Humble greetings!

[Rhea]

Namaste, Vannakum, Namaskaram dear friends

Great to have found this enlightening Forum.

I am Rhea, from South Africa. Really looking forward to getting more acquainted and learning more about our beautiful Sanathan Dharma.

With love and light,
-R-

[devotee]

Welcome to the forums, Rhea ! Hope you have a spiritually satisfying stay here ! :)

OM

[Believer]

Namaste,

Welcome to the forum. Good to have you as part of our online community.

Pranam.

[Anirudh]

Namaste Rhea

Welcome to HDF.

Although it's a norm to begin the journey from Introductions sub forum, threads posted here generates ONLY handful of responses.

It ALWAYS gives me an immense joy to see non Indians practicing Hinduism. I had always wanted to ask them why they chose Hinduism but never asked. I am not aware of your cultural orientation. If it is OK to ask, will you share what made you to chose Hinduism. Here I am making an assumption that you have opted to be a practitioner of Hinduism and did not born as a Hindu. What made me to ask you this question? I read what you wrote about yourself. We seem to share a common interest. Generally people who have some sort of liking towards writing have the tendency to see things from multiple perspective.

Hope I haven't hurt you with my post, and that wasn't my intention as well. Please do share with us your short stories. I too write but not in English.

Best Regards

[Rhea]

Namaste All
Thank you for the warm welcome. Much appreciated.

Anirudh - Namaste. I had a good giggle when I read your message, so no...you have not hurt me at all!

I did not choose Hinduism...I was fortunate enough that Hinduism chose me! Perhaps on a cellular level, I did choose Hinduism (or rather, my soul did!). Whatever the case, I consider myself extremely blessed to have been born into the religion of eternal truth.

South Africa has about 600,000 Hindus (as per the last census taken a few years back). I am of Indian origin, albeit 4th generation Indian living in SA.
Unfortunately, over the years (the first Indians landed by ship in 1860), a good portion of our culture and religious rights and beliefs were lost. The reasons for this is two-fold: 1) During the South African apartheid era, our languages/cultures/etc were not taught at schools...and over time, our grandparents and parents lost this vital part of them and 2) There weren't very many teachers/scholars to guide our people regarding the correct way of practicing our religion.
Over time, our ancestors relied on the practices taught by their elders and from memory, and so the cycle continued.

So...here I am...wanting to know more about my culture...the basics(although I do know some things!) , the intricacies...everything!

If you've read this far...THANK YOU!!

About my short stories...I haven't been fortunate (or brave!) enough to publish anything...maybe in time!

Regards,
-R-

[Soul of Light]

Namaste..

Warm welcome Rhea Ji.. Hope you will enjoy here..

Pranam

[Anirudh]

Namaste


Good Luck!!