06-05-2008, 08:51 PM
Jebus:
Welcome..
As a first approximation, you are a hindu if you sincerely disown the "my way or the highway" religions (ie "follow my religion/messiah or go to hell" type religions).
Google Koenraad Elst, David Frawley, Frank Morales to see how other westerners have immersed themselves in Hinduism. These 3 have a lot of stuff on th web.
Sanatan dharma ("the eternal way"), now called Hinduism, is an unchanging, easily grasped set of natural law in its basic form. Like "animals suffer, therefore dont kill them". (The degree to which you follow these laws is up to you, but the laws stay unchanged, and you dont become un-hindu because you dont follow all the laws).
The world at large only gives the moniker "religion" to clubs which have formed around a "God" who has given out artificial laws ("you can kill certain animals and not other" --yeah, the others don't feel pain).
Read more and more about Sanatan Dharma (read this forum--the Hinduism part; and keep reading the links herein), and *apply* what you have read to your life. And you will become a better Hindu than most Hindus out there, who dont seem to care about Dharma. Application makes a Hindu. Money, speeches, or killing "unbelievers" don't...(like some religions I know)
Good luck!
Welcome..
As a first approximation, you are a hindu if you sincerely disown the "my way or the highway" religions (ie "follow my religion/messiah or go to hell" type religions).
Google Koenraad Elst, David Frawley, Frank Morales to see how other westerners have immersed themselves in Hinduism. These 3 have a lot of stuff on th web.
Sanatan dharma ("the eternal way"), now called Hinduism, is an unchanging, easily grasped set of natural law in its basic form. Like "animals suffer, therefore dont kill them". (The degree to which you follow these laws is up to you, but the laws stay unchanged, and you dont become un-hindu because you dont follow all the laws).
The world at large only gives the moniker "religion" to clubs which have formed around a "God" who has given out artificial laws ("you can kill certain animals and not other" --yeah, the others don't feel pain).
Read more and more about Sanatan Dharma (read this forum--the Hinduism part; and keep reading the links herein), and *apply* what you have read to your life. And you will become a better Hindu than most Hindus out there, who dont seem to care about Dharma. Application makes a Hindu. Money, speeches, or killing "unbelievers" don't...(like some religions I know)
Good luck!