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A Spanish woman's quest for truth

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Naina_Marbus

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Why did a Spanish woman become Hindu?

https://durgadharma.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/24-why-did-i-become-hindu/

June 3, 2015

I was named Maria in this life. Born .. a Spaniard .. in a catholic family, soon I
found many flaws and inconsistencies in the religion I was brought up. Crying
out for an experience of God, more than blind dogmas that I had to believe,
I was blessed …by ….. Durga Devi I more identify myself with, as the
compassionate Mother who fights adharma ….. May I be worthy enough of
using Her Sacred name.

Obviously, I am not a scholar, neither I have a command in English. But I want
to give my humble two cents in the defence of Dharma and I would be happy if
Hindus got back their lost pride in the most scientific and sacred world-view that
it is still alive: Hinduism. This is my most intimate post and has been kept as a
draft for long….

-continued
 
When I was fourteen years old, spirituality had already come to be my most important
quest to solve, though I didn´t know to name it. Some time later, when my friends used
to start skipping the sunday´s mass of the church because they were finding it boring, I
started skipping it because what they were telling in the church was not resonating inside
of me. I was finding a sort of imbalance between what I was feeling inside and all my
catholic atmosphere. Still I didn´t know what exactly was going wrong. So I started having
queries and asking all sorts of priests, including of cults but nobody was able to respond.

No matter the religion, they systematically sorted out all my unresponded questions saying
“it is a matter of faith”. So I start(ed) craving myself for an experience of God. Faith in
Him by what I had been told by others, was not enough for me.

Later on, I started practicing yoga and meditation, but I discontinued attending the classes.
Although I was with one of the most knowledgeable teachers of Yoga in Spain, and he gives
classes in a relatively authentic way, there was a ceiling in his classes that I wanted to go
through: as he wanted to satisfy everybody, atheists and christians, there was no mention
of things that were dormant in me waiting to be awaken(ed). I was literally craving for God.

At that time, I had already started the study of Hinduism and Buddhism. India was awaking
for me, and inside of me, and I had to manage in myself the strange sensation of somebody
who had never been to India in this life, with an increasing attraction towards it that was
becoming an obssession. In short: I was not understanding myself at all!.

-continued
 
Last edited:
[FONT=&quot]For certain reasons and with all my respects, what I could understand from Buddhism was not fully convincing to me. And I would be satisfied only with something that convinced me 100%. By that time I started thinking of Lord Shiva as if He was calling me…I was near madness….why all of this is happening to me? I started needing to know daily about India, looking for the indian news, reading books related to India and Hinduism. The theory of reincarnation became the only possible response for my obsession. “I must have been Indian, and not very long time ago”.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So I consulted an Indian astrologer: for if there was something he could say about me that explained what was happening to me: my strong spiritual pull had a reason, as these were his words: My inner mind does say that you have lived one of your earlier lives in India and that too in a place by the side of the Holy Ganges. The exact place I am not able to say, but the image of a pious Indian lady performing spiritual practices by the banks of the Ganges flashes across when I tried to regress and find your past life (of course, we all have had many previous lives and I do not know which birth of yours you lived in India; but you lived in India once in an previous incarnation…that is for sure).
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This was my first satisfying explanation for my attraction for India and for Ma Ganga, though still pending to discover what is there for me in the continuous beckoning that I feel from Varanasi.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In the meantime, my love for Lord Shiva kept increasing and He naturally became my Ishta Devata, gifting me with fulfilling experiences regarding Him: I owe Him my life, and my now absolute certainty of “the existence of God”, as our inner nature and the permeating nature of the whole existence. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I just waited for an opportunity to visit India, but I wanted an spiritual journey, not a tourist one. How could it happen?. But it happened: Lord Shiva provided the right circumstances and I first visited Tamil Nadu, when I had a beautiful humble experience with a couple of sadhus in the premises of a wonderful temple: we didn´t share any communication tool, but the eyes and the smile. So pulled by an strange and daring force, I stopped in front of them, did pranams to them, smiled at them, and was gifted with the purest of the smiles from them that talked to me of shared Divine joy.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Some time later, I traveled to West Bengal. In both the places I felt at home. I mentioned in the first posts that when I have been in India, I felt something that I had never felt before anywhere else: a perfect osmosis and balance between what it is “inside” this skin, and the outside. Invisible sparks in the air. The opportunity to go to West Bengal arose several times, including pilgrimages to spiritual spots, known like Darkshineswhar, the sacred place of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, where I had a fabulous spiritual experience, and other places not so known that were equally satisfying for my thirsty aspirations.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]….I am an Indian deep inside of me, a Hindu Indian, disguised in western garments. And that is exactly how I feel in this very life: more indian than spanish…though I am far in several fields to fit the indian in me, as long as the influences of growing up in a western atmosphere are too powerful. But I don´t identify myself neither with westerners, nor even with hindu westerners, but obviously cannot consider myself an indian, though it is how I feel. My personal spiritual path has had much to do with unveiling my western influences, letting it be the indian in me, for finally trascending any human identification in search of the One and Only Real Identification: that with the Brahman.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So to respond to the question of the title, “Why did I become Hindu?” I would say: because I already was a Hindu before, and my beloved Shiva brought it back to my memory. Hindu…is someone who realises and acknowledges that the Universe functions according to certain Universal Laws, and tries to comply with them as much as possible by being Dharmic. ….Sanathan Dharma is the Eternal Path, this scientific way in which the Universe functions. It has responded all my vital questions and erased my distressing doubt about the existence of the Divine, because remembering my true spiritual nature (which is the same spiritual nature in all), has brought back harmony to my life: the harmony of tracking the path of Truth towards the Divine in all, this means flowing with the current of the Universe. And I feel extremely blessed and grateful.
[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Maria[/FONT]
 
When I first read this article, the story that came to my mind was that of Meera Bai,
the 16th century Hindu poetess, widely known and cherished figure in the Hindu
Bhakti movement for her devotion to Krishna, treating Krishna as lover and husband.

Naina
 
Yearly, more than thousands of Hindus are getting coverted into Christianity. All are converted for some quid pro..... mostly on monetary allurement.

But here in this case, a conversion from catholic, a conservative Christianity to Hinduism......is some what unexpected. May be in real quest of God.
 
there are freak elements in all societies

there are lot of white hare krishna devotees.....

similarly hindu converts to christianity in western countries and US are very common.

Many try to shed their religion, even change their names to identify with majority religion in their place of stay.

there are many hindus ,dalits and others who do it to escape persecution or economic reasons.

we need not take pride that one spanish woman has turned to hinduism.

only I feel amused.
 
Where is the "quest for truth"? This kind of statement assumes that "truth" whatever it may be, is there only in the hindu religion and not in any other religion. We do not **really** know whether our religion, or, for that matter any of the other religions or systems of faith like Buddhism in this case, gives the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

This Spanish woman got a certain *fixation* about her past life in India, Ganges, Lord Shiva, etc., and she feels satisfied after becoming a hindu. I feel we must take it as no more important than another westerner finding the so-called "spiritual" satisfaction after eating a purely south Indian brahmin feast:)

A very similat thought/mind process we can find in the book "Holy Hell" by one Gail Tredwell who was so fascinated by Mata Amritanandamayi at one time. It is good for India to have more such "Sanatana Dharmi" westerners, especially from the hard currency areas:)

Every time BJP comes to power, there usually arise half a dozen similar incidents; once BJP gets kicked out, there is no such westerner who comes out to publicize himself/herself!
 
Meera Bai left her husband to marry another person. Does Hndu Dharma authorize such practice?
 
The story reaffirms outsiders appreciate that our religion allows freedom of questioning. In catholic churches,for example, alter boys are often punished for asking questions or raising doubt.
 
The conversion to Hinduism is minuscule, compared to moving from Hinduism to other religions and within the religion from smarthas to vaishnavites.

Will it benefit Hinduism in a big way?
 
Did she fall in love with any Hindu guy?

I have noted some whites have a tendency to go overboard when they follow a new religion.

They totally change their identity and become too involved..mostly sometimes they are depressed and looking for a mental makeover to erase the depression in their lives.

Frankly speaking I do not think that any religion is extra special in the quest for so called Truth.

Each organized religion we know has its own interpretation of the Truth..even in Hinduism itself there is so many school of thoughts..each one claiming theirs to be the Ultimate Truth and when questioned everyone conveniently say "Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti"

So is there something called Multidimensional Truth?

Truth has to be Truth..the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth..and if there are so many answers the chances are Truth itself might be an illusion.

So where does that leave us?
 
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