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Alise
01 September 2010, 06:39 PM
Namaste,

First of all, I must say that I'm not good at making attractive titles :) But still hope that it's OK, if I post this.
I'm person with disability. You know I just found out how my disability can be translated into English. Never in Latvian I could find something that would help me to explain in English, what I mean by 'kind of disabled'. So now I know it's called Spastic Cerebral Palsy [Spastic hemiplegia - I'll copy text what it means below...].
So now as I said this I can continue to the being Hindu part. In one way Hinduism can make you feel bad that you are different from other people. But in the other way Hinduism is only religion that explains why people [if God exists. I believe in God, I just accept that God might not exist] have these kind of conditions & better or worse life than somebody else. The people around us & ignorance is that makes everything worse, not the disability itself.
I actually say that I'm kind of disabled, because people usually think someone in the wheelchair, am I right? I am not.
Whatever bad I did in my past life, I got that back in much, much better way than many people. I can dance, sing, I have fantastically big fantasies & imagination, I have really big goals [I want to become actress, singer-songwriter & director AND reform Hollywood & defend my dear Hinduism] & the Best Mom ever. I have had so much luck in my life. Like this time when I really wanted Mac computer & suddenly my sister's cousin called my mom if we need financial help [the Global crisis], so we took some of the money that was left for me by my uncle. My mom could pay anything that she couldn't (she took loan when she actually calculated that she could pay back, then there was no sign of global economical crisis) & I got Macbook Pro, an Ipod Nano & I even bought Ipod shuffle for my little sister & got everything for less :) And then of course milk soup was accidently spilled on it & I didn't turn it off at the right time. My computer was called 'Miracle' by the man who fixed it & did everything for bottle of good brandy. [When the bad happened I was into Judaism, when the 'miracle' happened - Hinduism.]. My point was: I'm really lucky to be like this in my current life, even with my disability.
Then there's people who say that to be Hindu one must be born as one. I believe it's not true. Why? I call it spiritual journey. Person without any religion & unhappy in his old religion, who turns to Hinduism. That's Karma. You need to have this spiritual journey, cause while you are searching for the right path, you learn a lot & when Hinduism founds you, you know you're home. I have right to say that I'm Hindu & I must say, that I was ignorant & even didn't want to turn to Hinduism because Abrahamic religions leave you stains in your way of thinking, you know what I mean? But I'm so happy I did. In these few months, I already did loose my faith in Hinduism. Sometimes I got this thinking, that maybe I should live life like Westerners do. For teenager, I'm really traditionalist & teens can think it's boring & that I'm giving hard time for myself. You have no idea, how happy & how sure I was that I'm Hindu when I saw that new Hinduism Today magazine (October, November, December 2010) is online already. I even said that I'm hyper happy! (not sure if that's even possible). I guess I have these up's & down's because I don't leave with religiously similar community. But maybe that's part of my unresolved karma (I believe I still have a lot of unresolved things to do for my few next lifes. Hope that no more than 20-30....) and later in my life I'll be able to move into community with many Hindus & live rest of my life as a Hindu.
As for being Hindu, don't you think that there are much more Hindus than statistics show? I mean people like me who still haven't severed ties with the past religion officially & haven't done ethnical conversion or something like that & many who practices Hinduism without knowing it?
Hinduism has made me much better person than I was before & I hope the more I learn about it, I'll become better & better person than way before.

Have a nice day,
~Alice

Spastic hemiplegia — Only one side of your child’s body is stiff. Her arms or hands might be more affected than her legs. On the affected side, her arm and leg may not develop normally. ©CerebralPalsy.org (http://www.cerebralpalsy.org/types-of-cerebral-palsy/)
I have problems with my left hand & my left leg is about 1.97 inches (5 cm) shorter than my right one. That's pretty much all, I'm smart, you know.

NayaSurya
01 September 2010, 07:00 PM
Our little twins have a mitochondrial defect which caused them to have lactic acidosis...which caused our little daughter to have CP with upper torso hemiplegia.

She is now out of her wheel chair thanks to years of therapy. Most would never know she has it. But, she throws up when we lay her down and in car rides from the up and down motion. She also will often still walk on the tops of her feet when she is tired.

But, she is one of the most beautiful, smart...sweet lil girls in the world...just like you<3

Hugs A:)

You are a wonderful spiritual sweetheart and deserve every single goodly thing<3

Ashvati
01 September 2010, 07:32 PM
A person shouldn't need to actively go out of their way to prove they can be of their chosen religion. The policy of "innocent until proven guilty", in a way, should be applied to such a situation as a white person being Hindu. Rather, their conversion (I know a lot of people on here don't like that word, but honestly, what other word CAN I use?) should be assumed legitimate until proven otherwise, like if someone trying to assimilate into the hindu community refers to Maa Kaali as an "earth-mother who puts men into their place", or says that they're part of what equates to a pleasure cult of hippies fondling eachother and calling it "awakening their kundalini". If they're not a real hindu, they'll put their figurative foot in their mouth sooner or later, whether they're watched like a hawk for signs of not knowing what they're talking about. Even then, when I found hinduism (or it found me, it doesn't really matter too much at the moment) I barely knew what I was talking about. I'm not afraid to admit that now, I've learned a lot since then and continue to learn, and I'm sure all the newer western-born hindus on this forum will continue to learn and grow as hindus. And if we don't all grow up to be like Swamiji Satyananda Saraswati and become gurus, so what, its not like every indian can expect to be one in their lifetime either.

...wow, this post ended up a lot longer than I originally planned when I hit the reply button 0_o

kallol
02 September 2010, 02:43 AM
Thanks SA and NS for the beautiful and motivating posts.

Birth - I have no say (from present point of view)

The course of Life - I have some say

Next birth - I have some say.

Why I say "some" ? The other part is the grace of God.

Body is temporary - mind is more permanent. It is the status of the mind which decides the next body.

So the karmas should lead to more pure mind.

The chain is "Thoughts to Words to Action to Habits to Character to Destiny"

Let us enjoy whatever we have got and let us make the fullest use of it through right knowledge applied at right time and to the right target.

Love and best wishes

PARAM
02 September 2010, 08:20 AM


SweetAlisija

A very nice and thinking post, the way you write is too nice to reply

Oh yes you deserve to have fun in your age, this is a normal thing but this wasen't happened to me when I was that young, :rolleyes:

You can be a good writer as well, your post is as sweet as you made your username

ScottMalaysia
03 September 2010, 03:28 AM
Dear Alisija,

If you believe in the Hindu religion and call yourself a Hindu then you are a Hindu. You can have a formal ceremony called a namakarana samskara (name-giving sacrament) to change your name to a Hindu name but you don't have to. If you call yourself a Hindu then you are one. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is a guy on this forum who goes by the username TatTvamAsi who believes that non-Indians cannot convert to Hinduism - he's wrong. Don't listen to him if he happens to post on this thread.


I mean people like me who still haven't severed ties with the past religion officially & haven't done ethnical conversion or something like that & many who practices Hinduism without knowing it?

What Christian denomination did you previously belong to? If you're a Catholic and you stop believing in the Catholic faith, you are automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church. I'm not sure if the same is true for the Orthodox Church, and I don't think it is for the Lutheran Church. Most Christian denominations would consider someone who has left to practice another religion to have "apostatized" or "fallen away"

I never severed ties with any former religions when I became Hindu. Only the Saiva Siddhanta Church asks Hindu converts to do this. It's not practiced among any other religions. If you're a Christian and you want to convert to Islam, you don't have to sever ties with your previous church - you simply have to say the Islamic Creed with the intention of becoming Muslim. If you're a Jew who wants to become Catholic, you don't need to get a letter of severance from your rabbi - you simply need to study the Catholic faith and be baptized.

NetiNeti
03 September 2010, 10:56 AM
full post below. sorry

NetiNeti
03 September 2010, 11:01 AM
My path is Vedanta. I came to it at 16 years of age, with no influence, by my own accord after having a dream about Vishnu. My long deceased teachers (Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and The Holy Mother Sarada Devi) have never put the demand on me to officially give up the faith of my raising.

There is nothing to prove and no-one to prove it to. One need not try and validate their beliefs to other believers. There is no need to dress Indian or adopt all the Cultural (which is different than spiritual) aspects of Indian culture. While India is my spiritual home, America is the place of my birth and culture. No man can say that I am less of a Hindu because I was not born one. My altar is proper, I have read the sacred scriptures, my plate is free of meat and eggs, my life is clean and I love Brahma. I cannot be challenged in my sincerity.

One day I hope to go beyond Hinduism. By using the Vedic tools and practices to realize God in his true form, I hope to achieve the goal The Master has set in front of me, which is understanding God in a personal way that is beyond the description of any faith or creed.

ScottMalaysia
04 September 2010, 05:09 AM
Hinduism is inextricably linked to Indian culture - you can't separate the two. Indian Muslims in Malaysia want to be recognised as Malay people. I've heard that Indian Muslims in India claim to be descended from Arabs. This is because they know that Indian culture = Hindu culture and they are ashamed to have anything to do with what they consider to be disbelief (kufr).

With regard to the dress, many Indians now don't dress in Indian clothes. My wife hasn't worn a sari for a couple of years. Most of the men at the temple wear Western clothes (but most of the women wear saris). It's not necessary to dress in Indian clothes to be Hindu (although I normally wear dhoti and kurta to the temple). I do this (as well as wearing a red tilak mark on my forehead) to show that I'm Hindu. Walking into a Hindu temple as a white person dressed in Indian clothes and a tilak leaves no doubts as to why you are there. They can tell instantly that you're a Hindu by your dress, just like you can instantly tell a police officer by his uniform. It would be like a Chinese Christian wearing a crucifix and walking into a church - the crucifix communicates the message that you're a part of that religion when normally those of that culture aren't. This is also the reason that many male Muslim converts wear the white cap.