I'm a new convert from Christianity
I was raised in a Christian enviroment, I studied Christianity's main principles, got disappointed and consciously left that religion. After that, for a while, I called myself a religionless theist.
About one week ago, I searched about Hinduism in an encyclopedia. Not wikipedia. A normal encyclopedia, made of paper. (Yeah, believe it or not, those, too, still exist!)
Much of the stuff Hinduism preaches (eg. reincarnation, vegetarianism) agree with what I believed as a religionless theist. What attracted me even more to Hindu, though, is the lack of dogmas, how open it is to personal interpretation. I mean, there have been thousands of religions in the history of mankind (including denominations and heresies) and every single of them preaches that this certain belief is the only way of salvation and any other belief leads to eternal destruction. Hindu is the only belief which does not claim such a thing (at least if I got it right).
Back when I considered myself a Christian, every time something about Christianity seemed to me unfair or nonsense, whenever I asked a priest or pastor or something, he would reply, 'It doesn't matter what you or I consider fair. What matters is the word God left to us through the Bible.' I ended up devoid of hope and joy. When I renounced Christianity, God showed me that his law is written in my heart. Therefore, what I myself would deem right if I had never heard of any religion in my life is what he, too, deems right. Hinduism is the oldest faith. In other words, it was created by people who had not prior been brainwashed by other religions. That's why I believe it must be the correct faith.
Of course, by that logic, I have no reason to bother with Hinduism to begin with. I mean, since God has implanted in my heart everything I need to know, I might as well keep going by the 'religionless' label. Then again, it might be nice to feel that I belong to a religion, for the first time in my life. I mean, all my life, I believed myself to be a Christian merely because my parents and teachers had told me so; I never truly felt I belonged there.
Anyway, I don't know much about Hinduism yet, so I'm not sure yet whether to change the status on my blog's profile from 'religionless theist' to 'hinduist'. So, in order for me to avoid reading walls of text from the very beginning, can someone tell me, in a few words, what the basic principles of Hinduism are or anything else about that religion which you think could be useful for a beginner?
Re: I'm a new convert from Christianity
Re: I'm a new convert from Christianity
Welcome to the Forums,
I will just add some comments for your consideration which may help in the long run and may take some time to fully grasp.
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I have no reason to bother with Hinduism to begin with. I mean, since God has implanted in my heart everything I need to know, I might as well keep going by the 'religionless' label.
Why give yourself a label, the highest teaching or realisation of any spiritual tradition is to drop self labels and just be your true self your original nature without any modification.
Its ok to call oneself a Hindu if they want and associate with a traditional understanding of spiritual teachings that come from India, but on another level Hindu does not necessarily mean its a spiritual identity, there are many people in India that consider themselves as a Hindu but will have no spiritual or religious affinity, so there is more to it on a deeper level to understand what is the core of the spiritual traditions, some may use Hindu as either a national genetic and others as a spiritual identity, so there is a flexibility and not necessarily a fixed identity or religious theme and can be quite ambiguous, sometimes its a term used to separate from others and cause social unrest and division between communities. The disovery of the Self realised master is that one is Atma, or spiritual being, that spiritual being is neither Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu its a divine force and empty of self labels, all the great teachers have taught this, its vision is to see all as atma and go beyond worldly designations of man women, nationality and colour and creed, which when seen in the outside world is causing division and conflict.
There maybe more accurate associations such as vaishnavas devotees of vishnu, shaivites, devotees of shiva and shakti devotees who are devotees of divine feminine, such as laxmi, parvati and other forms of feminine divinity. Within all these devotional paths they will intertwine and intermingle, so neither of them is ever separate from each other, they exist within the same reality and are expressed as different energies of consciousness. Shiva, Vishnu and Shakti are not separate from each other.
Another thing to consider is that Dharma does not mean religion in the way thats it used in Christianity, where beliefs are held onto and one associates with those beliefs, Dharma is quite difficult to translate but the easiest way to speak about it is that dharma is the activity of your true nature , which is beyond any beliefs , dharma is all about getting to know the real you, the person you or the consciousness that you are without any labels of modifications from external sources.
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What attracted me even more to Hindu, though, is the lack of dogmas, how open it is to personal interpretation
I understand what your saying and i agree, but there is also specific things which are dharma and specific things which is adharma, i'm using dharma to replace the word Hinduism to make a point, there are many interpretations on what is Hinduism and not all of them are correct and are based on adharma, which can be problematic. There are many so called interpretations of the dharma and many of them are incorrect, so there is some sort of correct understanding, one thing that is central to all dharma traditions and the core of these traditions is the ancient wheel of truth or the dharmachakra. But again saying all this there is vast scope for flexibility and self discovery, if i was to give a short definition of the dharma that would be be your own scientists or explorer and learn and grow in success and failure without to much pressure, but at the same time try and have a defined way or path and practice balance. If there is a certain aspect of these traditions that your attracted to deepen that understanding and after some time everything will link and come together, its like testing a pot of rice, if one grain is cooked then the rest of the pot is cooked, if one aspect is understood fully the rest will naturally be understood.
There is a great paradox to work and that is this knowledge or discovery is waiting to be to found and its ever present and there is great urgency, but at the same time there is no rush, you can take your time and grow into it. And this post is of the same nature, its not for and is for immediate understanding.
