Hello

[Kris]

Hello & thank you for approving my membership!

Am a polytheist because I can see no one path to enlightenment. The Hindu faith forms a very important aspect of my polytheism; I am a Hindu and I see aspects of divinity in many other faiths.

I became a Hindu at a RadhaKrishna Ashram in London where there was also a shrine to the Lord Shiva as Lingam overlooked by a large statue of Durga so my experience of the Hindu faith was polytheist from the very beginning. The statue of Durga is one of the most fabulous things I have ever seen, I spent many evenings in silent contemplation of this statue.

Why did I visit my local ashram in the early 1990s? I had been researching a Buddhist deity known as Tara when I came upon a reference to her in Hinduism, I didn't realise Tara also appeared in the Hindu faith, that's basically the story, in a sense Tara brought me to the temple.

Moved away from London and am no longer in touch with a Hindu community. I have questions relating to my experiences which is why I searched for a Hindu forum.

Thank you / Namaste

Kris

[Believer]

Namaste Kris,

Welcome to HDF. Fire away any questions that you may have and one of us will try to answer them.

Pranam.

[Kris]

Namaste Pranam,

I seem to be a devotee of Devi, that leaves me fairly isolated even when I was in the midst of a Hindu community. I also regard Radha as an aspect of Devi, is this acceptable please?

It was difficult for me to become that close to my ashram because I had already tried to learn some Hindi when I discovered the language local to the mandir was Gujaratii, I made some effort to acquaint myself but it was too confusing; I'm quite fond of Sanskrit because the language holds so many secrets and is tolerably accessible to the Westerner, I like languages but British culture is sometimes a bit insular in terms of language learning, and our grammar is fragmented, that's a hurdle when trying to learn a new language I found.

Thank you.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Kris: Welcome to HDF. I hope your time here is fruitful. Just a question ... there are no Hindu communities outside of London?

Aum Namasivaya

[Kris]

Vannakkam Kris: Welcome to HDF. I hope your time here is fruitful. Just a question ... there are no Hindu communities outside of London?

Aum Namasivaya

Thank you,

There is an ashram in a large city quite a few miles away, I looked at it on the internet - it seems to be south Indian in inspiration? It looked quite different to the temple I knew which drew its inspiration from Vrindavan.

[devotee]

Welcome, Kris !

OM

[Kris]

Welcome, Kris !

OM

Thank you :)