Sanatan Dharma has four eternal principles. It is critically important to understand these eternal principles because only through this understanding can you truly comprehend Indian society. The first and most important is the Vedas. The Vedas, which are central to our culture, hold immense significance in Sanatan Dharma. If you examine them closely, you will find a very important fact: the Rig Veda, which holds great importance in Sanatan Dharma, contains a crucial hymn in the Purusha Sukta. This hymn mentions the four Varnas. The mention of the four Varnas occurs elsewhere in the Vedas as well. However, if you ever read the original Vedas, you will be surprised to learn that nowhere in the Vedas is the mention of the four Varnas—Brahmin, Kshatriya, Shudra, and Vaishya—linked to a hierarchy. Instead, it is presented through a degree of abstraction.

The key point here is that when we talk about the Varna system in the Vedas, the Varnas mentioned there do not indicate any hierarchy. Each Vedic reference is an abstraction. That means every Vedic text clearly states that anyone can move into any Varna based on their qualities. Two crucial results emerge from this: the Vedas never mention that a person’s Varna is fixed for life, and they repeatedly assert that anyone can move between Varnas.

The second major point is that in the context of the importance of the Vedas in Sanatan Dharma, it is also stated repeatedly that nowhere in the Vedas is it written that a person has a birthright to remain in the Varna they were born into. You can belong to any Varna and still move into another Varna. So how does this transition happen? It happens based on your qualities and abilities. You may be a Kshatriya, but you can still perform intellectual work like a Brahmin. You can be a Brahmin and simultaneously engage in trade like a Vaishya. This suggests a certain flexibility and mobility in the Varna system, which is why Swami Vivekananda often said that regardless of one’s Varna, every person should strive to become a Brahmin. When he used the term Brahmin, he meant becoming an ideal person.

Thus, there is no rigid compartmentalization or restriction in the Varna system, and you will not find any such fixed divisions in the Vedas.

The second eternal principle of Sanatan Dharma is “Jati.” The word “Jati” is derived from the idea of birth. When the concept of Jati originated in ancient times, it referred to a group of people, or a class, that lived together in a village. The term began to evolve from this idea. Now think about it: in ancient times, people living in the same village eventually began performing similar kinds of occupations. That is, the people who lived together in a village started engaging in a common occupation. Gradually, Jati began to be associated with occupation, and as time went on, occupation and Jati became interlinked.

But what is the most significant aspect here? When we talk about Jati, we must remember that the term originated from the concept of living together in a village, and it evolved into the idea of a group performing a common occupation. For this reason, when we look at Jati today, we see it as a way of life, a lifestyle, or a conduct of life. This is why, when we talk about Jati, we say that all the people of that Jati share a sense of belonging. They lived together in a village, worked together, and today, they have a sense of community and brotherhood. That is why Jati is sometimes also referred to as “Biradari” (brotherhood).

The third most important eternal principle of Sanatan Dharma is the significance of Dharma itself. If you look at it, the concept of Dharma in Sanatan Dharma is completely decoupled from our social structure. This decoupling means that within Sanatan Dharma, Hinduism (which we refer to as Hindu Dharma) grants every individual the liberty to worship God in any way they choose. Each person has the freedom to adopt their own method of worship. This is significant because, regardless of one’s social class or economic status—whether rich or poor—everyone’s relationship with God is personal. You are free to worship God in your own way, and Sanatan Dharma grants you this liberty, which perhaps other religions do not.

The fourth most important eternal principle of Sanatan Dharma is that the entire religion, i.e., the entire Hinduism, is a decentralized way of life. This is a true reflection of multiculturalism. How? In Sanatan Dharma, there is no clergy, no father figures like in the church, no single scripture, or one sacred text. There are many texts, many deities, and every person has the liberty to worship their deity in their own way. Every person has the freedom to follow their own spiritual path. Sanatan Dharma grants you this liberty.

It is crucial to understand these four principles because, in ancient times, the entire Indian society was designed based on these principles. Problems arose when the Islamic invasions of India began. During the Islamic invasions, two major things happened. First, when Islam entered India, it aimed to conquer the land, to take control of the territory through aggression. When they began this conquest, another problem emerged: all the land was owned by Hindus. It was in the hands of Hindu rulers and Hindu society, which was thriving at the time of the Islamic invasions.

As soon as the Islamic invaders arrived, the first thing they did was seize the land. After that, they began to dismantle Hindu society. How did they do this? They started by abducting Hindu women, committing atrocities against them, and forcibly marrying them. In response to these actions, Hindu society initiated the practice of child marriage to protect their women from Islamic invaders. Similarly, the dowry system began during this period to ensure the safety and security of Hindu women after marriage.

The third major consequence of the Islamic invasions was that they took away the wealth, trade, and lands from the Hindus. Urban Hindu traders were displaced from their land and businesses, pushing them into poverty. When Hindus began fleeing their lands and businesses, they took refuge in the forests, where they faced severe hardships, including disease. To prevent their illnesses from spreading to traders passing through the forests, these displaced Hindus isolated themselves. This self-imposed isolation led them to become “untouchable.” This is how the untouchable class emerged, a direct consequence of the Islamic invasions and the Hindu holocaust.

During British rule, this untouchability was institutionalized as a caste system. In 1901, during the British census, different Jatis were categorized into castes, which further divided the society. This caste system never existed in Indian society before the British introduced it. The British used this system as a tool to divide and rule, to maintain their control over India.

The question now is: How much more will society be divided using such methods? We must realize that actions like caste-based census only serve to divide society further. This process is being used to benefit a select few in power. Sanatan Dharma’s real nature was never based on caste or hierarchy. It was always a flexible and inclusive system. The choice is now ours: do we want to remain divided and enslaved for the next 2000 years, or do we want to come together as a consolidated identity and work toward a national consciousness?