I'm just curious as to how people found out about this site, so I'm running a bit of a survey here to know more about fellow users. Basically, if someone has provided an answer to the titular question already, upvote it. Otherwise, post your own answer! So, please answer the following questions.
This is a post to know more about fellow users. Please don't downvote any answer.
How did you come to know about this site?
I had been using StackOverflow site for software development question answers, there once I suddenly saw at the top bar of the site, there exist list of all other sites. I scrolled down one by one and I found Hinduism Q&A site is also there. I eagerly entered the site.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
Many of the topics are interesting to me, when browsing question and answers in this site, I feel that I am in Satya Yuga. I also learned many things about our god, puranas etc. I am sure that whoever is coming to this site and stays regularly then he/she must gain good characters and behaviors and will be cool finally. I myself have changed many attributes in me.
Thanks a lot to hinduism.stackexchange.com for making people change their life.
Let me address the two questions separately:
I was intersted in Hinduism. So I used to search about our scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad gita etc. I looked though some answers in Quora and also search many things regarding Hinduism on YouTube. So once I searched in google about something related to Lord Shiva and there was a question in this site that What is the Vedic origin of Lord Shiva and I was impressed by the answer given by User Tezz and then I joined this site and asked questions and this site enlightened me a lot and I gave my first answer on this site very recently:)
I had already joined 7 StackExchange communities and had been participating to AU, U&L, MSE, SR etc. before I joined Hinduism StackeEchange. Though I had not participated in Area51 process, however if I'm correctly remembered, I had seen Hinduism Area51 page with example question like "Why is Ganga considered holy?" while participating in Opensource.SE private Beta.
I don't remember exactly what caused me joining this community, I may have found Hinduism StackExchange from list and may had joined.
I joined Hinduism StackExchange 3.25 years ago but had not become active on Hinduism.SE for about more than 1 year. I became active from Sept. 2015, you can see Welcome message from Keshav Srinivasan!
I've already declared my interests in my profile. Actually I learned lots of basics and about various philosophies in the end of 2015 and in the starting of 2016 through Wiki and other encyclopedias which cleared lots of concepts and I gradually become eligible/qualified for posting good Q/A on the site. I've done reading of Mukhya Upanishads in 2016 which you can see in my this post.
Upanishads and Vedanta have been my most interesting topics forever. Interest in Shad-Darshana and in Samhita, Brahmana portion of Vedas is later evolved. Though I'm lesser interested in Puranas, Mythology, Itihasa and Dharma Shastras. If one ask my interest, current answer in descending order would be:
If we talk about this site, I can say, this is the most interesting community among all I've joined/participated! My journey on StackExchange started from AU (AskUbuntu) and finished on AUM (Hinduism SE)!
I'm thankful to all the users and experts of this site to keep the interest in the development and growth of this site. And special thanks to Keshav Srinivasan who introduced and taught me primary/basic concepts of Vishishtadvaita and written An introduction to various Sampradayas of Hinduism.
About my moderatorship : धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः।
I was always interested in Hinduism. I used to read Scriptures from my childhood. I was active on stackoverflow.com and magento.stackexchange.com. I was familiar that, stackexchange community has many sites regarding different areas. So, I searched for Hinduism and join this community.
I am interested in following topics:
I'm always been a worshipper from childhood but I never thought of reading or knowing deeply about our Hinduism.
While Googling, I often found answers to my queries in Electronics Stack Exchange and from searching all sites in stack exchange found our site.
When I joined this site, I couldn't understand many posts (almost everything here) but thanks to my chat roommates Tezz, The Destroyer, Swift Pushkar, Nog Shine, Pandya, Keshav Srinivasan, Rohit, Rakesh Joshi, Triyugi Narayan Mani, Laxmi Narayan and Rickross who explained me basics of our Hinduism and now I'm able to understand things here. I follow other users as well (Thank you all <3 ).
My interest was only Krishna but now I'm interested in Shiva-Parvati and Vedas too.
I found out about the site through a Google search. From a search suggestion. I was redirected to Stackexchange.com. From all sites, I found about this site. I joined and answered a question. Rest is history.
I find questions related to mythology, ramayana, rama, mahabharata interesting.
I have always been interested in reading Purana's and Itihasa.
I stumbled across this site when I was searching for the unabridged versions of the Puranas because I wanted to read the full story of Shiva Parvati's marriage, thanks to the Shiva-lilamruta that my mother read out to me occasionally.
So I found this site that had links to all the Puranas in English. I couldn't have been more happier! Being a part of this community is an enlightening experience, I'm often awed by the depth of research the answers contain and I'm receptive to a range of scriptures that I did not know before!
There is nothing I don't find interesting on this site, it's a good thing to learn something new everyday! I keep myself as open minded as I can and like to read anything that is new or seems interesting to me.
Like I said, I'm interested in Puranas and Itihasas however after joining this site I got to know about Brahmanas and Samhitas which I truly enjoyed due to the treasure trove of stories in it.
I'm trying to read more of Samkhya and Tantra as well, they're fascinating subjects.
Lord Krishna heavily influenced me when my grandmother had me watch tv adaptations of the Ramayana and Mahabharata (and the Gita!!). I suppressed my desire to know more due to not so nice people where I grew up in the US during my childhood.
Of course, I started with yoga and now I want to know more about Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, Vedanta, and most of all Tantra Yoga.
How did you come to know about this site?
I do have a long history to share here! :)
I was a silent spectator of the site for quite long, because I was not specifically well versed or highly learned in any of the topics. I certainly had read quite a lot of books (I do confess that most of these were abridged versions and not the full texts), but I felt that I was no where near to formulate a single answer on the site. I used to follow the occasional Hot Network Posts, read the Q&A and leave.
I decided to join the site, when I had a new question about Hinduism. I checked meta to see if it would have been on-topic. I was a bit surprised that the site did not have a faq, and I asked this question Where is the Hinduism SE FAQ?. (FWIW, many beta sites don't have a faq, I realized that later). Funnily, I did not get any response on the meta post (The moderators did create a nice FAQ for us, after some time, though), and I just decided to continue and ask the question. To my surprise, the question was well received. I did get a helpful comment and found the solution which I wanted.
A few months later, in February, there was a lot of activity on meta regarding moderation. I then started to participate in chat and meta mostly, whilst reading and enjoying the questions on main. I finally got an opportunity to answer a post, when I accidentally saw a question on Jyothirlingas. After that, I've stayed as a regular on main, meta and chat!
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
I like temple quite a lot, because the tag introduces me to the numerous different features of different temples. Apart from that I like the identification requests, where users find out the sources of the legends in scriptures.
What brought you here? How did you come to know about this site?
Nothing, I waited for it to be created, I was following it from Area51 and even followed few earlier versions of failed Area51 proposals for Hinduism site. So I waited for the site to be launched. I even accepted my name for Pro-temp election which I didn't got but later did got the postion when existing team shown trust in me. Unfortunately I got busy with personal stuff and didn't had time to moderate two sites, so have to leave this one as there were some difference of opinions and also needed fresh energy which Pandya and The Destroyer provided.
But I always had fear of site's turning into Fanatical site which never did and that's what kept me here (even when I don't get much time lately, I do sneak in whenever possible).
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
I am not really a religious person and count myself more of agnostic but I do respect Hinduism as it's my own religion and do follow it with convenience. But I do like the stories from Hindu scripture as they are good source of inspiration and also teach us valuable lessons. Tag mahabharata is my fav. But I sneak into all tags whenever possible.
While searching for references on Hindu Scriptures about a couple of months back, this site popped up. On going through I was impressed by the wide array of queries raised and equally satisfied with the replies which refer to sources from the scriptures. As a student of Sanskrit and ardent seeker of various truths of Sanatana Dharma, I felt that probably I would get more .information and inputs. Hence I joined
How did you come to know about this site?
I was not religious or spiritual from childhood, to be precise i oscillated between Atheism and Agnosticism (i can say now that oscillation was due to complete lack of knowledge about Hinduism at that time), until i read the book Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi.
The Character Rudra fascinated me in book, though i knew story in book in fiction. I wanted to know who Shiva/Rudra really is from Hindu Scriptures. I read Shiva Purana by Ramesh Menon and those legends were really interesting. After completing book, i tried to find some answers for questions and read some answers on Quora on "Hinduism" Topic. My main interests were Shiva, Venkateswara (as He is most visited deity in our state) and Kalki (since he is next avatar of Vishnu and who doesn't like to know future in advance) at that time.
I felt answers i visited on Quora had some serious issues and i knew Stack Overflow at that time and checked various sites and found Hinduism SE. My first answer which i read here was about Maya and why does it exist by Jabahar (Be Happy). I liked the answer very much and read all of his answers later. I found them good and i liked direct quotes from scriptures. I also read answers of Swami Viswananda about philosophy and answers of Vishnu Avatars and mythological stories from Keshav Srinivasan. I searched as many questions as possible and i got answers for 90% of my questions here.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
Now i find all topics interesting from mythology to philosophy. But in initial stages i was interested in future prophecies, How was universe created by Brahman?, Why did we come to earth?. It was mix of mythology, Philosophy and Science (although pure Science and speculations are not allowed).
One of my colleagues told me that "Lord Venkateshwara likes hair that's why people donate their hair there". I told him that "as per scriptures, sins are attached to hair and that's why people save their head in pilgrimage (be it a temple, a river or any other sacred place)". Then he said "no, then why only in Tirupathi"? I told him that "people save their head in other pilgrimage too, for example I have seen in Kanchipuram". But he was not ready to accept it and asked me to show on Internet. When I searched "sins are stored in hair", the question appeared in Google search. Later on I found many other interesting questions and answers and decided to join this site. And next day, I answered the same question due to which I came across to this site. By the way later on I found the story which describes few other reasons due to which people save their head in Tirupathi.
I find questions related to rig-veda, ramayana, bhagavad-gita, puranas and mahabharata interesting.
How did you come to know about this site?
I was looking for some Hinduism forum to ask my first question, since I was already very active on other SE sites, I thought of finding if there already exists Hinduism site in SE itself and hence my journey started on Hinduism site since then.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
kashmiri-shaivism, tantra and agamas would be the topic which I want to learn more about and also share if I know already.
Apart from that I would also be interested in learning bhagavad-gita concepts.
I am here to help people and get help from people. :)
How did you come to know about this site?
Till age 7, I was deeply fascinated with Hindu mythology. You can say that the deities were my superheroes in one sense. I enjoyed listening to the pastimes of Shree Krishna, Sri Rama, Lord Ganesha and Maa Durga. However, this was until age 7 when I deviated towards agnosticism and Buddhism. By the age of 11, I became a hardcore atheist. But by age 13, my interest in Sanatana Dharma revived (this was due to some personal incidents in my life which I wish to keep confidential). All I can say I was influenced by great saints such as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
I began reading an abridged versions of the Puranas. Deep reading compelled me to do research on Sanatana Dharma and soon I began spending hours on Google and Quora clearing my doubts (my academics got a little hit as a result😝). However, the answers on Quora were very much of a low quality so I began to look for other forums and ended up finding this site. The answers on this site were simply spectacular and helped me clear a lot of misconceptions and doubts. I am highly indebted to the Stack Exchange community for this.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
My main interests are the six Darshanas, Vaishnavism, scriptures and Tantra.
Namaskar,
I came to know this site by searching for Hindu forums. I found many, but very few of them were active and high-quality, so I came to Hindu stack. I wanted a place to converse with knowledgeable Hindus, especially about details of history, vedAnta and ShAstra. This is because I have been separated from all such people in real life: I live in the West and my guru is no longer alive. I find questions about textual traditions the most interesting, and have found the site very useful for being a practicing Hindu so far.
I was on quora and came to know more about hinduism from that. Read lots of answers there. Then came across groups in telegram, where members occassionally used to share answers from HSE and i used to enjoy reading all of them. Answers were in great detail with proper sources mentioned. I found HSE more mature than any other sites to know about hinduism. That's how i got into HSE.
It felt really good to know that there is such a site all about hinduism only. So, i also decided to create an account here.
I was searching for a answer to my question about Hinduism... But I didn't get any satisfactory answer to that question. Then google itself suggested about stack exchange where people help each other and discuss about the topic you are interested in. So that's how I found Hinduism Stack Exchange. I posted the question about Hinduism which I was curios about. Then @Rickross and @TheLittleNaruto answered the question. I was satisfied with the answer. 👍 And now I am here answering this question. ☺️
Ok so why did I joined this site.?
During lockdown period when everybody were locked inside their own house. I thought of searching internet to know more about our gods their stories which I didn't know before. To know more about vedas, Upanishads, Puranas and all. Because no matter how much you know it's always less than a drop of water in the whole ocean of knowledge of Sanatan dharma. And in this modern times internet is like a vast source of resorces. So while surfing internet I came across this site.
This site can give you so knowledges and insides about our own culture and it's not possible for every to know everything about hinduism. Which is a way of life only and the oldest religion.
Thus by joining this site I came to know about various ancient scriptures, stories, about what is the thinking of this generation about our culture. Because nowadays young stars are busy in following Western culture which is not bad but just don't forget your own roots. So yeah all these knowledge helped me and still helping me to know my roots better and to pass through this corona times.
How did you come to know about this site?
Actually I already saw the site twice or thrice while searching for some information. But, I never paid attention to it thinking it might be some site just like Quora where people quarrel over to death. And that's how most Hindusim site are now-a-days due to belief difference. Others r still fighting if Devi is Maya of Vaishnavism or Mahamaya of Shaktism.
So, once likewise I was searching for some very rare stuff, and I got it here that too with precise shastric pramana. To say, 'a perfect banquet served.' And that's how it made my interest into the site.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
•Shaktism
•Scriptures
•Tantras
•Perfect Shastra pramans.
Tbh, most of the Hindus live in delusion created by utter nonsense blogs & word of mouth. Half of the population doesn't know the real ancedotes and belive what is written by fanatic writers like Devdutta Patnaik. It's cringe to read self created theories. Either half dump comes from serials, which people consider true. I too was once a part of this daily soap cult.
But, after I read shastras I felt like ridiculing those. And that's what makes HSE stand outside the circle.
Here, the answer is not accepted till correct citations are given. Even if, answer is accepted by OP, we can downvote it, if it has something wrong. Which is just enough to trust authenticity. Also, multiple answers for a single question. Upvotes, downvotes, a perfect comment section.
And the best part is reputation, it's just like the major marathon factor to drive people to learn more.
Moreover here noone has any grudges unlike at other Meta sites, where moderators have been harresing users. Everything is just perfect and smooth as silk. I got addicted to site since day 1.
This site is,
"Oxford of Hinduism".
कालिकार्पणमस्तु ।🌺
I've had interest in Hinduism from long time, I found this site while trying to find references from Brahma sutras.
I have been interested in vaishnavaism and Krishna for long time, I think I really developed interest in Hinduism after reading multiple translations of bhagvad geeta.
I think this site is wonderful, I've had lots of my question on vaishnavaism and spirituality answered, i had lots of confusion regarding Hindu scriptures but this site has been very helpful in solving that.
I was a bhakta of lord shree krishna and It was mainly my curiosity to know more about him .And one day I searched Hinduism in the room list then I saw room Hinduism ,I was exited, I joined and I got many friends . They pointed my the right direction and provided me with the answers to my question ,through that I got interested in the site.
I have always been a devout Hindu and keep pondering over a plethora of questions, the answers to which may not be so commonly known. A regular google search does not help solve all problems, especially with certain websites and blogs hosting matter from unauthentic sources or without any basis.
It was during one such google search seeking answers to some questions related to some Puranic stories that I chanced upon this site and realised that this community of well-read highly experienced and helpful users holds a great potential in solving complicated doubts such as this one. When you realise the users are willing to go out of their way to solve doubts, I thought why not share a piece of whatever meagre knowledge I have too? Thus started the journey on Hinduism SE, to get to know more community members and give and take as much as possible.
Overall most topics of Hinduism awaken my inquisitiveness, though some of the most liked topics are:-
1) Primarily Vedantic philosophy
2) Hinduism stories (Ramayana, Puranic, Mahabharata), especially those of gods
3) Ritualistic prescriptions (I have bookmarked those I found like this)
4) Logic behind certain rituals as I ask here
5) Karmic teachings like in the Gita or other philosophies
6) Women and Vedas, etc.
Keep browsing and voting old answers. Hope to keep contributing and receiving the same from this wonderful community.
How did you come to know about this site?
I was contributing to the StackOverflow but I did not know about the website of the Hinduism, My friend Yogesh Borad told me about this site and I eagerly entered the site. Actually we both work in same company. So talk to each other everyday.
What topics do you find interesting on our site?
Too many topics are interesting to me, but this my favorite: Ramayana, Mahabharata
I have seen questions and answers about Hinduism in other websites, but this site is the best for knowledge regarding Hinduism, compared to other sites.
I have been active on Mathematics SE for nearly 5 years, and I really enjoy the Q&A format of Stack Exchange. I came across Hinduism SE in the list of sites around 3 years ago, and signed up because I am from India brought up in the "Hindu" tradition (whatever that means in its generality).
My participation in this site has been quite limited until recently, for reasons I will try to elaborate on below.
Firstly, I sense that this is a unique community in certain ways — from the way questions and answers are formulated, and the nature of discussions in the comments and on Meta... It's very Indian — noisy, with vivid disagreements, and a huge amount of curiosity in every aspect of Hinduism, however minor.
All this made me hesitant to plunge into the site immediately. I'm the kind of person who prefers to hang around at the back in a huge party, minding my own business quietly, unless someone I know grabs my arm and helps me socialize. In this aspect, I guess I have to thank @TheLittleNaruto for helping me take my first steps here by answering questions.
Secondly, I feel that this site is populated with questions (and answers) of a certain flavour that are not very interesting to me personally. (I elaborated a little about it in a conversation with @TheLittleNaruto in the main chatroom.) Briefly, I feel that questions here are mainly focussed on whether textual justifications exist for commonly accepted practices and beliefs. There is value in this, no doubt, but I find them personally uninteresting. Answers to such questions involve citing the relevant parts of the scriptures, and stop at that.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fantastic that this site strictly enforces the rule on providing proper sources in the answers. This prevents the site from degenerating into a sea of personal interpretations of Hinduism. I also think that if a question is satisfactorily answered by quoting the relevant part of a scripture, then there is no need to add fluff and extra commentary.
However, these kind of questions are largely uninteresting for me because I am interested in questions such as:
These are vague and broad, but I hope they convey the picture I'm trying to paint here. Hinduism is a living, breathing tradition, not bound by the words in scriptures, though heavily rooted in them. I would hope for this site to reflect that truth, and not just be a library of dry scriptural facts.
For example, say that I am reading the Bhagavad Gita and I want to know why Krishna uses a certain word, or what the meaning behind some particular shloka is (that is, the deeper meaning beyond the surface one). I would like to turn to this site to find insightful answers. Such Q&A would be more interesting to me than asking a question about whether Krishna says such-and-such in the Gita, which can be simply answered with a quote of the relevant scripture and nothing further.
As another example, say that I am interested in pursuing enlightenment and I am trying to follow Swami Vivekananda's words in his book Karma Yoga — if I have any questions about the process, especially about implementing them in my life, I would expect Hinduism SE to be a resource I can go to. I would expect to receive insightful answers from similar practitioners here. There are countless other scenarios of this kind that I can think of. For reference, my impression is that Buddhism SE functions along these lines, and I find it very fascinating to browse through the questions and answers there.
To address a few objections that immediately come to mind:
I am still wavering on what my level of participation should be on this site. Hopefully, I can find an equilibrium soon, but I expect it to be a very casual involvement unless I find an interesting niche for myself here.
I got to know about this site through a user on this platform called @Govinda and @10Rep. Without them, I would never think to even check my SE account. I started off on the main Stack Overflow site, answering questions about Unity. I got to 51 reputations. I then found out that there are more sites. I joined the Hinduism Stack Exchange site. I am happy to be here.
It's good to teach and learn at same time, but if I must say, I just want a copy of daksha smriti in english or hindi version and can't find any online, so i turned here,I have been a lurker but thought i would post today.
I hope to be more active from today, but for now my ocd is crying for an english copy of daksha smriti.
Was just checking area51 and found this site in private. Being enthusiastic towards Hinduism, I joined it.
I love stories from scriptures like Ramayana and Mahabharatha. Apart from this, I love Keshav's questions - The way his questions are in detail makes anyone explore more by just reading them.
I am a Hindu and enthusiastic about learning and understanding more about Sanatana Dharma. I keep an open mind to understand different people's perspectives as I usually chose to be a listener than a speaker. My knowledge in this category is limited from TV serials Ramayana (Ramanand Sagar) and Mahabharatha (BR Chopra) and from scriptures here and there. I believe such TV programs (which is the modern way) should be more so that people can really value and understand the importance of Sanatana Dharma. I don't like other new TV serials which are like daily soaps but not as per the scriptures.
Being a Software Engineer, I feel the standards/process/culture we follow in building a highly acceptable and deliverable product do have sub roots from ancient history. These traditions can be followed in other organizations as well and globally too.
The above crazy paragraph is from my work-in-progress private project where I am trying to find the best possible solutions for the modern world to let have the people a joyful experience in this world, by referring to the solutions from Ancient history scriptures, Software (as I believe this is close for a better process) and real scenario modern problems.
I believe proper documentation and continuous updating of any work is the key to success. It is fine to change the documentation as circumstances changes or as time goes by, without following the documentation blindly - We should either understand it or not follow it.
I could have written a big story, but it would reveal a lot about me. From the Physics stack exchange to Hinduism stack exchange. In between lie those thousands of questions produced due to the most Tamasic tantra on the internet. To know their answers, I had to read more!
The first answer I gave on this site is a beautiful coincidence! It's probably a beautiful blessing of god. It was 'श्री' the letter that one puts before starting to write! Infact श्री is the very first letter I wrote unknowingly!
I thought I knew many things, but it was not the case. Almost all topics are equally intresting.
