The Hilltop Anthology blog
The Hilltop Antholoy is personal blog is the story of the spiritual journey of a woman in Kentucky. The blog conveys thoughts and ideas in a poetic style.
I have added this blog to my page listing blogs by Western followers of Sanātana Dharma. I have also moved The Accidental Hindu blog from the “not yet classified” section to the Neo-Hinduism section. After clarification from T.A.H. I have moved The Accidental Hindu to the Smarta section.
I received a comment and an message from Satyen regarding an invitation to Hindus event in Hardwar for people who converted to Hinduism from Christianity or Islam. Details can be found on the Agniveer site.
I should say that I have no connection with Agniveer, and know nothing more than I read on a short visit to the site. This post should not be seen as a recommendation of either the movement nor the event; I don’t know enough about either to recommend them personally. Just take it as a pointer for you to look and decide. Continue reading
Hinduism Today Jan 2012
I must have missed it at the time, but I see that this blog, the White Hindu blog, and the Bamboo Thoughts blog were mentioned in the Digital Dharma section of the Hinduism Today Magazine in March. It seems only right to mention the Hinduism Today magazine in return.
This magazine is available both digitally and as a real paper edition. Though the digital version is free, the paper edition is really nice to have, with high quality glossy pictures. It always has interesting articles, and has a spiritual feel to it. In fact one reader, Alok Lathi commented that “Simply having Hinduism Today on your shelf is a blessing, even if you don’t read it!”. Continue reading
Ricky Williams, running back for the Baltimore Ravens and Western Hindu
On average three or four times a week someone follows a link in my article “Some famous Western Hindus” to the Wikipedia entry for Ricky Williams. Ricky is an an American football running back, playing for the Baltimore Ravens. Though three or four clicks does not sound like much, it is higher than the clicks on most other minor links in old articles. I can’t help wondering how many of those clicks are from other non-white Western Hindus, or non-white Westerners looking into the rich heritage of Hinduism and wondering if it is open to them.
Ricky Williams is far from the only non-white Western Hindu. A while ago I received an email from the author of “The Accidental Hindu” blog. She is a black Western Hindu from the West Indies, and I can highly recommend her blog. Another Western Hindu blog, the Yatra is run by a Latino Hindu in the USA.
Tagged black hindu, chinese hindu, latino hindu, western hindu
Prajapati - a Caste Deity?
I have received an email from a reader asking about caste and preference for certain deities. Before I answer it I should point out that I don’t believe that hereditary caste is part of Hinduism. I wrote a post “The Caste System” where I discussed this issue . The Hindu American Foundation’s statement “Not Cast in Caste” also makes it clear that caste and Hinduism are not necessarily linked.
The pertinent part of the email I received is as follows:
Hello,
My name is Jason and I am a student at Western Michigan University studying Religions of The World. My explorations in religions of India have lead me to the following question about Hinduism:Preference for certain deities is somewhat caste and profession-linked among Hindus. When matching up the deities with the Indian social divisions, which deities do might go with which groups, and why?
Mainly I am concerned with the Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Kali, and Lakshmi.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read and respond to my message. I look forward to hearing your response.
I decided to respond to this email in a post because though I can give a reasonable theological answer I am sure that some of you reading this know a lot more about the day-to-day practices than I do. Any comments will be most welcome.
I was very surprised and honoured to find that this blog has been chosen as one of The Chakra’s Top Ten Hindu Blogs. There are so many excellent blogs on the web that can’t help feeling that this is undeserved. It will inspire me to try to post more and do better.
Aum
The Accidental Hindu blog
A while ago I had a message from someone saying “not all Western Hindus are white Hindus”. I was going to write something about this (and I still might) but in the meantime the sender of that message has started her own blog, “The Accidental Hindu“.
She was born in the West Indies, and describes herself as a black Hindu. She writes under the name T.A.H, and describes her spiritual path from a Catholic and Seven Day Adventist upbringing to Hinduism. Like me she has visited other faiths on the way! She mentions feeling at home with vedanta philosophy, so I think that her blog probably belongs in the smarta section, but I will leave it in the “Blogs Yet to be Classified” section until I have read more. She has a very clear and readable writing style, making her story easy to read. I have added the blog to my page of blogs by Westerners Following Hinduism.
The Western Sanātana Dharma blog
Thanks to the commenter ‘S’ for pointing out this new blog to me.
This blog is by Alicia, a high-school student in New York State. Her blog is relatively new and she describes her first steps in Sanatana Dharma. She appears to have an affinity with Ma Durga and Shri Ganesha. I wish her well with her spiritual path, and I have added the blog to my page of blogs by Westerners Following Hinduism.
Also on the same page I have linked the entry for “Adorations to Amma” to Stacey’s Flicr profile. Her myspace blog has been flagged inactive for a while and I think she has moved on from this. Her photostream is highly individual and forms a visual act of guru-puja. She is obviously very visually orientated and this is really different from most other blogs.
Clay Ganeshas for Ganesh Chaturthi
Some of you might have noticed that I have changed the rating images from stars to images of Ganesha. When you rate a post, comment or page you will be blessed with an image of Shri Ganesha. For those of you who are interested in the technicalities of changing the image, or who would like to use these images themselves I have described how to do this on my technical blog.
While looking at these images of our endearing Lord, it occurred to me that Hinduism is probably unique among the major religions in that we can do this. I doubt if many Christians would use images of Jesus for post ratings, and a Muslim would risk severe consequences for doing the same with Muhammad.
In my opinion God and the Devas encompass everything in life. They can be mysterious, awesome, majestic, and even intimidating. They can also be playful, funny, and endearing. Perhaps this is something that other religions lose site of.
om gam ganapataye namaha
Krishna and Arjuna at Kurukshetra, 18–19th century
I heard the Bhagavad Gita described as the “New Testament of Hinduism” on the radio. I have now seen that this description is quite common. Of course all analogies break down at some point, and there are a number of ways in which this is inaccurate.
Since this analogy could really give totally the wrong impression of the Gita to a Westerner who did not know Hinduism, I will write about some of the main differences.
The Nandinatha Sampradaya has a process of ethical conversion. Part of the process is to write a point and counterpoint comparison between Saivite Hinduism of the Nandinatha Sampradaya and previous religions or world-views that you have had. This ensures that you are converting with a full understanding of what this entails.
I have written a comparison with the Church of England, the Anglican Christian denomination I was brought up in, and with the UK Unitarians who I followed for a while. I have been given permission to publish it on my blog. Sannyasin Saravananathaswami has only given it a quick look so there may be further amendments.
I would also be interested in any comments or corrections from readers who are Unitarians or Church of England members.
Posted in hinduism, other religions, religion
Tagged anglican, christianity, himalayan academy, UK Unitarians, unitarian
The Shatkona blog is back in the list of blogs by Western Hindus. I had previously removed the blog when the blogger announced that he was returning to Catholicism, Those of you who have been following his blog will know that he has come to realise that this was attached to both Catholicism and Hinduism, and later discovered that his attachment to Catholicism is more nostalgia than true spiritual feeling.
I have been wondering whether to add his blog back for a while. A few days ago I emailed the author and said that I would leave it up to him, when and if he felt ready I would add it back to the list. Today I received a simple email saying “Please re-add my blog, my path is Sanatana Dharma”. I feel that its very auspicious that he made this decision on Ganesha Chaturthi.
Posted in hinduism, other religions, religion
Tagged blog, catholicism, christianity, roman catholic
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