The worship of nonHindu deities?

[Vinayaka]

Are you saying its difficult I the can't remove the trappings or just difficult in general?

Consider someone who moves from one country to another. Just for example, let's say from Brazil to the USA. And not as a child, but as an adult. So they get sworn in as an American, and get citizenship. For awhile they identify as a Brazilian-American. They feel comfortable around Portuguese. They go to Latin-American stores and find food they're comfortable with. They like soccer and call it football. It may even carry over to the next generation. So religion switching is like that. My Mother, born in Canada in 1922, of English immigrants, all her life referred to the 'old country', when she talked about Britain. Yet she was born in Canada, and learned that phrase, undoubtedly, from her parents, who actually did have an old country.

Thank God for the country thing, as I now have a beautiful Hindu temple that feels and works just like the one 'back home' in Sri Lanka.

I'm not saying for a minute that there's anything wrong with this process. I'm just observing the process. It really isn't easy. I still have 'rural' written all over my face, especially when it comes to identifying trees, crops, etc. Agnostic is deeper, but still in there somewhere.

So it is like that. Much is hidden, and can only be seen from a keen observation, both outward, and more appropriately, inward.

 

[Kalidas]

Consider someone who moves from one country to another. Just for example, let's say from Brazil to the USA. And not as a child, but as an adult. So they get sworn in as an American, and get citizenship. For awhile they identify as a Brazilian-American. They feel comfortable around Portuguese. They go to Latin-American stores and find food they're comfortable with. They like soccer and call it football. It may even carry over to the next generation. So religion switching is like that. My Mother, born in Canada in 1922, of English immigrants, all her life referred to the 'old country', when she talked about Britain. Yet she was born in Canada, and learned that phrase, undoubtedly, from her parents, who actually did have an old country.

Thank God for the country thing, as I now have a beautiful Hindu temple that feels and works just like the one 'back home' in Sri Lanka.

I'm not saying for a minute that there's anything wrong with this process. I'm just observing the process. It really isn't easy. I still have 'rural' written all over my face, especially when it comes to identifying trees, crops, etc. Agnostic is deeper, but still in there somewhere.

So it is like that. Much is hidden, and can only be seen from a keen observation, both outward, and more appropriately, inward.

I understand as long as your not like "CHRISTIANS CANT CONVERT!" I am okay with that lol. Yeah its not always easy. There still days when that fear of hell which has been indorcinated into me since I was 5 sneaks up. I just remind myself that a loving merciful God would never do that, an its jut mans way of controlling people. Oddly enough that is the ONLY "Christian past" issue I have. Mostly cause it defined 90% of my childhood. I would stay up at night terrorfied of hell. Its hard to just get rid of such a fear. Now that I look back on it subjecting a child that kind of torture is creepy and gives me more reason to never return, if only because I do not want my children subjected to that pain and fear. I now choose to live a life of happiness an devotion and not of fear.

 

[Vinayaka]

Yeah its not always easy. There still days when that fear of hell which has been indorcinated into me since I was 5 sneaks up.

I admire this, because you can admit to it. :yes: Life is so grey. The other day I HAD to go for a drive in the country.

Just as a side story on it, the other day at our festival, they were planting the symbolic tree of grounding (happens at the beginning of South Indian temple festivals) and one of my friends just went and chopped down a manageable sized bush for it. Three teenaged kids were standing there, and in fun, I said, "A hundred bucks if you can correctly identify this 'tree'". I didn't think I'd be out the hundred bucks. It was a pincherry, native to Canuckistan.

 

[Vinayaka]

Oddly enough that is the ONLY "Christian past" issue I have.

But it really is more subtle than that. Take, for example, this very activity we're engaged in ... discussing religion.

Hindus, for the most part, rarely discuss religion. Yes, some do, but for the most part, Hindus DO religion. At many temples and mandirs, there is no pundit to explain, no congregation to listen, nobody to discuss. This has both positive effects ... there is less time engaged in repetitive intellectual mind getting you nowhere ... and negative effects ... as a result Hindus know less about their religion.

The whole idea of discussing what you, the nature of God, etc. do is totally a part of Abrahamic faiths, take the scripture and discuss it. Not so in Hinduism, or many of the dharmic faiths. Most Hindus would rather just sit in silence for 15 minutes, enjoying the presence of God and Gods than get into some lively discussion about it.

 

[Kalidas]

But it really is more subtle than that. Take, for example, this very activity we're engaged in ... discussing religion.

Hindus, for the most part, rarely discuss religion. Yes, some do, but for the most part, Hindus DO religion. At many temples and mandirs, there is no pundit to explain, no congregation to listen, nobody to discuss. This has both positive effects ... there is less time engaged in repetitive intellectual mind getting you nowhere ... and negative effects ... as a result Hindus know less about their religion.

The whole idea of discussing what you, the nature of God, etc. do is totally a part of Abrahamic faiths, take the scripture and discuss it. Not so in Hinduism, or many of the dharmic faiths. Most Hindus would rather just sit in silence for 15 minutes, enjoying the presence of God and Gods than get into some lively discussion about it.

I'm not sure how much of that is a Christian thing or an American thing(which is probably a Christian thing LOL) . Its so common in America. You have a point but at the same time were all doing it not just us converts. But I see what you saying some thing do come with us whether we want it to or not. Thanks for admiring me lol. I'm not going to lie or deny facts, Im happy to have found Santana dharma an the great things it has done to help me in my life, but to think 18 years of my life will just disapear like that is fooling myself.