In India the aachaaraas are practiced for the following purposes and benefits -
Aachaaraath labhathe hi ayu: aachaaraath dhanamakshayam aachaaraath labhathe suprajaa: aachaaro ahanthya lakshanam
Aachaaraas are practiced for the psychological and physiological health benefits and for a long life; aachaaraas are followed for prosperity and wealth; aachaaraas are followed for strong family and social bondage and by following the aachaaraas, one gets a fine personality and dharmic outlook/ vision, says our dharma saastra books and aacharyaas.
In India everyone practiced their dharma through these aachaaraas for the above mentioned psychological, physiological, family relation based, social benefit based and national integration based benefits.
Achaaras are the foundations of Sanathana dharma (aachara prabhavo dharma) hence Hinduism (a wrong word- it is Hindu dharma) is not a religion but a way of life i.e through these acharaas every one leads the dharmic life. Say for example the aachaaraas to be
performed by mother is known as maathru dharma, by father pitru dharma by the son is putra dharma, by the husband bhartru dharma and by the wife patnee dharma. Even for the citizens we had poura dharma for teachers aachaarya dharma, for the kings Rajadharma ....... and so on !Now, The sanaathana dharma is = The maathru dharma + pitru dharma + putra dharma + putree dharma + bhartru dharma +......+ raja dharma. The sanathana dharma has the following literal meaning also Sanaathana = chira puratana (older than the oldest) + nitya noothana ( ever novel) Dharma = dhaaranaath dharma = the one which is guiding you is dharma.
In sanathana dharma the followers have the freedom for criticizing the negatives, evaluating the merits, correcting superstitions and mistakes, modifying the ideas based on desa and kaala (place and time), adding any novel ideas beneficial for human beings, deleting which are irrelevant , accepting anything good for the benefit of individuals/family/society/
can be subjected to the above processing/refining. Because of the above freedom Hindus have as many as 1280 basic dharmic books (mathagranthas with tens of thousands of their commentaries).
Because of the great freedom given by our Rishies for taking good from everywhere and rejecting bad at any time, Hindu dharma still remain strong even after more than a thousand years of foreign aggression and massacre. One should remember that there is no final authority for Hindu dharma whose words are the final answers for coming to a decision on anything. You know all other civilization the surface of the globe Earth. Bharatheeya dharma could not be killed. It is giving light to billions of people world over. It has become a great subject for learning and practicing
