[Reader-list] Hindu article

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Bipin jee

Since you have mentioned religion and dharma, let me also state this:

Religion and dharma are somewhat different.

Religion is a fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon
by a group of people. These set of beliefs concern the cause, nature, and
purpose of the universe, and involve devotional and ritual observances. They
also often contain a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Since people have to agree on a set of practices here, it does involve
politics, at a fundamental level, irrespective of whether we accept it or
not.

Dharma on the other hand, is a sense of duty. Probably the BJP may not like
it, but dharma can't be the exact word for Religion in Hindi. Moreover,
unlike religion, dharma can be personal. I hope you would have seen the film
Swades. In that film, Mohan Bhargava (Shahrukh Khan's character) believes
it's his duty (or dharma) to actually do something for the country, to help
the people in the village Charanpur.

Even in the Mahabharata, Krishna reminds Arjun of his duty as a kshatriya
before the war starts. Similarly, at different stages, the word dharma comes
up to remind people of their duties in the same epic.

Hence, religion may involve a bit of dharma. But dharma involving religion,
I don't think so. Dharma at best will involve faith.

True religion which you have defined is only faith, not religion in any
sense. True faith only involves dharma and belief; true religion involves
much more than that.

Regards

Rakesh