Blog #2 - My Indology Research Efforts

My Indology Research:

This CD contains the majority of my research since the mid-1990s.  In the past 8 years, I have distributed 1000s of these CDs at no cost.  There are primarily 2 major long-term projects I am working on:

1) Clearly and simply documenting the entire history of India

2) Organizing and modernizing Sanathana Dharma (Hindu-“ism”) for the benefit of the world

Project 1) REFORMING HISTORY:

To achieve this historical objective, I’ve created my Royal Chronology of India timeline (downloadable from NewDharma.org) which is an Excel spreadsheet covering India’s history in generational detail from 6000 B.C.E. to today (in detail from 4000 B.C.E.).  This spreadsheet also contains a list of other major civilizations and is on its FIFTEENTH revision since 1998 – when I first created it.  I have asked for assistance in a number of areas of historical research (from historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, etc.) and the resulting answers I receive have been, are and will be incorporated into this chronology.

One revelation of this effort is that Indian history is continuous and more specifically documented than the history of any comparable civilization on earth.  Another major revelation is that the way most people look at India is flawed.  They still believe in outdated theories such as the AIT (Aryan Invasion of 1500 B.C.E.) and wrongly consider India to have only 2 major epics of which the dating of the prior (Ramayana) is considered a matter of belief and the second (Mahabharata) a matter of increasing dogma.  In fact, India really has 3 MAJOR EPICS and the dating of these can be approximated as:

1. EPIC #1 – Dasharajnya (Vedic War of 10 Kings led by King Sudas) – 2900 B.C.E.
2. EPIC #2 – Ramayana (Late-Vedic Journey of Prince Rama) – 2100 B.C.E.
3. EPIC #3 – Mahabharata (Post-Vedic Civil War of India with Prince Krshna) – 1400 B.C.E.

I am writing these 3 books as an Epic Trilogy of India, and the first installment, ‘The Dasharajnya’ will be out in 2009.

Project 2) REFORMING DHARMA:

1)       The labels and categories we use must change - the old colonialist paradigm of ‘religions’ must be replaced with ‘spiritual systems’ (which itself contains dharma and religion).  By this definition then, the largest spiritual system in the world today is Dharma (including all its pathways: Sanathana, Jaina, Bauddha, Shishya and tribal/traditional dharmas and potentially a portion of those who would otherwise call themselves ‘agnostic’) with 2.2 Billion adherents, Christianity is second with 2.1 Billion and Islam is third with 1.5 Billion.  Let me repeat this, Dharma is the largest spiritual system in the world today if we define spiritual affiliation using this more correct terminology which is not limited or distorted by a Eurocentric or Abrahamic bias.  There is, after all, only one dharma and that is Arya Dharma (Noble Righteousness).  See what a difference a more balanced perspective makes!

2)       Religions have been in global competition for the past few thousand years and Sanathana Dharma (Hindu-“ism”) has lost most of its “market share”.  The phrase “out with the old and in with the new” is appropriate here since Sanathana Dharma is the oldest spiritual system and is being replaced by newer religions.

3)       The depth of knowledge and wisdom in Sanathana Dharma is unsurpassed by any other religion or even any other dharma for that fact, but this information is not readily available (with the exception of Yoga and Meditation).

4)       There appears to be a large, unmet need to rapidly organize all the knowledge and wisdom of Sanathana Dharma into a convenient format and then use that reference source as a means to organize a new community globally to promote Dharma as a more informed approach to spirituality than Religion; an approach well-suited to the 21^st century.

To address these Dharmic Reform issues, I and others are doing the following (which may take another 20-30 yrs to complete):

1)       Organizing all Dharmic scriptures by finding them all (there are nearly 10,000 total scriptures with 3,000 primary scriptures), assembling them together electronically (2,700+ scriptures already collected; some available at DharmicScriptures.org website), translating & analyzing these (10% complete) and then publishing these scriptures in proper books with calligraphic Sanskrit, English translation and transliteration, analysis and respectful artwork.

2)       Reforming and Modernizing Sanathana Dharma by educating the global public about the importance of Dharma versus Religion, the need to phase down the use of the term “Hindu-ism” and replace it with its real name, Sanathana Dharma, the related need to reduce the usage of the word ‘Hindu’ and replace it with ‘Dharmin’ and/or ‘Dharmika’, the gathering of the best knowledge of all the Dharmic Scriptures AND secular knowledge (family management, money/career management, good citizenship, etc.)  into one unified reference manual, the Dharma Veda (Wisdom of Dharma), the formal revision of the Dharma Veda Holy Book every 12 years at the Maha-Kumbha Mela as recommended by Sankaracharya and the creation of a centralized AND distributed system of trained leadership.

3)       The relentless promotion of Sanathana Dharma globally - spearheaded by effective, well-funded non-profit organizations (such as The NewDharma Foundation) which will pool resources (people, money, new community-based temples, new Dharmic Universities, land, goodwill, etc.) to actively spread Dharma in each and every nation in the world – especially where it is not welcome.  It is critical that this system is self-functioning and self-sustaining and is not dependent upon the charisma of any individual or group of individuals.  It must be an organization promoting a new global community backed by solid academic, financial, political, business and spiritual strengths.