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Sanatana Dharma/ Hinduism was designed as a way of life to best ensure the continuity of humanity on this earth and provide the entire population with spiritual sustenance.
The phrase dharma sanātana first occur in classical Sanskrit literature. In the Bhagavata Purana, in a sense akin to “cosmic order.”
Bhagvata Purana, pp. 8.14.4, At the end of every four yugas, the great saintly persons, upon seeing that the eternal [sanātanaḥ] occupational duties [dharmaḥ] of mankind have been misused, reestablish the principles of religion.
And in Manusmriti (4-138), "Speak the truth. Do not speak the truth to manipulate. Do not speak falsely to please or flatter someone. This is the quality of the eternal dharma"
Dharma is often translated as "duty", "religion" or "religious duty", but has a deeper meaning. The word comes from the Sanskrit root "dhri" which means "to sustain" or "that which is integral to something" (e.g. dharma of sugar is to be sweet, fire to be hot). A person's dharma consists of duties that sustain them according to their innate characteristics which are both spiritual and material, generating two corresponding types:
Sanatana-dharma – duties performed according to one's spiritual (constitutional) identity as atman and are thus the same for everyone.
Varnashrama-dharma – duties performed according to one's material (conditional) nature and are specific to the individual at that particular time.
According to the notion of sanatana-dharma, the eternal and intrinsic inclination of the living entity (atman) is to perform seva (service).
Thus Sanatana-dharma, being transcendental, refers to universal and axiomatic laws that are beyond our temporary belief systems.
In many regions of North India the Samajs and Santpanths (I'll go into detail about them in upcoming chapters) became the other distinct Hindu denominations. But keep in mind the principal Hindu denominations in India has mostly been Shaivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism. (I'll go into detail about them later, as of now I'll give a vague description of each.)
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Shaivism
Shaivism is one of the major Hindu traditions that worships Shiva, also called Rudra(and many other names which I won't cover here) as the Supreme Being. Shaivism developed as an amalgam of pre-Vedic religions and traditions derived from the southern Tamil Dravidian Shaiva Siddhanta traditions and philosophies, which were assimilated in the non-Vedic Shiva-tradition.
