Necromancer - The Converted

[Necromancer]

Namaste.

After replying to a thread in another section of HDF with all of 'what it means to be a Hindu Vedantist' stuff...which I shall link below for convenience:

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showpost.php?p=108702&postcount=17

A question arose in my mind that if I always was a Hindu, then what did I 'convert' from? Did a 'conversion' actually take place?

So why is this thread here? Because it belongs nowhere else (and it's also about Lord Shiva).

When was the first time for you? The first time you realised and knew you were a Shaivite Hindu?

After witnessing Thaipusam in Malaysia as a young girl (and I saw everything), I never went sight-seeing with my parents again during the trip. Was it because I was too scared? No. Was it because I became ill? No (that was the excuse I gave them). It was because I wanted to stay at the hotel alone and meditate on the most beautiful picture I ever saw the previous evening - a picture of Lord Shiva.

*that was after the 'what- no blood?' "why aren't those people crying/in pain? All that really cool stuff.

I saw pictures of Murugan - a little boy about the same age I was at the time, but when I saw a picture of Lord Shiva, that was it. WOW!

Fortunately, I was granted the request to remain in bed for the day with the hotel room door locked ( with plenty of water and fruit inside) and a bell-boy 'guard' outside (I guess they were happy that at least I wasn't trying to run away again like I had the previous day and blamed me for getting 'sick').

As for the point and purpose to this thread?

I stayed a Shaivite until in my mid-teens when my devotions were totally derailed by Laya Yoga (The Yoga of Absorption) which had then taken me from Shaivism into Tantric Buddhism.

From Buddhism, I went back to Hinduism in my late teens and from there on to Pagan/Wicca in my early 30's, after drowning in too much 'Hindu dogma'..I mean, a Witch can still worship Lord Shiva, right? lol

From Wiccan, I eventually went back to Hinduism and to Lord Shiva after reconciling my heart with my beliefs.

I never really converted, actually...just 'changed perspectives'.

Aum Namah Shivaya

[fem_phoenix1109]

I too was enchanted the first time I laid eyes on Lord Shiva. Before that, I had found a song that I loved, and the chorus went "Hara Hara Hara, Mahadev." I had no idea what it meant, but I listened to that song all the time. Then I just happened across an image of Shiva online, and I was stunned. I didn't know who he was, what he stood for, or any of that, but I was captivated. I'm not sure how long I gazed at that image. Then I happened to notice the caption under the picture, which said.... you guessed it - Hara Hara Hara, Mahadev. I've been his ever since. It was not something I thought about, it just happened. It wasn't a decision on my part, but rather a realization that I was given when the time was right.

[Eastern Mind]

A question arose in my mind that if I always was a Hindu, then what did I 'convert' from? Did a 'conversion' actually take place?

I never really converted, actually...just 'changed perspectives'.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Vannakkam: I understand this, but have a further explanation on a 'conversion' ceremony. I never converted, but adopted. Personally, I recognise a difference, but many others wouldn't see it. Sounds like you adopted as well.

Rituals are mystical. The wedding is mystical. By that I mean inner beings are 'told' by the priests. All of our rituals are that way. The 16 samskaras are also telling inner worlds about you. Not everyone feels this way either. Some see it all as symbolism. So in the conversion ceremony, it's like the priest saying, "Here's_______. He may have been gone for awhile but now he's back ... completely."

Although I loved Siva before that, I always felt something was missing until an official ceremony. Perhaps an analogy is people who live together before and after they have a wedding. For some people, that wedding is important. It seals a knot, mystically too. For others, they can live common law all their lives. No problem either way.

So I am now married to Hinduism. It feels whole.

Aum Namasivaya