I've been reading this message board for the past month and finally decided to register today.
I am an American born Indian coming from a family of Vaishnavas. Although my dad is not very religious, my mom prays everyday at a temple set up in our house that contains a picture of Shrinathji. I never understood who or what it was, and whenever I asked my mom, she would just say it was a Hindu God. See, all of my life, I have dreaded going to the temple because everytime I would just sit there listening to bhajans I couldn't even understand. Although I can understand Gujarati, I can not speak it that well, and can't understand Hindi at all. And I never understood why people would pray to all these different types of mythological gods, especially the one that has an elephant head, Ganesh.
Fours years ago I travelled to India for the first time. I'm 20 right now. We travelled to Mumbai, Gujarat, Delhi, Agra, and Mathura. Now in Mathura, we stayed at a devotee's house and the entire afternoon he told us about Krishna and his pastimes, as well as the Gita. We visited several temples and a Ghat by the Yamuna. At an area with small trees where Krishna played with the Gopis, my mom told me to take some sand off of the ground and taste it. At the time I thought it was pretty odd, only later to find out the significance of that act. Then in Mumbai, I visited the Hare Krishna temple and saw a bookstand outside with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Now, keep in mind, besides hearing somewhat about it back in Mathura, all I knew was that it was about a mythological blue God that our family worshipped. So I bought a copy and began reading it. That's how it started.
[This message has been edited by nachiketa2 (edited 06-03-2002).]