#maaharani

See the thing about Hinduism is it really affects Bengali culture, so everyone celebrated Poila Baisakh regardless of religion, even though it originally started as a Bengali Hindu tradition. There are way more like these but it’s like nearly 1 am here and I cannot think of anymore!

But I think, just because I may not necessarily believe in Durga, or Lakshmi, or Sarawati doesn’t make me any less of a Hindu. Again, remember that Hinduism isn’t just a religion, it’s a philosophy, so one can be a disbeliever of gods but also believe in those concepts of karma, dharma, moksha and so on and so forth.

I totally feel you because I struggled with this for such a long time but the truth of the matter is, you choose you. I think what helped me is, that I sought out advice from my dad who is an agnostic, so it really helped me figure out my own belief system. Believe me, you can be both, you can be an atheist and a Hindu woman and no one can take that away from you.

There’s always going to be people who are going to judge you and invalidate your ‘Hinduness’ because of their narrow point of view but that’s on them and it’s not your duty to broaden their minds if they refuse to listen to people like you and me. 

Basically what I’m trying to say is as an atheist Hindu, I accept Hinduism as being a way of life. So I participate in pujas with my parents with my family because I want to share in the joy. I still believe in the concept of reincarnation even though I don’t believe that a higher divination has any control over my life and the decisions I make.