Acharya Prashant defines Sanatan as eternal and timeless, referring to the unchanging fundamental condition of human beings across all eras and locations. He explains that humans are born into ignorance and bondage, which leads to suffering. Sanatan Dharma is the individual's responsibility to seek understanding and liberation from this inner strife. It is a universal law that applies to everyone, regardless of age, gender, or nationality, focusing on the mind's need to overcome suffering and needless entanglements. Addressing recent criticisms, Acharya Prashant argues that Sanatan Dharma is often misrepresented through a straw man fallacy. He asserts that far from being divisive, Sanatan Dharma is founded on the principle of a common core identity called Atman. According to Vedanta, all superficial differences like caste, creed, and gender are unreal. He emphasizes that one cannot judge the essence of a philosophy based on its distorted social practices, just as one cannot condemn the field of medicine because of the actions of a fraudulent practitioner. He clarifies that caste is a social evil and an imagination of the mind, not a tenet of Sanatan Dharma. He cites the Vajrasuchika Upanishad, which explicitly denounces caste, and points to the Ashtavakra Gita as a text that epitomizes the spirit of equality and liberation. Acharya Prashant explains that many people mistake miscellaneous storybooks for actual scriptures. True scriptures deal strictly with the ego and its liberation. He suggests that social evils persist because people have failed to understand or live by the true spirit of Dharma. Acharya Prashant distinguishes between Sanatan Dharma, Hinduism, and Hindutva. He describes Sanatan Dharma as a rigorous philosophy and a relentless pursuit of truth that requires discarding all beliefs. Hinduism is characterized as a broad belief system and a way of life that is often liberal but can slip into superstition. Hindutva is defined as a political ideology centered on cultural nationalism. He concludes that Dharma is not about dogma or handed-down beliefs but is a process of self-inquiry and the upliftment of consciousness through both scriptural study and learning from life experiences.
