✳flâneur — a map of the web's best reading

Hinduism doesn't exist - by Naomi Kanakia

woman-of-letters.com · 2,290 words · saved by 1 readers

I met a white woman at a reading recently who told me she was Hindu. I said, “In what sense?” She said, “In the sense that I’ve had real experiences of seeing Kali, and I worship her.” I said, “Oh okay that’s great…” but in my mind I was thinking that’s not really Hinduism, as I understand it. Sometimes Hindus take pride in not being a proselytizing religion: believe whatever you want, we say! Your God is as good as our God. But it’s not entirely true that Hindus don’t proselytize (look at Osho or ISKCON). What’s more accurate is to say that Hinduism doesn’t really exist. There’s no way to convert to Hinduism, because there’d be nothing to convert to.1 Hinduism, to the extent that it exists, is a set of practices that are largely communal, so it’s almost impossible for someone who wasn’t born Hindu to truly practice the religion.2 I think for Christians this is difficult to understand, because Christianity is very heavy on dogma, but low on ritual. This has proven a problem. Because th

Hinduism doesn't exist Naomi Kanakia Aug 06, 2024 146 44 23 Share I met a white woman at a reading recently who told me she was Hindu. I said, “In what sense?” She said, “In the sense that I’ve had real experiences of seeing Kali, and I worship her.” I said, “Oh okay that’s great…” but in my mind I was thinking that’s not really Hinduism, as I understand it. Sometimes Hindus take pride in not being a proselytizing religion: believe whatever you want, we say! Your God is as good as our God. But it’s not entirely true that Hindus don’t proselytize (look at Osho or ISKCON ). What’s more accurate

Explore this link on the map →

saved by

related reading