What brought you to Sanatana Dharma?

[Gaura Priya]

I know that this is a broad topic, but what brought you to Vaidika Dharma?

It can be a word, or a paragraph. Was it a book, a person, a philosophy, or you were brought up into Hindu Dharma?

Noting that we have been through the cycle of birth and death for countless lives, we've come to this wonderful beacon, this pit-stop in the form of Hindu Dharma. Coming out of the car of the soul, is there anything you would be grateful for in coming to this culture of ours?

Om Tat Sat, thanks a lot!

> : )

 

[Jainarayan]

This guy right here, when I was about 13 or 14 years old.

Even though I was RC at the time, I came to believe the Hindu deities were real. I believed them to be different manifestations of God, as I believed Jesus was, whom at the time I considered to be what we'd call an iṣṭa-devatā.

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

I came to Hinduism after reading the Ramayana. It sparked in me an intense urge to know more about the religious/cultural origins of the story. It inspired me to be better in many ways. After that - I discovered the local Temple and the Gita, and God seems to have started speaking to me again. Or rather, God was probably always speaking -I just now started to really listen again.

 

[Madhuri]

Jainarayan, that's the same person who brought my father to SD

 

[Vinayaka]

It was my first serious encounter with religion of any kind, and it made a ton of sense.

 

[Maya3]

I always thought that we were one energy and that if prayers would get answered by God we must somehow be praying to ourselves. Otherwise there would be no way that God could answer all these billions of different prayers from billions of people.
I had no idea what Hinduism was about though and that it could answer this question until I started to practice hatha yoga at an amazing yoga studio, they recommended the ashram and that's it. Now I'm stuck

Maya

 

[Sumit]

I know that this is a broad topic, but what brought you to Vaidika Dharma?

Bhagavad Gita.

 

[Jainarayan]

...all these billions of different prayers from billions of people. ...

Mildly off the subject, but this jogged my memory... there was an experiment conducted by a neuroscientist (or neo-scientist ) wherein sensors were placed all around the world. Whenever there was a large gathering of people... St. Peter's Square, 9/11, an outdoor Mass or prayer gathering, the sensors picked up elevated energy levels. It seemed from the results that we do have a connected consciousness in that perhaps we do help each other and answer each others prayers.

 

[Maya3]

Mildly off the subject, but this jogged my memory... there was an experiment conducted by a neuroscientist (or neo-scientist ) wherein sensors were placed all around the world. Whenever there was a large gathering of people... St. Peter's Square, 9/11, an outdoor Mass or prayer gathering, the sensors picked up elevated energy levels. It seemed from the results that we do have a connected consciousness in that perhaps we do help each other and answer each others prayers.

That is great! Thanks for sharing this!

Maya

 

[Vinayaka]

Mildly off the subject, but this jogged my memory... there was an experiment conducted by a neuroscientist (or neo-scientist ) wherein sensors were placed all around the world. Whenever there was a large gathering of people... St. Peter's Square, 9/11, an outdoor Mass or prayer gathering, the sensors picked up elevated energy levels. It seemed from the results that we do have a connected consciousness in that perhaps we do help each other and answer each others prayers.

So the Kumbh Mela this year, debateably the largest crowd ever gathered on the planet to date, should have done well. A friend of mine went ... left at 6 AM, got back
at 10 PM .... 25 km by car, 10 km by autorickshaw, 5 km by rickshaw, then 7 km walk, a 30 second dip and then back out.

 

[Jainarayan]

Yes, it would have been interesting if that event was detected and recorded by one of these sensors. Some people are skeptical of this sort of thing, but believing as we do, it's a no-brainer and a given.

 

[Vinayaka]

Yes, it would have been interesting if that event was detected and recorded by one of these sensors. Some people are skeptical of this sort of thing, but believing as we do, it's a no-brainer and a given.

Maha Kumbh Mela 2013: Scores Of Pilgrims Go Missing; 'Lost And Found' Centers Flooded With Requests To Locate Missing Devotees When 275 000 people go missing from the crowd, ya gotta think its a big crowd.

 

[Jainarayan]

 

[Gaura Priya]

Maha Kumbh Mela 2013: Scores Of Pilgrims Go Missing; 'Lost And Found' Centers Flooded With Requests To Locate Missing Devotees When 275 000 people go missing from the crowd, ya gotta think its a big crowd.

O my gosh! This confirms my non-desire to ever attend Kumbha Mela. Just like the present-day Ganges, I just have no faith! :cover:

 

[Gaura Priya]

When I turned 13 years old, I begin studying the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. After that, I have been attracted to Sanatana Dharma since!

 

[Nyingjé Tso]

Vanakkam,

What brough me to Sanatana Dharma is a dream, then a suddent strike in the heart, right in a middle of a Saiva temple up to a hill in Tamil Nadu.

I was in total ignorance, and dreamed of Mahadev telling me to go to India and meet Him. Months later, my aunt (we barely see each other usually) ask me if I want to go to Tamil Nadu with her. I recalled the dream and felt I had to answer this calling.
First time I ever saw an offered a puja to Shiva there, it was a second awakening. I knew nothing about Dharma, about rules, about theology or anything. I just fell in love from the deepest of my soul. The gaze of Mahadev melted my heart and pushed away this tiny veil of ignorance that was poisoning me.
Tamil Nadu changed me completely. I tried to learn Sanatana Dharma, with Mahadev as Guru, had several dreams when He was teaching me how to do Puja, etc... I had no idea how to honor Him, He showed me the way in my dream, and after I looked for information it was accurate.

This is completely insane...But this is what brough me to Sanatana Dharma. Mahadev offered His hand, I took it. He showed me how to walk on the path, now I try my best to follow it. I'm far, so far from being the perfect devotee, and I'm completely isolated from a temple or indian communauty....But I do it because I know it's the best thing to do. I want ultimately to join Mahadev in Shivaness, to melt in ParaSiva, like a young woman that join her beloved after a long time. I'm not the purest, the perfect, but Shiva knows how I love Him, and how I respect Gurudev, I hope He will forgive my faults


Aum Namah Shivaya

 

[Maya3]

Vanakkam,

What brough me to Sanatana Dharma is a dream, then a suddent strike in the heart, right in a middle of a Saiva temple up to a hill in Tamil Nadu.

I was in total ignorance, and dreamed of Mahadev telling me to go to India and meet Him. Months later, my aunt (we barely see each other usually) ask me if I want to go to Tamil Nadu with her. I recalled the dream and felt I had to answer this calling.
First time I ever saw an offered a puja to Shiva there, it was a second awakening. I knew nothing about Dharma, about rules, about theology or anything. I just fell in love from the deepest of my soul. The gaze of Mahadev melted my heart and pushed away this tiny veil of ignorance that was poisoning me.
Tamil Nadu changed me completely. I tried to learn Sanatana Dharma, with Mahadev as Guru, had several dreams when He was teaching me how to do Puja, etc... I had no idea how to honor Him, He showed me the way in my dream, and after I looked for information it was accurate.

This is completely insane...But this is what brough me to Sanatana Dharma. Mahadev offered His hand, I took it. He showed me how to walk on the path, now I try my best to follow it. I'm far, so far from being the perfect devotee, and I'm completely isolated from a temple or indian communauty....But I do it because I know it's the best thing to do. I want ultimately to join Mahadev in Shivaness, to melt in ParaSiva, like a young woman that join her beloved after a long time. I'm not the purest, the perfect, but Shiva knows how I love Him, and how I respect Gurudev, I hope He will forgive my faults


Aum Namah Shivaya

This is amazing! You are very fortunate to have dreams like this.

Don´t worry about perfection, just do what is in your heart!

Maya

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

I was the youngest Baptist Minister in the USA. I lost my faith and became an existential Agnostic. I was working on the worst ward in the state of California mental hospital system (this was more then a few years ago) My idea was I could be and believe anything that I wanted, as long as I was kind to people. Life and suffering soon became unmanageable. I could see no reason life was a positive thing in the face of such human suffering which just seemed unavoidable for so many people.
So I went back to church. (The more intellectual verities of Protestantism.) Started asking the same questions. Still no valued answers. In fact I was still winning the arguments. Though even then, I knew, I was not the sharpest tool in the shed. I quit my job and started looking. I read books about philosophy and religion. For around two years I looked at differing religious groups. I had a Hindu scientist friend. That gave me an Hindu reading list. I read a book by Christopher Isherwood called My Guru and His Disciple. What an open minded wonderful way to see the world. In the book he talked about a Hindu Temple in San Francisco. Went there and talked to the Swami in charge at the time. He was able to answer all my questions even about Christianity that seemed rational and logical. In fact he had no interest in converting me to Hinduism. It became a done deal. Hinduism was my path for over 20 years. Mostly do to the holy company of this Swami and his followers. I have never been around such kind loving human beings. The proof was the effect of the beliefs on there lives.

 

[Vinayaka]

Saiva temple up to a hill in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu changed me completely.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Nice story. TN does have some incredibly powerful temples. No place on Earth quite like it. It has had that effect on other tourists as well.

Your story makes me want to go back.

 

[Vinayaka]

In fact he had no interest in converting me to Hinduism.

That was a big one for me too. Still is. When you think for yourself, discussion with the intent of conversion from the other side(on any matter, not just faith) can be annoying. But you have to understand it as immaturity and insecurity. Then its more easily tolerated.