Question
How does one start in Hinduism?
Answer
I was like you, similar. Till 25 years I was an agnostic although a born Brahmin. When I came to the west around that time there weren’t any big groups etc. Now we see a lot of faith groups The best book that I found that helped me initially was “Hindu Dharma : The Universal way of life” by Chandrasekarendra Saraswati’s Tamil lectures translation. I bought that from Amazon. You can check that out. Most South Indian Brahmins would know him.
Hindu Dharma: The Universal Way of Life https://www.amazon.com/dp/8172760558/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_Zts8FbN1P22WF
Online PDF is available here
https://www.pdfdrive.com/hindu-dharma-the-universal-way-of-life-e14537656.html
One more Online version topic-wise here (Thanks @ram)
http://kamakoti.org/misc/hindudharma.html
He is a well read Sannyasin who renounced family life at a very young age and lived a 100 years. Nowhere else, I saw the breadth coverage. You do need breadth to put things in place when someone talks about a topic. For e.g what is Veda, Upanishad. Vedanta, Mimamsa, Vyakarana etc. not in depth at first but just the important aspects of that. Depth comes later. That book covers a lot of such topics in each of its chapters and each is a gist few pages so you get broad overview. And then you could search this site for e.g. . Do not get academic type books initially. Do not get a sect or cult oriented books initially. Use them to fill the gaps. This one is Sanatan dharma specific. Not Tantric or Agamic. That you read later. In fact this book covers some of that. Do not read Saivism books before the Vedic. The Sikh books (Saheb) cover gists of Upanishad, Do not delve into Upanishads right away. Get your Vedic understanding in order. You don’t want to start with Gita right away as well. Save the Puranas later as well. I got by without reading Mahabharata so far (since I’ve watched the old TV serial ). Bhakthi comes after understanding what is being taught...
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