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DJDanny
07 June 2010, 12:35 PM
I am new to Hinduism... Can anyone give me a short summary of its main tenets?

Avazjan
10 June 2010, 09:58 AM
Hinduism doesn't really have anything like that.

I'll try to sum up the basics though, real fast.

1. Everything is one, and united in God, who is greater than the sum of the parts.
2. Everything is transient.
3. The individual soul is god (consciousness) that has been entrapped in maya (illusion). Once the ego (ahamkara) is dissolved by the grace of god, the individual soul (atman) merges with brahman (god) as paramatman (supersoul).
4. The ego's accumulation of obstacles to this merger consist of karma, both auspicious and inauspicious.
5. Karma is accumulated at all times, through all thoughts, words, and actions, and is also subject to dissolution at all times. Karma is accumulated over many lifetimes, and is essentially cause/effect played out on metaphysical dimensions.
6. The method for dissolving both karma and the ahamkara (ego), which is the principle obstacle, is through yoga (the process of uniting). Yoga is many, many things and is commonly misunderstood in the West to consist of physical stretches, which is a mere component of the type of yoga called hatha yoga. To a yogi, all activities and non-activities should be a yoga. Yoga consists of all mental and physical processes consciously directed towards achieving union with the divine.
7. Hinduism is the corpus of paths to this end.

Eastern Mind
10 June 2010, 11:24 AM
Vannakam:

Welcome to these forums, Danny.

The only thing I wish to add to Avazjan's post is that Hinduism is very vast. Do not espect the same answer from everyone here to all the questions you might ask. There are many many variations on the central themes Avazjan mentioned. For example, we have more at least 10 times as much scripture as the 3 Abrahamic faiths combined. Hinduism itself is a misnomer. Styles of worship vary geographically and by denomination (sect). And yet we all agree (most of us anyway) to disagree and accept the right of others to have a point of view.

Aum Namasivaya

Ramakrishna
10 June 2010, 12:27 PM
Namaste DJDanny,

This is a very good website from the Himalayan Academy that covers the basics of Hinduism: http://www.himalayanacademy.com/basics/

I especially recommend the Nine Beliefs of Hinduism, which are core tenets that every Hindu believes, regardless of sect: http://www.himalayanacademy.com/basics/nineb/

The About.com website about Hinduism is also very helpful: http://hinduism.about.com/od/basics/p/hinduismbasics.htm

There are a lot of good websites out there that cover the basics of Hinduism. However, there are also a lot of not so good websites that spread lies and propaganda to try to destroy Sanatana Dharma. The ones I gave you above are very reliable.

Jai Sri Krishna

yajvan
10 June 2010, 01:32 PM
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté

you may perhaps find this post ' An ocean of knowledge' useful : http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1946 (http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1946)

praṇām

Alise
10 June 2010, 01:55 PM
Namaste,

If you really would like to know & understand Hinduism (Sanathana Dharma) I really think you should check out Hinduism Today magazine & it has great book called 'What is Hinduism?'. You can read it online & download as pdf files here: http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/wfdownloads/viewcat.php?op=&cid=2

And also you can find movie by Hinduism Today called 'What is Hinduism?' on the YouTube. Their account name is HinduismTodayVideos, I think. But due my computer being slow I can't find it.

Others helped you much more, but I just wanted to give more info.

Have a nice day,
~Alice

DJDanny
10 June 2010, 05:57 PM
Thanks so much, your answers have been thoroughly helpful!

ScottMalaysia
10 June 2010, 06:49 PM
Namaste DJDanny,

Unlike the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), the focus of Hinduism is not on beliefs, but on practice. Merely believing in God is not enough to "save" you. Devotion to God (bhakti) is required to eradicate karma and liberate a soul from the cycle of birth and death. And bhakti is generally practiced through the performance of religious rituals such as puja (worship of God by offering various ritualistic items) and japa (repeating a mantra to a particular form of God). Such rituals are not written down and must be learnt from other Hindus who practice them. Therefore, if you are interested in Hinduism, go to your local temple (if there is one in your area) and make friends with the Hindus there.

As Eastern Mind said, we have a vast body of Scripture in Hinduism. However, the most popular Hindu scripture is the Bhagavad-Gita (Song of God). It is shorter than the Bible and Qur'an. You can find the full text here (http://www.gita-society.com/section1/1_gita700verses.htm).

TatTvamAsi
11 June 2010, 01:48 AM
Basics of Hinduism:

A U M

End of story.