What is Sanatana Dharrma
What is Sanatan Dharma?
Sanatan Dharma (that's what it's really called, Hinduism is a foreign given name) literally translates to Eternal Law. This is primarily the Law of every How, What, Why you may come up with including prominent ones like:
How Creation comes about and what is its purpose?
What is even the Creation, Who created it and how does it work?
Who am I and why am I even here?
Why do I have to die and suffer?
What are the core beliefs of Hinduism and how can I practice or go about it?
Namaste!! (means I salute the Real One in you)
The basic idea of Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) is that behind all the diversity of name & form(called Naama-Roopa) in the Creation (including the un-observable part of the universe), there's One entity alone (who we call Brahman). Brahman is by definition is the material and the intelligent cause of the creation. He/She/It is The Creator, The Maintainer and The Agent of dissolution of these things (and non things).
This One (equated to God whom we primarily call Bhagwan or Ishwara) is also the Ultimate (or Real) Actor and Cause through all these names and forms.
For a simple example, a rain cloud is just a name and form with the purpose of transporting water from a source like the ocean to the mountains or land. There are sub actors like wind and water and these two are names and forms again for specific purposes. But the ultimate actor is Bhagwan alone and these are just forms taken by none other than Bhagwan Himself. This is the concept of God.
The Nature of Bhagwan
Bhagwan is defined also by certain qualities (like the idea of omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience etc).
In the Sanatan Dharma, these qualities are a compound word Sat-Chit-Anand.
I'll try and define these.
Sat means The Real, The Eternal, The Ultimate Truth Itself. So Bhagwan is the Only Real and eternal and the rest are just His names and forms for specific ends and they last only till the end is served. That would include us and all living and non living beings as well as forces and mechanisms. Why is this alone the Truth (and other things being false or apparent or unreal)? This is because Truth by definition is that which exists on its own and not which is dependent on others things and circumstances.
Chit means conscious. Bhagwan is All consciousness. This can be looked at in two non-mutually-exclusive ways. That He is the sum total of all consciousness of all the Creation put together. The other is that He is the very Consciousness which pervades all and which lends consciousness (of different levels like say an atom vs a beetle vs a human) to the whole Creation.
Ananda means Bliss. Bhagwan is always blissful. In-fact, He is Bliss Himself and the fountainhead of all that is good and blissful. Bhagwan doesn't need anything at all (from us humans or anybody -- not even prayers or gratitude). He is fully satisfied by His very Nature.
Note that the omni-qualities will fall within this trio described above. For example, if something is the very consciousness in all, obviously it would know All and hence it would be omniscient.
Now to the Nature of our Real Self
Sanatan Dharma states that we are ignorant of our true self and it's nature and mistakenly assume ourselves to be the body and/or mind. This ignorance and mistaken belief is the cause of all suffering (internal as well as external). Once we realise our True Self, there is never any anxiety and the sufferings melt away despite the circumstances of the suffering remaining the same.
Our Real Self is Atman (literally translates to self) which can be taken synonymously as the spirit/soul for now. (Although the concepts are very different but this approximation is required as English lacks an equivalent).
Every being (living and non living) is actually a Jiva which is nothing but one's Real Self (Atman) imbued with desires (Jiva = a desirous Atman).
The body and the mind are simply faculties bestowed to the Jiva by Nature based on it's past actions (Karma) and desires (Kamna). These are bestowed to the Jiva to allow it to experience it's desires as well as the fruits of it's past actions which can be both good and bad.