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Thread: Books to read

  1. #1

    Books to read

    Namaste,

    I would like to find out what reliable sources of sacred writings and scriptures I ought to read.

    I am not interested in the westernized versions of Hinduism, but Sanaatana Dharma, as I do not have a religious background that I can claim. I tried reading "How to become a (Better) Hindu," but I suspect elements of Universalism within it and has me on guard.

    Dhanyavaad
    Last edited by deafAncient; 18 August 2014 at 09:05 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: Books to read

    Quote Originally Posted by deafAncient View Post
    Namaste,

    I would like to find out what reliable sources of sacred writings and scriptures I ought to read.

    I am not interested in the westernized versions of Hinduism, but Sanaatana Dharma, as I do not have a religious background that I can claim. I tried reading "How to become a (Better) Hindu," I suspect elements of Universalism within it and has me on guard.

    Dhanyavaad
    Namaste DA,

    Welcome to HDF

    The problem with Hinduism is that there are a lot of sub-sects. Since in the intro you have mentioned that you visited a BAPS mandir, which is a part of newest sampradAya (sect, capital 'A' is pronounced as 'aa' as in 'car'). It is a vaishnava sampradAya which is very popular in India and has spread accross the world.

    If you can visit their foundation, rather than temple, then someone will be able to help you.

    Just in case you do not manage to find info, please read Hindu Dharma (Link in my Signature). This book is combined edition of 2 imp volumes of a 7 vol series called 'Voice of God'. It contains words of SankarAcArya (Shankaracharya) of Kanchi Matha (kanchi Kamakoti Peetham). Math or Peetham means a honorary seat of a Guru. His name was svAmI chandrashekhara sarasvatI, fondly called as kanchi paramAcArya, also called by some as 'walking God'. The title of 'SankarAcArya' is the topmost title in sanAtana dharma and they are considered as an authority on almost all spiritual matters. Kanchi Paramacharya is revered by all. He became SankarAcArya at the age of 13.

    This book of 800 pages contains all the essence of Hinduism at the same time, it does not enter into technical or polemical discussions. Each chapter is short of 2-3 pages, so it is easy to read.

    One chapter in this book is missing in online html version. This chapter can be found here.

    If you manage to finish this book, you will know a lot more than an average Indian about sanAtana dharma.

    I hope you find this book useful.

    OM
    Only God Is Truth, Everything Else Is Illusion - Ramakrishna
    Total Surrender of Ego to SELF is Real Bhakti - Ramana Maharshi

    Silence is the study of the scruptures. Meditation is the continuous thinking of Brahman which is to be meditated upon. The complete negation of both by knowledge is the vision of truth – sadAcAra-14 of Adi SankarAcArya

    namah SivAya vishnurUpAya viShNave SivarUpiNe, MBh, vanaparva, 3.39.76

    Sanskrit Dict | MW Dict | Gita Super Site | Hindu Dharma

  3. #3

    Re: Books to read

    Namaste and Dhanyavaad, Amrut...

    I am a tiny bit familiar with the writing system of Hindi and Sanskrit, enough to be able to read the more common characters and pronounce them, and I know enough to tell someone that they are based on Devanagari (pronounced as devnaagree, because of the Schwa Syncope Rule in Hindi), a writing system that is an abugida system. I am also familiar with the IAST alphabet, so it helps me to nail down the (well, what I know so far) approximate, if not correct pronunciation of certain words. Some characters such as some less common conjuncts of two vowels pronounced together without an intervening vowel between them, I have trouble with, and that colon at the end of a word, such as पंजाबः or गुजरात: - I do not know how to pronounce the endings of such words. I'm pretty sure that it's not a halant symbol (virama), which act as a vowel suppression indicator.

    Anyway, I have found the PDF version of that book here, which includes that missing chapter - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ti-english.pdf Dhanyavaad for the book information. It is something that I will read. I'm currently reading "The Early Upanisads," translated and edited by Patrick Olivelle. I'm also reading the books based on the works of Rajiv Malhotra, because I want to know what I'm against as an Ancient (or even as a Hindu).

    Dhanyavaad and Galeh Yuvo...

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