| How I Became A Hindu - My Discovery of Vedic Dharma |
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| Books By David Frawley |
| INTRODUCTION | |
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| DISCOVERING
HINDUISM THROUGH VEDAS In my case I came to Hindu Dharma through the Vedas, the oldest tradition of Hinduism. This was an unusual way because the Vedas are so old that most Hindus know little about them, following instead more recent teachings. People in the West have no real idea what the Vedas are either. They see Hinduism through a few prominent images like Shiva, Krishna and the Goddess or a few famous modern gurus and are not aware of the older foundation of this multifarious tradition. Most Hindus know their particular sect or guru but have little recognition of their tradition and its long history. Even Hindus who speak of the glory of the Vedas generally can’t explain Vedic teachings in detail. By the Vedas they usually mean the Upanishads or the Bhagavad Gita, not the older Vedic texts. Western academia believes that the Vedas are only primitive poetry, tribal rites, or some strange babbling that arose from shamanic intoxications. At best, for the more spiritually enlightened, the Vedas are regarded as the lesser growths from which the greater unfoldments of Yoga and Vedanta arose or diverged. For me, however, the Vedas became revealed not only as the source of the Hindu tradition but as the core spiritual wisdom of humanity. I could say that I am more a Vedic person, a Vedicist if your will, than simply a Hindu in the ordinary sense. This might better describe what I think to the modern world. But I can’t draw a line between Hinduism and Vedic dharma, though some people might try to. |
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