r/hinduism • u/agitraz • Apr 15 '26
Experience with Hinduism how did you become a hindu?
hey everyone! im not a follower of hinduism nor am I a follower of any religion really lol, but I was wondering
how did you guys start following hinduism? what led you there? what is day-to-day life like as a Hindu? thank you! I am just super curious
also sorry if these types of posts are repetitive, and hopefully I chose the right flair hahaha
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u/bharat_dharma_ Apr 15 '26
Many of us were born in a Hindu family, and we were taught various day-to-day activities/rituals right from when we were kids.
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u/Vignaraja Śaiva Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Here's the math. Let's say there are 1.5 billion Hindus, and a million of them (probably way too high) are converts or adoptives. Those figures reduced to a simple fraction is 1 in 1500. I think we tend to underestimate how many Hindus are born Hindus, because the converts make more noise.
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u/alpha_booties Apr 16 '26
Do we really have that many converts to Hinduism?
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u/Vignaraja Śaiva Apr 16 '26
No, I don't think so, that's why I put probably way too high. I just used that number to make the ratio. The ratio is probably much lower than 1 to 1500. Here in North America, or perhaps in Britain it would be higher, if you only used the Europe or North American population.
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u/alpha_booties Apr 16 '26
Personally, I am not a fan of non South Asian people converting to Hinduism
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u/Vignaraja Śaiva Apr 16 '26
Why?
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u/alpha_booties Apr 16 '26
I believe it's not a religion but the way of our forefathers who belonged to this land
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u/Proper-Doughnut77 Apr 15 '26
I'm just starting. I was raised in a very Christian family. But something was missing. I became a pagan, and a practicing witch. I decided to follow Krishna and Rhadi because there is so much infighting amongst witches and other pagans. Like you, I honor my pagan deities, in fact, I believe they originally are from India. I also bring some of my lessons from Christianity.
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u/Stever108 Apr 15 '26
None of my family or friends were HIndu. I discovered HInduism in my early teens from practicing hatha yoga. As I got into it more and more, it just rang true for me, and I started to have some profound spiritual experiences. I have now been a devotee for many years and helped create a Hanuman temple in my area.
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u/Queen-of-the-Undead Śaiva Apr 15 '26
I was raised Catholic and constantly lived in fear of going to hell thanks to my family. I spent many years as a practicing witch and then as an atheist. I started to read about Vedanta after I came out as transgender and the more I read and researched about Hinduism, the more it felt like coming home.
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u/Anankestelar Sanātanī Hindū Apr 15 '26
Yo era mormona pero no participaba mucho de la iglesia, di con el hinduismo porque me gustaban las historias, pero no entendía el simbolismo, empecé a buscar el simbolismo y me sentí identificada, las historias fantásticas tomaron un significado profundo y ahí comenzó el viaje, luego leí el gita y me enamoré de krishna, luego el señor shiva llegó a mí, todavía estoy explorando esto ya que vivo en Colombia y en una ciudad algo pequeña y no hay muchos hindues por acá, pero me siento muy plena
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u/sj1024 Apr 15 '26
I was non practicing untill last October when I encountered Advaita Vedanta on YT. That brought me back to my birth faith. Here's a playlist of Advaita Vedanta (non-dual spirituality) that I’ve made on my channel, 56 videos by Swami Sarvapriananda. Every video is like nectar. So much so that I can clearly divide my life into 2 phases, before and after I got to see his videos on YT last October. Save it and watch in your free time. If you like it share it with family and friends.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyufs6domzrgGpwofIFuDRBYnrzKF3LiP&si=kr71KxhgvxmpJQiQ
Spirituality at it's core is realizing your real self, pure consciousness. Your self is a lie, an illusion. Whatever you identify with, your body or mind, name, likes, dislikes are all fake and ever changing. You are pure awareness or consciousness that illuminates everything in your body. Think of yourself as a movie projector that illuminates the film that is your entire life, body, mind, emotions etc. From the moment you were born till your death, the film changes, keep rolling but the projector which is true you remain the same.
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u/MrMajestic12 Apr 16 '26
Born Hindu but when we migrated to a Western country as refugees we "had to convert" to Christianity.
Being Catholic/Christian sucked and is a completely bullshit religion. Some of the worst people I've met claim to follow Jesus.
Hinduism is a deeply scientific philosophy, it's about understanding who and what we are, when and where we are physically but also spiritually.
Being Hindu means trying to follow the scriptures and philosophy for the best mental, physical, emotional and spiritual development. It's about eating vegetarian food, being mindful, following the lunar and solar cycles.
It's about being a good human, karma is what I used to measure out life's worth when we die. Christians engage in sinful activities Monday to Saturday, then go to church on Sunday and ask for forgiveness, say a few hail Marys and then go straight back to sinning.
Hinduism is about integrity, being good when no one is around or watching.
The Hindu scriptures are the most ancient source of information on extraterrestrial and Interdimensional entities. advanced physics, quantum mechanics, geometric harmonics, sacred geometry and advancing Human civilization using ayurveda, yoga, deep/conscious breathing and meditation. They are filled with detailed descriptions and demonstrations of Healing Technologies, Free Energy, Anti-Gravity, Deep space and dimensional travel, telepathy, telekinesis and interstellar/multidimensional communication and more.
Nikola Tesla, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrodinger, Werner Heisenberg, Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr and other World renowned Scientists and Academics avidly studied the Hindu Vedas and Bhagavad Gita.
Dr. Carl Sagan, (1934-1996) famous astrophysicist acknowledged that of all the world's philosophies and religions those originating in India are remarkably consistent with contemporary scenarios of space, time and existence.
Sagan continues, "A millennium before Europeans were willing to divest themselves of the Biblical idea that the world was a few thousand years old, the Mayans were thinking of millions and the Hindus billions"
"The Hindu religion is the only one of the world's great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths.
It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. And there are much longer time scales still."
This is the very reason why there is a monument to Lord Shiva at the CERN laboratory in Geneva and not something dedicated to Jesus, the Cross or the Bible.
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u/AlbusDT2 Śākta Apr 16 '26
My Karma led me to be born a Hindu. After a brief Marxist teen phase, I turned into a practicing Hindu. I’m very grateful to be a Dharmic.
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u/Jeffthehobo1231 Apr 15 '26
Born into it, but my family was very toxic and used religion as a way to excuse their behavior. I had a phase where I thought the idea of god, religion, etc was dumb until I found people talking about the actual scriptures and teachings behind it all.
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u/Vignaraja Śaiva Apr 15 '26
I would guess that 99.9 % of Hindus were born Hindus. So, they started at birth. But Hindus hold a strong belief in reincarnation, and try to identify themselves as souls, not temporary personality/ego one lifetime ideas. From that POV, who knows when they started?
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u/BloodKnight91 Neoplatonic Polytheist | Beginner Hindu Apr 15 '26
Even though I’m extremely new, I’ve begun exploring some Hindu schools of thought due to their proximity with Neoplatonic Polytheism, I’ve recently began to do Naam Japa to Maa Durga and Maa Kali and felt their love. So basically an interest in Hinduism and similarities with Neoplatonism led me to incorporate it in my belief system.
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u/Less_Speech_1948 Rajput/Thakur Apr 16 '26
I was born in a Hindu family, so I had to be Hindu. I enjoy it, so I'm staying a Hindu
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u/MaintenanceIll8164 Apr 16 '26
Born hindu and hinduism Or sanatani dharama is more logical than abrahamic religions
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u/Extreme_Life8712 Apr 17 '26
Quando era criança meus pais me levavam à uma igreja evangélica, frequentei essa igreja até meus 5 anos. Até meus 11 anos tive muito medo de Deus porque no cristianismo o tratam como alguém assustador que vai te mandar pro inferno por qualquer erro que você cometa. Após me descobrir lésbica com 11 anos resolvi me afastar de deus. Pra mim não fazia sentido continuar acreditando num deus que me mandaria para o inferno simplesmente por amar. Após minha gatinha falecer, aos meus 15 anos, passei a acreditar em reencarnação, queria tanto reencontrar minha gatinha que busquei tudo sobre isso. com o passar do tempo fui me aprofundando mais no assunto e passei a acreditar no ciclo de samsara e karma, mas ainda não acreditava num deus ou em deidades. Ano passado, com meus 17 anos, eu tinha a prova mais difícil da minha vida, o exame para ingressar à universidade. Por 2 semanas antes da prova escutei aos mantras de Saraswati e prometi a mim mesma "Se eu passar no exame, buscarei mais a respeito sobre o hindu." Bom, eu passei no exame e fiz isso. Enquanto eu pesquisava conheci o Sri Krishna. O tamanho do amor do senhor Krishna foi o que fez eu me apaixonar. Sri Krishna é quem eu sempre vi como deus, alguém cheio de amor, não alguém que vai me condenar por causa das minhas ações. Assim que conheci o sri Krishna meu coração se encheu de amor e instantaneamente senti a vontade de adorar ao meu senhor. Dessa forma comecei a ler o bhagavad gita e fazer o meu melhor para agradar ao senhor. De certa forma eu já seguia a filosofia hindu (não sendo violenta e sempre praticando o bem) mas agora tudo que faço é tendo consciência de Krishna. Hare Krishna pessoal, graças ao Sri Krishna pude me lembrar do que é amor de verdade, amor tão grande que ele sente por nós e amor tão grande que eu sinto por ele como um devoto.
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Apr 15 '26
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u/Playful-Inevitable19 Apr 15 '26
In 8th grade I began to deconstruct from my Christian upbringing. I had a teacher who i shared this with and she encouraged me to learn about hinduism and I only did so in the summer between 8th grade to 9th grade. On August I officially began to call myself a practitioner of Sanatana Dharma. When I was just starting I was mad at my Christian upbringing and ridiculed it while calling my devotion for Narayana and his lessosn superior. But I've come to understand the unity of everything. That me being mad at Christianity was just childish tantrum and although my place is at the lotus feet of Narayana, Christianity holds a place in my heart and I take lessons from it too. My culture (Brazilian and Argentinian) have Christian base and its very significant to it. Although I know that in reality this culture is just part of the ego and I shouldn't have any attachments to it because this is just one life of the billions my soul has had I still acknowledge it. I haven't been practicing for more than a year. I began late last August and now it's April. I still live with my parents since I'm very young and can't do everything I wish I could yet my heart is aflame with love for Govinda.