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In my desire to get closer to Hinduism i have encountered several difficulties that i am now going to expose to you
Hello everyone, I have read all the valuable information you have put in your starter pack. They were really very helpful, however I still have several doubts because I am in a bit of a peculiar situation. I am Italian and here Hinduism is very little practiced: there is obviously a community of believers from India or neighboring areas however they usually lead a rather separate life from the rest of the Italian community. In my desire to get closer to Hinduism I have encountered several difficulties that I am now going to expose to you 1) I live in Rome therefore the largest city in Italy and yet i am having enormous difficulty in finding a Hindu temple. There is an association that supposedly brings together all or almost all Hindus in Italy, yet not even they have been able to recommend me a facility here in Rome. There are Hindu temples in the city but they are all run for people born within this religion, who are obviously also non-Italian speakers. Therefore, I am not able to understand what is being said in a Hindu temple ceremony here in Rome and often I am not even able to have an understandable dialogue with the Hindu people in these temples because of the language. The only Hindu facility in Italy set up to bring Italians closer to this religion is unfortunately a facility located several hundred kilometers from my home, with all the attendant problems. I got the impression, but I hope I am wrong, that Hindus in Italy are more focused on being accepted than on spreading this religion. 2) I read on the Internet various guides to converting to Hinduism and I also read the one you suggest however I was quite confused. A letter is requested from previous mentors I would have had in previous religions: what exactly does that mean ? I was baptized as a Catholic and then attended for many years a Christian but Protestant church here in Rome. I haven't been there for several years so it would be really strange for me to go to the reverend of that church, a person who has never even seen me because precisely I haven't attended that place for years, and ask him for such a letter. 3) is the name change really necessary ? I admit that I have a bit of a hard time understanding why the name change should be a major point. I can understand maybe adding a Hindu name to my current name but even changing it completely leaves me a bit perplexed. Among other things here in Italy, name change is not an automatic procedure: your municipality of residence can refuse such a request unless it is seriously justified. I don't know if conversion to Hinduism falls within these parameters. In some online guides I seem to have read that you also have to change your surname: but to do such a thing in Italy you have to get the judiciary involved and start a whole legal process that has to be motivated in a certain way before state officials and that also costs a lot of money. 4) The problem of jati. I expected to find such a mention in the various online guides and instead I did not find it. Every Hindu should belong to some jati, at least so I understood. To which jati would a convert belong ? Incredibly i have not found any answer to this. Reading here and there i seem to have guessed from some vague hints that the jati of the convert also depends on the community that accepts him within it however it is not very clear to me. Thank you very much for all the help you would like to give me2
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