Hello... new here and to Hinduism

[Echo]

Hello,
My name is Kitrina and I am a nineteen year old woman from Arizona, USA. I was raised as a christian but always had an interest in other religions. Before the age of thirteen I knew I wasn't a Christian but I wasn't sure what I believed in other than the fact that there was a god out there so I spent many of the next several years learning about many different religions. Hinduism had always interested me but I had a hard time finding good and easy to understand information so I let it sit for a time. The past few months had been hard for me and one night I decided to finally try to understand what Hinduism is about and something clicked. It was like coming home, like reading what my soul already knew, it suddenly made sense in a way to wonderful to explain. I truly hope I'm not alone in what I am explaining. Since that night about two weeks ago I have been studying some information about Hinduism every night and have only felt more resolved in my new-found faith. I still have many questions so I am hoping that the wonderful people here can help me or at least point me in the right direction.
I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day or night.

[devotee]

Hello Echo ! Welcome to the forum ! :)

We look forward to you for some insightful posts. :)

OM

[Avazjan]

Namaste and welcome!

I must warn you, you now have a fairly monumental task in front of you.

Hinduism is vast. Inconceivably vast for the Western mind. For the Indian, understanding Hinduism is considerably easier: he or she was raised amongst it, and is typically only subject to relatively local varieties as mediated by scripture.

The Westerner instead approaches the entire corpus called "Hinduism" or sanatana dharma and it is huge, almost beyond comprehension in its breadth and span.

What is meant by this is... Imagine the complexity of Christinity, in all of its different sects, from the very first varieties in the apostolic age, down to the various schisms of the Catholic church, to all the subsequent schisms and new groups rising up, down to single one-church local denominations loosely affiliated with other sects. Now imagine the complexity of not just Christianity, but all three Abrahamic religions in this light, with all of their sects and micro-sects. Hinduism is a thousand times more complex and nuanced than this. And far more variable.

One sect of Christianity shares far more with another sect than sects of Hinduism do with eachother. Yet the amazing thing is that on the whole, Hindus, regardless of their sect, are supportive of one another's paths however different than their own, something that is rarely seen in Christianity, for all the similarities (for instance, they like to argue about how many nails were used to tack up Jesus - 3 or 4. This argument has broken churches and movements apart.)

Differences of approach in Hinduism are MUCH bigger than the differences in Christian sects.

This can make selecting a specific sadhana, or set of sadhanas, difficult for a newcomer, so I recommend a healthy period of acculturation and learning before doing so, so that you know what, exactly works for you, because it is for that reason a multiplicity of paths are given.

They all lead to the same place.

Namaste,

[Odion]

Welcome to HDF! :)

[sambya]

hi kitrina .

hope you enjoy your stay here ! :)

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Echo:

Nice name. Hinduism is subtle, like an echo.

There is a nice Ganesha temple in Phoenix, and a Subramanyar shrine in Yuma. I'm sure there are others as well that represent the diversity of our faith.

You are not alone. There are many westerners on here who in one way or another have discovered Hinduism to be the religion of their soul. Some were like you, where one day, they just sort of 'woke up'.

Have a great journey.

Aum Namasivaya

[Sahasranama]

Welcome,

I am glad you found hapiness with Hinduism.

[Ramakrishna]

Namaste Echo,


Hello,
The past few months had been hard for me and one night I decided to finally try to understand what Hinduism is about and something clicked. It was like coming home, like reading what my soul already knew, it suddenly made sense in a way to wonderful to explain. I truly hope I'm not alone in what I am explaining.

Welcome to Sanatana Dharma! You are not alone at all. Your soul has found Sanatana Dharma and you are on your way to enlightenment.



Since that night about two weeks ago I have been studying some information about Hinduism every night and have only felt more resolved in my new-found faith. I still have many questions so I am hoping that the wonderful people here can help me or at least point me in the right direction.
I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day or night.

Ask away. We are all here to help you better understand Sanatana Dharma and to help strengthen your faith.

Hare Krishna