Hello all!

[Spiritualseeker]

Hello everyone,

My name is Juan, I am 23. I live in the United States. I have no particular religion, but for the past 7 years I was practicing Islam. I am married. Now im soul searching a bit. I am interested in learning what the Hindu Faith offers concerning self realization. I look foward to learning from everyone.

-juan

[Eastern Mind]

Welcome:

You will find a lot here on these forums. If you want self-realisation (kind of an oxymoron, as you have to get rid of desire first, as I understand) then Hinduism is the path for that.

best wishes, and I hope you learn something here.

Aum Namasivaya

[Spiritualseeker]

Hello Easternmind!

Thank you for the response. Do you recommend any books for someone who has no idea what hinduism is and books specifically teaching the Hindu way of self realization or enlightenment?

I would appreciate it if you could point me in the direction.

Namaste!
-Juan

[Eastern Mind]

Hello Easternmind!

Thank you for the response. Do you recommend any books for someone who has no idea what hinduism is and books specifically teaching the Hindu way of self realization or enlightenment?

I would appreciate it if you could point me in the direction.

Namaste!
-Juan

Hinduism is very vast. When you ask questions you will get a wide wide variety of answers. Each individual has their own take on the Gods, karma etc. One of the great things of Hinduism is the freedom to do just that. No interpretation is right nor wrong, it depends on that individuals set of circumstances or experiences that brought them to that point. So when I (or someone else) answers your questions, it is really just my point of view. I do not speak for all Hindus. I certainly wouldn't want you to generalize Hinduism based on one or two responses from one or two people.

My personal best resource would be anything from Himalayan Academy in Hawaii. Do a search.

Aum Namasivaya

[saidevo]

Namaste Spiritualseeker.

Welcome to HDF where you can learn a lot about the Hindu religion in its myriad forms of practice.

As for books, we have a library of links to over 1000 books here:
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/library.html

As you can see, the links are arranged for different levels of learning and study, so you might download what seems most suitable to you. You might, especially, try these titles to start with:

What is Hinduism? (Himalayan Academy) 2 3 4 5 6
Who is a Hindu? (Koenraad Elst)
Hindu Dharma (Bansi Pandit)
All About Hinduism (Sivananda)

All the best in your soul-searching efforts.

[Spiritualseeker]

Thank you Saidevo I am looking at the magazine version about Hinduism. It has cleared up some misconception I think many of us westerners have of the Hindu faith.

[simex]

Welcome. You're definitely in the right place.

I highly recommend all books by Swami Vivekananda, who taught specifically to the western novice.