1. Hinduism is a very primitive and close minded religion, Hindus have not evolved

2. How different? It is polytheist. Hindu conservatives will tell you that it is not a religion because it a way of life. It is BS. They will also tell you it is not organized. That too is BS. There are 4 schools of Hinduism headed by religious chiefs called Shankaracharya... although nobody gives shit... lol

3. Julia Roberts, The Beatles, Westerners joining Bhagwan Rajneesh in India and Oregon, Westerners joining Hare Rama Hare Krishna cult - all are signs of fashion, hope of seeing the grass is green on the other side or just gate aways for drugs. Trust me, there is nothing there worth following. It is the same shit in a different bottle.

I don't see it as being any different from any of the rest, but not as colorful as the Mormons with their own planet. Aside from that you should remember that she abruptly married then abruptly divorce Lyle Lovett. Either she was a twit for marrying him so quickly or she was a twit for divorcing him at all. Either way she got married and divorced overnight in the headlines. Who converts to a religion as an educated adult?

White American on the outside, everything and nothing on the inside. Never been to India. But I feel beautifully nostalgic and homesick for it the more I learn about it.

Studying Indian spiritual systems has blown my mind wide open and filled it with infinite color.

Millionsof gods? Far out!

They're all expressions of the same God? Excellent!

There's no "one true religion"? ::brain starts melting::

WE are, at our deepest essence, God? ::head explodes::

Shakyamuni Buddha built upon this fertile foundation a structure that turns the key fundamental concept (Atma) on it's head--and people ate it up? INCREDIBLE

The Gita is precious to me and I've only just begun to study it. I just recently picked up Eknath Easwaran's translations of the Gita and Upanishads, which along with the Dhmapada I already have, completes my long-anticipated "Indian spiritual classics" collection of his. I have been in love with my translation of the Gita by yogananda's discple kriyananda AND Easwaran's Dhammapada, so I can't wait to read EE's Gita.

I also recently got some free translation s of Patanjali's yoga sutras on my ereader and I'm looking forward to that.

Sanatana Dharma is fascinating to me inits own right, and doubly so as it (in my neophyte view) forms the launch pad for Buddha Dharma, which is my current opiateof choice.

I don't believe in gods, or souls, and the jury,s still out on reincarnation. I'm agnostic about karma still, but leaning into it. Nonetheless, I feel I gain tremendous benefit from studying yoga.

I am going to take this opportunity to talk about a religion in “romantic terms”. I am not a Hindu, but I have some exposure and appreciation for it. I was raised as an agnostic by 2 devout Hindu parents in NY. All of my information is colored by their personal beliefs and some random reading and a mythology class. There is polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic and atheistic Hinduism. Yes, an atheistic religion that I identified with briefly about 5 years ago. There are many things I appreciate about Hinduism. It has no founder. It didn’t really name or acknowledge itself, but was named by the Persians. It is inherently full of contradictions but fairly comfortable with itself because it evolved from several other religions and cultures and kind of just gelled without some central authority.

The single best thing about it though is the view that each person is here on earth to deal with their own issues. Not many people see that idea through, but I consider myself lucky that my parents did. They taught me what they believe and what Christians believe and what Jews believe. I was raised agnostic and even my atheism (from my mother’s perspective) is part of what I am on this earth to figure out. Now that her mother has passed she is getting a little more pushy, but that’s human, so whatever; it’s only been 3 months, so it’s acceptable. I was taught that I don’t need to fix the racists and bigots and that they were on this earth to learn how wrong that was and they would... eventually. They tried to teach me not to hate anyone who is here to deal with whatever it is they are here to deal with. This idea is a piece of the deeper view that we are all “reflections” of “Brahman”, the perfect soul experiencing life to learn, investigate and understand.

The other great thing is the Hindu god that brings me peace to this day and whose statue is outside of CERN. It is Shiva as Nataraja dancing all of creation into order. The universe falls into the beat of his rhythm and he has weapons of destruction and creation and there is so much symbology in the statue, but the thing I have always loved is he is dancing on the crushed body of a dwarf. The dwarf of ignorance and incompetence. Carl Sagan talks about the dance of the Nataraja in Cosmos because of the religion’s nature to honor creation, destruction, great change and because it measures things in “a day and night of Brahma” which is defined as 8.64 Billion years. I look at the statue and am reminded that creation is often indistinguishable from destruction and that I should dance and that I should tamp out ignorance and that I should try to keep “the eye of judgement” shut.

So though I am not a Hindu, I have taken some good from it. I keep a Nataraja in my house to this day and will forever, for the same reasons I keep an American flag in my bedroom and some people keep art; it inspires me and reminds me. I keep a Ganesha too, because it reminds me of mom.

There is a large Hindu population where I live. They have many, many, gods but all are part of the Godhead/Krishna Consciousness (there are many spin-off faiths such as Hare Krishna that come in to play here as well). I think it's about like the Father/Son/Holy ghost trinity in Catholicism. Most people my age don't actually believe in any of the deities but Hinduism for them is like Judaism for non-believing Jews.

The weddings, incidentally, are spectacularly long parties with huge amounts of food and alcohol so always say yes if invited to one!

Without Hinduism there is no Bollywood and the world is a better place with Bollywood

You can be vegetarian/vegan for religious reasons
Karma
It gets along well with others (exception: Islam, and some other monotheistic religions on occasion)
It is a very old and spiritual religion. In the West, I often see converted Hindus also following some Buddhist tenants as well. But Polytheism offers "logic" to some, I for one think its much more likely that there are multiple gods than just one. Even in Judaism, there is a pantheon of Gods, and Yahwe became the "all-powerful" God because he became the head of the pantheon and defeated any rivals that challenged his power. So to many, having a crack at the oldest popularized religion provides a focus for their spirituality.

It's the one I know least about. I'd have to ask Julia.