Actually, Hindu is not a religion. Hindu is a name given by the foreigners. The religion is, of India, varṇāśrama-dharma: following the institution of four varṇas and four āśrama. That is varṇ . . . or sanātana-dharma. Sanātana-dharma means eternal, eternal religion. Religion of human being is one. That is called sanātana. A living entity is described as sanātana. Mamaivāṁśo jīva-bhūto jīva-loke sanātanaḥ (BG 15.7). In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find sanātanaḥ, and Kṛṣṇa is also addressed in the Eleventh Chapter as sanātanas tvam. And there is another place, or spiritual world, which is also called sanātana. In the Bhagavad-gītā you'll find, paras tasmāt tu bhāvo 'nyo 'vyakto 'vyaktāt sanātanaḥ (BG 8.20). So this sanātana term is very important. The living entity is sanātana, and God is sanātana, and the spiritual world is sanātana, and the process by which your lost relationship with God established and you go back to home, back to Godhead, that is called sanātana-dharma. Sanātana-dharma. That is our eternal relationship with God. And there is a place. So the system which makes these two sanātana, God and the living entity, meet again and they go back to enjoy life in the spiritual world, that system is called sanātana-dharma. Therefore sanātana-dharma is not meant for any particular class or particular country or particular nation or community. No. It is meant for the whole human being, especially human being; otherwise all living entities.
Living entities, they are in this material world in different forms. That is accepted by Kṛṣṇa, sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayo yāḥ (BG 14.4). There are as many forms of life amongst the living entities. Tāsāṁ mahad yonir brahma ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā. The mahad yoniḥ, mahat, this material world, material elements, or the sum total of material elements . . . Mother Durgā, she is the mother. And God is the father. Just like father and mother gives birth to a child, similarly, we spirit soul, the part and parcel of the supreme father, and the material elements, bhūmir āpo 'nalo vāyuḥ (BG 7.4), they're the recipient. Tasmin garbhaṁ dadāmy aham. Just like father gives the seed in the womb of the mother, then the child gets a body and it grows and come out, similarly this body is given by mother material, material energy, but the father is the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. Ahaṁ bīja-pradaḥ pitā (BG 14.4). This is the factual position. We are not this material body.
- dehino 'smin yathā dehe
- kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
- tathā dehāntara-prāptir
- dhīras tatra na muhyati
- (BG 2.13)
So we have got all information in the Vedic literature, beginning from Bhagavad-gītā and then described further in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, four Vedas. The four Vedas—Sāma, Yajur, Ṛk, Atharva—they are concentrated in the Vedānta-sūtra, and the Vedānta-sūtra is explained in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Therefore, our propagation, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is that we are trying to get our students well conversed in Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So those who are our students, we have got our books now ready published so nicely. People are accepting it.