Newcomer You now hold the worldview. Continue to Intermediate — the same questions, deeper. ↓
Beginner — First Principles
Level 1 · Beginner
Most people meet Sanatana Dharma through a deity or a festival first. This path goes the other way, starting with the ideas the whole tradition stands on. When you finish, climb straight on to the next rung.
By the end you will hold the core picture: the soul, the divine and its great forms, karma, cyclic time and the cosmos, and the goal of liberation.
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The whole picture first
2
You are not the body
3
What "God" means here
Ishvara, Bhagavan and Brahman: How Hinduism Conceives GodHow many gods does Hinduism have?Saguna and Nirguna: Form and the FormlessWhat is a Murti?
Going further · optional reading
'Idol worship' is a mistranslationMyth-busting At the end of the festival they carry the god to the sea and let the clay dissolve. 4
Meet the great deities
↳ full pillar: Meet the Deities (all 33) → Going further · optional reading
Why is Krishna blue?Myth-busting Every poster shows him sky-blue. 5
How life works
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Time and the cosmos
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The point of it all
Going further · optional reading
Nachiketas and the god of deathCommentary A boy is given away to Death by his own angry father, waits three nights at the door of Yama, and asks… Reincarnation: is there any real evidence?Essay For sixty years a University of Virginia psychiatrist and his successor documented thousands of young…