Acharya Prashant explains that Dharma is about knowing who you are and, consequently, what you should do. Sanatan Dharma is the act of doing only that which takes you beyond yourself, beyond time, and beyond your dissatisfaction, discontentment, and restlessness. He notes that most of our experiences, such as attractions, repulsions, desires, happiness, and sorrow, are time-bound, and most people fail to see beyond these transient things. The speaker classifies all that exists into three categories: the timeless (Nitya), the eternal (Shashwat), and the time-bound (Kalbadh). 'Sanatan' refers to the timeless, that which is beyond time, and only the Truth is truly Sanatan. The mind, on the other hand, is in a constant state of flux, eternally seeking something beyond itself; this constant seeking is 'Shashwat'. Therefore, Sanatan Dharma is the fundamental responsibility to seek that which is beyond oneself, because there is no peace to be found within the self. It is the constant movement towards that which will take you beyond yourself. Acharya Prashant clarifies that Sanatan Dharma is not about beliefs, traditions, or rituals, as these are all concepts within the mind and are time-bound. Any religion that asks you to believe in certain things to be a follower cannot be Sanatan. He explains that Sanatan Dharma is, in fact, Vedanta itself. Vedanta, the essence of the Vedas, concerns itself only with two things: the mind and the Truth. It dismisses all mind-stuff as trivial and focuses on the pure investigation into the Truth by the mind. Therefore, one cannot be a follower of Sanatan Dharma (a Sanatani) without being a follower of Vedanta (a Vedanti), because without Vedanta, there would be no Sanatan Dharma for man to tread.
