hinduism???

Question

is there something like a bible for hinduism?

do you know of any good wed sites about how to be hindu?
if so can you tell me?

Answer 1

short of studying Sanskrit, you should read the following texts in English:

The Bhagavad Gita

The Ramayana

The Mahabarata (which incorporates the Bhagavad Gita)

The Vedas (The Rig Veda is a good place to start).

Anyway, whats Hindu-ism? Each locality in India has it's own religion, with Brahmanism (what we would probably term Hindu-ism proper) being well known in the west because the Brahmanas were who the British asked 'so whats the religion here' - so of course the British got Brahmanism and took it to be the religion of India. But, then, you could apply that to any religion.

Vale to you

Answer 2

Well I guess there's no one "holy book" but the Bhagavad Gita is regarded the most highly as the source of spiritual truth. The Vedas contain the religious injunctions and chants that are supposed to be used in worship of the deities (usually this is done by priests).

This is a pretty comprehensive site on Hinduism:

http://www.nandanmenon.com/index.htm

It has links to the Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, and other texts. If you want a thorough translation and interpretation of the Gita, I'd look up the version as translated by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, it is one of the best I have read.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

Hinduism, unlike Christianity, Judaism, and Islam does not have one single book. The Vedas, from ancient times, is knowledge that sages gained from their contemplation of God. This knowledge has always existed, but was transcribed onto paper only a few thousand years ago. Additionally, there are the Upanishads, which are additions to the Vedas and are a little more to the point and useful to us today. These were written before Christianity as well. There is also the Bhagvad Gita, which is a dialogue between Lord Krishna, and incarnation of God who come down to Earth (kinda like Christ), and Arjuna, a disciple. This conversation between is used today as a religious reference.

What is interesting is that so many people over thousands of years have been able to contemplate God through meditation and other means and have all arrived at the same conclusion. Hence, Hindus do not look only to one book, but many.

To sum up the religion...

Hindus believe that the entire universe is dependent on a Higher Power that exists everywhere, including in you and me. The universe is like a necklace... all the bodies of humans, animals, and planets are like the beads of the necklace, and God is the string that goes through all the beads. We have souls that are actually divine, but we are ignorant of this fact. Humans have lost contact with their inner divine self by caving in to material desires and ego. Hinduism, therefore, is the means of re-realizing one's own nature. Hindus often see the universe as unreal and temporary (as it is ever-changing), and God as real and permanent.

There are the concepts of dharma and karma. Dharma is righteousness, upholding one's duty as an American, father, son, brother, teacher... whatever it may be. Karma is the divine law of justice, in which people are reincarnated based on their previous actions. What you do to others will come back to you. Kinda like Newton's every action demands and equal and opposite reaction.

Hindus worship many manifestations of the one true God, because God in reality is formless, and humans try to give Him a body so we can understand Him. That is why we accept and encourage people of other faiths to worship "their" God.

We also believe in non-violence towards living creatures as they have souls too. But they are only burning off their sins and cannot be judged until they reach a human form again. We also dislike cow slaughter because we get dairy from them and use them for work and manuer.

Answer 4

Bhagavad Gita and Veda I think

Answer 5

Bhagavad gita

Answer 6

They have a lot of different books because they don't believe in one god,its sort of like a different god for growth, and harvest, and happiness, and revenge and so on and so forth. So they have different books for all of them. you have a main god which is usually Krishna to most people and then they pray to different ones for like normal everyday things.

Answer 7

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/index.htm

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

Wikipedia is your friend.