Sanatan Dharma is one of the oldest religions in the world. The religion is not only rich in teachings but has many layers which remain unfolded. The amount of facts and knowledge available may be overwhelming and can take a lifetime for an individual to study. Here we present before you some of the most interesting facts about this religion.
1. In terms of people who practice the religion, Hinduism stands at third position globally following Christianity and Islam.
While the flowers of the latter two are dispersed around the globe, around 95% of the adherents to Sanatan Dharm are constrained in a single nation.
2. Hinduism is the oldest religion enduring the wrath of time. According to popular belief, one of the core religious book, Rig Veda was written 3800 years ago.
Interestingly, Rig Veda was passed orally to the future generations for around 3500 years until it was penned down. Yet, the book doesn’t have any major fallacy.
3. Buddhism and Sikhism also emerged as the branch of Hinduism. Both of them are major religions in the Asian subcontinent. Sikhism in its later stages was constituted to act as a shield to Hindus during the Mughal era.
Another religion, namely, Jainism has close ties and similarities with Hinduism. They are sometimes referred to as sister religions.
4. Time Concept:
Unlike the globally accepted linear time concept, Hindus believe in a circular time concept. According to this, events take place in a cyclical manner, so, accordingly, you will be reading this article once again after a few cycles.
The cycle is further broken into four main heads, namely,
(i) Sat Yug;
(ii) Treta Yug;
(iii) Dwapar Yug;
(iv) Kali Yug.
5. While many religions consider stalking wealth as a ‘sin’ or ‘haram’. Hindus are quite liberal and consider it celebratory to pursue wealth. Deities representing sources of wealth such as Maa Lakshmi or Kuber Dev are worshipped.
6. Decentralized:
Unlike the Pope or any institution, religion don’t have a central governing authority. Moreover, the religion also has no founding prophet like Moses or Muhammad as it mentions no concept of origin.
7. Healthy Lifestyle:
While the concept of Yoga is popularised as an exercise regime, Hindus consider it as a religious activity and a major founding block.
8. Religious scriptures:
“Hindu scriptures are organized into Vedas (poems that written in multiple levels from abstract rural level and going deeper into the cosmic universe), Upanishads (scientific discourses and arguments about the world), Brahmanas (manuals for ritual performances), Aranyakas (experiments were done on human mind and nature in the forests), Puranas (mythologies about Hindu gods) and Itihasas (notebooks on “historical” events”).”
This fact accounts merely a tip of the iceberg that the religion is, a deeper study of this religion is regarded as the goal of life among the holy men in the religion, notably, the Brahmins.
