![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amulBeen a while since I did one of these. A while ago, I asked for questions people had about Hinduism, and I can't find the post, so I'm asking again.
What would you like to know about Hinduism, as told from someone who experienced the religion without ever studying it?
In ancient India, I don't know exactly when, the "student" phase of a man's life was a stage which came after the "child" phase. The rite of passage included the use of three colored threads (I know that at least one of them was red), placed in concentric rings across his head, much like a crown or hat. The ceremony marked the end of carefree life, the beginning of your preparations to make a mark upon the world.
Throughout the student's life, each morning he would rise, say his devotions, and then place the three threads again on his brow, affirming his commitment to education. Fables are told of arrogant students who, feeling they had nothing left to learn from their mentor, would not put on the threads before greeting his mentor at breakfast. Other fables are told of kings who, upon understanding how much of the universe they truly comprehended, felt compelled to once again wear the three threads, renounce their kingdoms, and seek a life of asceticism.
In those stories, the kings would often suffer great tragedies, because karma is a bitch, and kingdoms are not things to be discarded lightly.
What would you like to know about Hinduism, as told from someone who experienced the religion without ever studying it?
In ancient India, I don't know exactly when, the "student" phase of a man's life was a stage which came after the "child" phase. The rite of passage included the use of three colored threads (I know that at least one of them was red), placed in concentric rings across his head, much like a crown or hat. The ceremony marked the end of carefree life, the beginning of your preparations to make a mark upon the world.
Throughout the student's life, each morning he would rise, say his devotions, and then place the three threads again on his brow, affirming his commitment to education. Fables are told of arrogant students who, feeling they had nothing left to learn from their mentor, would not put on the threads before greeting his mentor at breakfast. Other fables are told of kings who, upon understanding how much of the universe they truly comprehended, felt compelled to once again wear the three threads, renounce their kingdoms, and seek a life of asceticism.
In those stories, the kings would often suffer great tragedies, because karma is a bitch, and kingdoms are not things to be discarded lightly.