, rivers and lakes, the myriad diverse biospheres, and the planets and stars are all seen as being beneficent friends and blessings upon us all. The Dharmi never considers himself to be at war with other species of life, but views the diverse living entities found in nature with love and acceptance. All living beings have an inherent right to life […] In actuality, Dharma teaches us that every corner of the cosmos is filled with consciousness and is alive with personality. The Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the lakes and trees, and Nature herself are all seen as being living persons, with their own will and inherent value, and are accordingly treated with the highest respect. (p. 63 f.)”

Sanatana DharmaThe Eternal Natural Way
Book:Sanatana Dharma: The Eternal Natural Way
Create image