Sanatan Dharma, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism — Four Traditions, One Question

The nature of the ultimate reality

Sanatan Dharma (specifically Advaita Vedānta): Brahman, the one non-dual consciousness, is the only ultimate reality. Individual souls and the world are real but not ultimately independent of Brahman. Buddhism (Madhyamaka): there is no ultimate substance — all phenomena, including consciousness, are empty of inherent, independent existence (śūnyatā). Liberation is the recognition of this emptiness. Jainism: both souls (jīvas) and matter (ajīvas) are ultimately real, eternal, and irreducible to each other. God as a personal creator is not posited — the highest ideal is the liberated soul (Siddha). Sikhism: there is one formless Creator (Waheguru, Ik Oaṅkār) who is both transcendent and immanent — the ground of all existence and the innermost reality of every soul.

The nature of the self

Vedānta: ātman is real, eternal, and ultimately identical with Brahman. Buddhism: there is no permanent self; what we call "self" is a conventional designation for a stream of impermanent processes. Jainism: each soul (jīva) is real, individual, and eternal — souls do not merge with each other or with a universal reality even in liberation. Sikhism: the individual soul (jīva, ātmā) is real and distinct from God but is an expression of the one divine light — liberation is the soul's reunion with its source through the Gurū's grace.

The mechanism of bondage

Vedānta: avidyā (ignorance of one's identity with Brahman), superimposed on the self through māyā. Buddhism: avijjā (ignorance of impermanence, suffering, and no-self), expressed as the three fires of craving, aversion, and delusion. Jainism: karma as subtle matter that clings to the soul due to passions (kaṣāyas: anger, pride, deceit, greed) and activity (yoga: mental, verbal, physical). Sikhism: haumai (ego-sense, the illusion of separate existence), the root of the five thieves — lust (kāma), anger (krodh), greed (lobh), attachment (moh), pride (ahankar).

The path to liberation

Vedānta: jñāna (knowledge) — specifically the direct recognition of ātman-Brahman identity through hearing (śravaṇa), reflection (manana), and deep contemplation (nididhyāsana) of the mahāvākyas. Bhakti and karma are preparatory. Buddhism: the Eightfold Path — right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration — leading to insight into the three characteristics of existence. Jainism: the three jewels — samyak jñāna (right knowledge), samyak darśana (right faith), samyak cāritra (right conduct) — combined with tapas (austerity) to shed karmic matter. Sikhism: Nāam Simran (remembrance of the divine Name), Sangat (community), Seva (service), and surrender to the Gurū's shabad (word) — liberation comes through the Gurū's grace, not by individual effort alone.

The convergence that matters most

Across all four traditions, the deepest agreement is ethical and experiential rather than metaphysical: that ordinary human consciousness, driven by self-centred desire and fear, generates suffering for oneself and others; that the reduction of violence, the cultivation of compassion, and the quieting of the ego are both morally essential and spiritually necessary; and that the highest human possibility is a life that has ceased to be organised around the protection and aggrandisement of a separate self. Whether that self is dissolved (Buddhism), recognised as Brahman (Vedānta), returned to its pure nature (Jainism), or reunited with its source (Sikhism) — the lived texture of liberation, as described by the tradition's realised teachers, is strikingly similar across all four.