Thursday, January 17, 2008


I wanted to write a blog on hinduism for a long time. After reading the article by Nita on Hindusim, I got interest to write it immediately.

Hinduism is not a religion. It is actually called as Sanathana Dharma. Sanathana Dharma is a set of rules, culture, and about life beyond birth and death, etc. It does not contain the words Hindu, or Hinduism. Whoever were following Sanathana Dharma were called as Hindus by Arabs, because they were living on the other side of Sindhu river.

All the scriptures in Sanathana Dharma are compiled/written by Veda Vyasa (Except Ramayana, which was written by Valmiki). It contains, 4 Vedas, 18 Puranas, 18 sub-puranas, 108 Upanishads, 2 Ithihasas (Mahabharath, and Ramayana). This contains entire Sanathana dharma. There is no other scripture that belongs to this. However there are other books that we have to read to understand these scriptures (like Vyakarana, Jyothishya etc.). But, they do not belong to the scriptures of Sanathana Dharma. Nothing else belongs to Sanathana Dharma.

Sanathana Dharma is NOT a religion. It just says what you should do, and the punishments that you will get, if you don't do those things. There is nothing like one belongs to this or not. It is just that whether one follows that or not.

The question, "Whether Mr/Ms.X is accepted in Hinduism or not?" does not have any meaning. There is nothing like some one belongs to Hinduism or not. It is just that whether someone follows those rules or not. If any so-called brahmin does not accept this, I would like him/her to point out the correct scriptural reference from any of the above scriptures. The present caste-system is not supported by Sanathana Dharma, and that is another big topic.

Few centuries back, when muslim kings were demolishing all the temples, at that time, many leaders of Hindu religion established few principles to protect the temples, and culture. One of those principles was, not allowing non-hindus into the temple. It was required to protect the temples at that time. But, the present temple administrators, and priests are still following those rules established for a completely different reason.

Temples in Puri, Udupi, Guruvayur, and Srirangam do not allow non-hindus, or non-indians. If a rational person enters into Puri temple, they will never like to go there again, and will get very bad impression on Hinduism. The priests in those temple are destroying hinduism in all possible ways, and many people are thinking that, what they are doing is hinduism. And they are getting very bad impression on Hinduism. Many people do not know that, 90% of the priests in all the big temples are the actual destroyers of the Hinduism.

As Ankur pointed out in the comment to Nita's article, the only way to cleanse the puri temple is by demolishing the entire premises. I completely agree with Ankur. It is better not to have a temple which is spoiling, degrading, and giving bad publicity to Hinduism.

By the way, eventhough I am a hard-core spiritual person, I can hardly count how many times I went to a non-ISKCON temple in the last 5 years. I am fed up with the money-demands, useless rules, mis-interpretations of the scriptures and many other things in the temples.

I hope people will not take those big temples as the authority of Hinduism, and appreciate the philosophy of real Hinduism.


  1. its a jaganath temple...
    the ruler of the this creation should be allowed to be worshiped by the entire humanity.. irrespective of the caste, creed or religion..

  2. Hi Satish. Interesting article you have written. It is indeed sad that the Puri priests are distorting our religion.

  3. Nice article!

    I want to add another point:
    Even before the muslims invaded indian temples, entries in temples was still restricted. Although not on hinduism basis, but caste was the factor.
    So it has been always the case that only privileged can enter, the reason may be anything. To a rationale mind, its all the same.


  5. satish - i'm 'Anonymous' - i just posted the previous link
    Out of duty, fear and care, i feel bound to give you a word of caution!
    do u agree with the analogy that some knowledge must be kept secret (like nuclear power)?
    in that case, as advised by elders, i request you to perform some more satvik penance before you read all things in the given link.
    1. think of knowledge as money. unless u receive it for selfless use, u might be duty-bound to return it (i.e share it with others)

    and this is just my suggestion - pls do not post the ideas you get from that link in this blog.. think of that knowledge as a non-commerical license, to be used only for personal consumption
    1. some ideas might not be palatable to common people reading this blog, either because of the current times, or because of the teller (you)
    2. above analogy about secrecy

    also u may pls delete this comment asap..
    hope u understand my anxiety!

    ..what is there in my hands now.. how will this big play unfold ?!