Hindu Tropers, UNITE!

Yep; I know about the Vedas, and I also know that the British were the ones who threw around "Hindu", as a term. Also, the historical Vedic religion (Vedic Hinduism) is no longer practiced, aside from possibly being followed by very small groups. And it does not directly resemble modern Hinduism, aside from the fact that the Vedas are still very important to our faith. For example, we no longer worship Indra or Agni, unless someone sees them as aspects of current gods. The same goes for the even older versions, such as those that were practiced by groups such as the Indus Valley Civilization.

But modern Hinduism directly descended from Vedic Hinduism with lots of influences from the faiths of Huns,Kushans and Dravidians. Actually it was only the coming of Islam that developed a difference between different 'religions'.Till then there were no line between Hinduism or corrupt Hinduism.

Well, Hinduism is an umbrella term; it has many older forms, along with many current forms.

edited 11th Mar '14 2:16:54 PM by SpaceWolf

Yes i know that Hinduism is an umbrella term and there was no Hinduism until the British come.What i am trying to say that until the coming of Islam,people didn't have lines between 'different' faiths.There were no Buddhism no Jainism (it is also a British creation) There was still a single Bhartiya (Indian) faith,with Sanskrit as sacred language and lingua franca.

Dude, Buddha and Mahavira were both born in the 6th century B.C.E. Buddhism and Jainism were around for a long time, far before the British came. Yes, people did not distinguish so much, back then, but the faiths definitely existed. Buddhism and Jainism came from the Sramana tradition, which was separate from Vedic Hinduism. In other words, they had branched off from Hinduism, forming different religions. I understand what you're saying, though.

But I don't know everything, and this is kind of a petty debate, so I'll just let it go.

edited 12th Mar '14 1:24:21 PM by SpaceWolf

I didn't knew about Sramana,after you mention it i looked in wikipedia and i think you are right.On the other note don't you think it is strange that we don't have a name for ourselves and for our religion (Hindu is Persian in origin).Nowadays Sanatana Dhrama(सनातन धर्म) is used sometimes,which means Eternal duty or faith.

And,yeah what name do you choose for yourself?

I usually say that I'm a "Hindu", for convenience. But I actually like "Sanatana Dharma" a lot better. (I don't often use it, but I think that I'll start doing so.) And, oftentimes, to be more specific, I'll say that I'm a Vaishnavite.

edited 13th Mar '14 10:30:18 AM by SpaceWolf

It is also quite strange that i don't belong to any sect (i didn't knew there is sects until lately),i'm not a religious person i don't celebrate any festivals (Heck,even my birthday).You seems to know much more than me even when i am born Hindu.Maybe i am an Hindu culturally not religiously(Hindu atheist?).

edited 23rd Mar '14 8:32:16 AM by Hinduboyzephyr

Converts always know the stats. It's the reason the phrase 'preaching to the choir' exists; people in the choir are the eager beavers who show up to church every week, the ones least in need of spiritual guidance.

Space Wolf,can you read Devanagari characters?I mean if you can, it will really help you with your faith as since the 19th century Sanskrit is written in it as well Hindi,Marathi,Nepali,etc.

edited 15th Mar '14 1:14:33 AM by Hinduboyzephyr

Unfortunately, I can't read any of the Indian languages. The only Devanagari that I can read is om.

edited 16th Mar '14 9:25:38 AM by SpaceWolf

That means i made a mistake when i write Devanagari in post 156. 'ॐ' Oops,another mistake.

Happy Holi everyone.

Happy Holi!

For me, it's not until tomorrow.

Oh,mistakes keep happening! BTW are you celebrating Holi? You definitely got Indian friends,right?

edited 17th Mar '14 1:11:43 AM by Hinduboyzephyr

I have a couple of Indian friends. And I'm going to try to celebrate, but it might not work out. We'll see how things go.

Space wolf, did you changed your (real) name?

edited 24th Mar '14 12:29:45 AM by Hinduboyzephyr

I haven't, but I do plan to eventually get a Hindu name. How would I go about doing this?

Well, different ethnic groups have different naming convention like many Tamil people don't have surnames, they use patronymic but their names mostly comes from Sanskrit and its literature. Hindi people (who speaks Hindi language and its dialects of which I am a member ) chooses a Devnagari character (by DOB, etc.) to start their name with. Like with र (Ra) we can have Rahul,Rajiv,Rajendra,etc. We mostly use our family name as surname but many also use their father's name as middle name.

Because you don't have knowledge of Devnagari, I suggest you to search websites for Indian names, choose a name which is easy for you (and your friends,relatives,etc) to pronounce. Choose simple with beautiful meaning like 'Harsh' which means joy or cheerfulness or its variant 'Harshit' which means joyful. Or you could learn Devnagari with little help from me.

edited 3rd Apr '14 8:39:39 AM by Hinduboyzephyr

Aw, but Amarnath sounds so badass! "Cower, brief mortals, before the might of Amarnath, Lord of the Black Flame!"

I still need to get back to learning Devanagari.

I can speak Hindi pretty fluently, but when it comes to reading I don't know all the characters.

Thanks for the advice, Hinduboyzephyr. I wouldn't mind learning.

Yeah because Amarnath is connected with Lord Shiva (I think). Actually it is not that old-fashioned which I made it. Sorry for that.

Devanagri is a very scientific script, actually all Indian scripts are! They all descended from the same script. Recently Telugu script won the first prize in script competition organized in South Korea. But half-characters makes them little hard but still there about less than 100 characters unlike Chinese where there is thousands.

The Unnamed , you learned Hindi? or are you a native speaker?

edited 26th Mar '14 1:57:42 AM by Hinduboyzephyr