The assignment is to read a book from another country and then visit a place nearby (in the Bay Area) where I could learn about/see the culture. I'm reading Siddhartha which takes place in India and is mostly about Hinduism and Buddhism. Is there a such thing as Indian Buddhism? If not, does anyone know about Hinduism and if there are different types of Hinduism. I've emailed a few Hindu temples in the Bay Area and the only one that's responded is a Hare Krishna temple. I've heard they're not true Hindus, so I'm wondering if that would be a good place to go. If not, does anyone have any other ideas for what I could do?
Any Hindu temples in the Bay Area?
- Thread starter dude8604
- Start date
AgaBoogaBoo
Lifer
- Feb 16, 2003
- 26,108
- 5
- 81
I can't believe that there aren't any Hindu temples in San Francisco or Berkeley! How is that possible? Why don't the yellow pages find them?
The Stigenator
Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 15,216
- 3
- 81
there are.. hindu temples in bay area..
one sec...
http://www.bnaiyer.com/temple-adds.html
Now.. the hare-krishna is ISKCON.. or whatever.. international society for KRISHNA concisous or whatever..
some ppl say they arent really a hindu temple, more like a cult, i really dont know though.
the proper temples are the ones on that link that are labelled without ISCON on it. You can try teh one in berkeley, even though its ISKON..
Anycase.. Siddharta wasnt known for hinduism.. going to an hindu temple wont help. Siddharta if i am right is the founder of buddhism.
Buddhism started in India and went across the Asian subcontient and to china and stuff. So technically his preachings are teh same everywhere..
Hope that helped..
TGG
one sec...
http://www.bnaiyer.com/temple-adds.html
Now.. the hare-krishna is ISKCON.. or whatever.. international society for KRISHNA concisous or whatever..
some ppl say they arent really a hindu temple, more like a cult, i really dont know though.
the proper temples are the ones on that link that are labelled without ISCON on it. You can try teh one in berkeley, even though its ISKON..
Anycase.. Siddharta wasnt known for hinduism.. going to an hindu temple wont help. Siddharta if i am right is the founder of buddhism.
Buddhism started in India and went across the Asian subcontient and to china and stuff. So technically his preachings are teh same everywhere..
Hope that helped..
TGG
you are correct the hare krishna temple / founders / religion or whatever you wanna call it, is not Hinduism, its a cult which is tried to be based on Hinduism.
Give me a list of questions and I can have my mother answer them for you, I am half Hindu and my mom is very religious.
The thing is I actually need to go somewhere. As far as what TGG said, there are many different types of Buddhism, so I'm not sure if I'd be going to the right type of Buddhist temple. The book talkes about Hinduism as well, so I think it would be okay if I went to a Hindu place.
Guys, I strongly disagree with you categorizing Hare Krishna Temples as a cult. As an Indian-American and as a believer in Hinduism, I have been to many of the Hindu temples in the Houston area where I grew up and my parents took me to temples as I grew up. There are at least 10 Hindu temples in Houston and I have been to most of them and my family at one time or another has been regularly going to one of these temples. Each temple has a different "brand" of Hinduism that they follow. My family and I currently go to the Hare Krishna Temple here in Houston and it follows many of the same practices and traditions as the other Hindu temples. The main difference is that everything is done in English, which is, of course, why it can appeal to Americans at all. You don't see any non Indians at any of the other Hindu temples because everything is conducted in Hindi, or Gujarati, or other Indian langauge. And because Westerners converted to Hinduism through Hare Krishna Temples (one of the only Hindu temples they can go to and understand the teachings), their (usually) Christian families have characterized as a "cult." What a bunch of BS. I challenge any one of you two guys to convince me that Hare Krishna Temples are in anyway like a cult.
Sorry, for the long message, but I had to clear that up.
BTW, back on topic, dude8604, I suggest you go to a Buddhist temple if you are researching Siddhartha. Since Siddhartha is the founder of Buddhism, I'm sure any Buddhist temple will have what you need.
maybe I should collaborate, ok,
The reason I called it a cult was because it does not follow hinuism 100%, it has been altered to appeal to the North American population, and also I beleive (from what i heard this i am not 100% sure about) is that the people who follow this generally dont really have a clue as to the founding principals of hinduism because of the way they teach/preeach
Chinmaya Mission seems to be the most prolific in organized Hindu tempels. IMO it also seems to be the most modern and the easiest to learn from. I go to Chinmaya Mission Houston and its truly very deeps stuff.
http://www.chinmayamission.org/
The differences in different practices in Hinduism is usually because of different beliefs which stem from different parts of India. Imagine if India is like the US with different states, except in every state there is almost a different language and perhaps even a different script!
http://www.indolink.com/SFO/chinmSJC.html is in San Jose, should be close and those guys will give you THE best explanation.
And obviousely if worst comes to worst
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Hinduism
Hinduism is really two things. Culture and then religion.
The cultural part includes festivals and such.
The religion part is however not really a religion, it can be more identified with a way of life.
First Hinduism tries to be completely free from obligation or blind followership.
Instead of "word of god" it is compromised of two things. One is a story called the Mahabharat in which a divine teacher (Lord Krishna) shows his friend in the midst of a civil war the thought process of action, inaction, and self unfoldment in short.
The next is a collection of vedas and scriptures that are thousands of years old on life, the mind, and self unfoldment.
A common misconception is that Hinduism has many gods and because of that is not monotheistic.
WRONG!
Hinduism does believe in ONE god, its precence however is undefined or more correctly, infinite.
The wise people who created the vedas however knew that prayer is one thing. Focus. Focusing your m ind and body to attain your goals and achieve your highest potential is key to anything. Hence forth they created different incarnations of god who are representative of a value or an aspect of life. Therefore when I am praying for wealth of knowledge I pray to one "god" because it allows me to focus it towards his aspect and henceforth my aspect in life. Think of it this way. If god came before you and asked you what you would want you would go wild asking for so many things. Now if a hindu god such as Saraswati came before you and you knew that she could help you with knowledge, then you know what you could ask for and you would be more specific as to what help you needed in knowledge.
Hinduism is all about organization of thought and focus. That is why focus is the essential quality pervading througout every hindu scripture.
hindunet.org is very good for in depth research on hinduism. Also the Chinmaya Mission in San Jose should be a good source of information as well.
http://www.chinmayamission.org/
The differences in different practices in Hinduism is usually because of different beliefs which stem from different parts of India. Imagine if India is like the US with different states, except in every state there is almost a different language and perhaps even a different script!
http://www.indolink.com/SFO/chinmSJC.html is in San Jose, should be close and those guys will give you THE best explanation.
And obviousely if worst comes to worst
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=Hinduism
Hinduism is really two things. Culture and then religion.
The cultural part includes festivals and such.
The religion part is however not really a religion, it can be more identified with a way of life.
First Hinduism tries to be completely free from obligation or blind followership.
Instead of "word of god" it is compromised of two things. One is a story called the Mahabharat in which a divine teacher (Lord Krishna) shows his friend in the midst of a civil war the thought process of action, inaction, and self unfoldment in short.
The next is a collection of vedas and scriptures that are thousands of years old on life, the mind, and self unfoldment.
A common misconception is that Hinduism has many gods and because of that is not monotheistic.
WRONG!
Hinduism does believe in ONE god, its precence however is undefined or more correctly, infinite.
The wise people who created the vedas however knew that prayer is one thing. Focus. Focusing your m ind and body to attain your goals and achieve your highest potential is key to anything. Hence forth they created different incarnations of god who are representative of a value or an aspect of life. Therefore when I am praying for wealth of knowledge I pray to one "god" because it allows me to focus it towards his aspect and henceforth my aspect in life. Think of it this way. If god came before you and asked you what you would want you would go wild asking for so many things. Now if a hindu god such as Saraswati came before you and you knew that she could help you with knowledge, then you know what you could ask for and you would be more specific as to what help you needed in knowledge.
Hinduism is all about organization of thought and focus. That is why focus is the essential quality pervading througout every hindu scripture.
hindunet.org is very good for in depth research on hinduism. Also the Chinmaya Mission in San Jose should be a good source of information as well.
I've heard from family that there's a large and popular one in the Livermore area. I don't live in the Bay Area though, so maybe that's too far away to be called the Bay Area.
I don't know if Hare Krishna people are a cult or not (I'm not very religious), but I think people probably call them that because they pass out flyers and stuff to convert people and I believe that's against one of the main points of Hinduism. People probably just consider them a cult because they're relatively new (I'm guessing).
I don't know if Hare Krishna people are a cult or not (I'm not very religious), but I think people probably call them that because they pass out flyers and stuff to convert people and I believe that's against one of the main points of Hinduism. People probably just consider them a cult because they're relatively new (I'm guessing).
The Hare Krishna people are a little bit more old school than they should be. I would not go to them for answers on Hinduism. Chinmaya Mission is the only place where I have seen any sort of hindu from Jain to Hare Krishna go without feeling stuck in a groove of teachings.
You have to be careful though to note the difference between Hinduism the culture and Hinduism the religion. Some of them you can compare to the difference of Easter egg hunting and its relation to christianity.
You have to be careful though to note the difference between Hinduism the culture and Hinduism the religion. Some of them you can compare to the difference of Easter egg hunting and its relation to christianity.
Hmm...I called the one in Concord and they basically hung up on me. Is there any specific way I should ask or any traditions/customs or something I should know about before I call any others?
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