Hindu Mythology says that One should worship Lord Ganesha before starting any new things.  Any evidence?
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The rotund body of Ganesh represents the Cosmos. The elephant head denotes the serenity of wisdom and the power of gentle strength. The broken tusk is the mark of the intellectual who inscribed the epic Mahabharata and then shed his ego on completion of the successful task. On his forehead is the symbol " 3Õ " - 'OM', which is the Life Force that God breathed into his Creation; hence it is said that the chant of "OM" in daily prayer, is the consent of man to let God enter him.\n\nThus the chant of "OM Ganesh' became synonymous with the start of every Hindu endeavor; murmured by the housewife as she begins the day with rituals in her little altar at home, the revered sound is echoed by the husband opening the shutters of his workplace; it can be heard reverberating in the hallowed walls of ancient temples or resounding at the consecration of a new temple; at the commencement of wedding nuptials or naming of a new-born child; when laying the foundation of a new building or founding a new political party, on starting on a journey or starting a new business. Even rituals for the glory or invocation to other gods begin with the first invocation to Lord Ganesh. It is believed that for the fulfillment of one's desires, His blessing is absolutely necessary.\n\nIn each of his four hands Ganesh holds an emblem of benediction. The Lotus flower symbolizes the gift of wealth, beauty and purity; the Rosary denotes the spiritual and inspirational in prayer and meditation. The Swastika, the true meaning of which is auspiciousness, attracts positive energies from all directions and brings divine blessing demonstrates the joy of sharing the "sweets of life" with those around us.
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There are so many gods in Hinduism. Do Hindus believe that there are multiple Gods ? Why do they worship multiple gods ? \n\nThere are 33 devas (divines) that include agni, indra, varuNa, vAyu and others. There are many references to these names in the vedas. If we analyze it we could see that each one is an essential function (fire, water, air, sun etc) that supports our living in this world. So these 33 aspects are hailed in the vedas. But Hindus consider the trinity (brahma, viShNu, rudra) to be above these divines. While brahma does not get worshipped by many as the God, shiva (rudra is an aspect of Lord Shiva) and viShNu are worshipped by the Shaivites and the Vaishanavaites respectively. Along with Shaivism and Vaishnavism, shAktam, gANApatyam, kaumAram, sauram are the four religions that make up the shaNmata (six religions) on the Hinduism. \n\nHindu scriptures state clearly that there is only one Supreme God (ekam sad viprAH bahutA vadanti). Then why are so many deities and worship ? It can be understood by reading the scriptures that each of these devas represent/have an aspect/energy of the Supreme. So in essence it is a complete divine system that operates. For example the Shaivites consider shakti as the dynamic part of the Supreme. Each of the six religions of Hinduism would call by different names and would put forward different philosophies, but all agree that there is one and only one Supreme God. \n\nIt is in fact the specialty of Hinduism that it lets multiple perspectives of the God to coexist on its platform, all sharing the same common dharma. \n\nIn essence there is only one God and the other divines (many times callas as gods) are responsible of one part of nature or other. The God is worshipped in multiple perpectives, names in Hinduism that has six major religions in it. This has been possible due to the tolerance of Hinduism.
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They worship one God who has many manifestations.  Used to have a friend who was hindi.
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As far as I know each temple is unique and there is no special set up required. The idols and such depend on the Goddess or God to whom the temple is dedicated. There is usually a prayer area and an area where devotees and poor people can get food [prasad] that has been blessed by God. Many south Indian temples also have side temples to the snake God within the premises.\n\nI THINK you were talking about a Hindu temple?
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True. Dhruva who was son Suniti prayed very hard after his mother death. Ultimately God Vishnu pleased by his prayer blessed him that he will be a star and will guide everyone.\n\nScene Vi\n\n\n(Dhruva is in deep meditation. His whole being is meditating on the lotus-feet of Lord Vishnu. His inner being is surcharged with supernatural power. Enter Lord Vishnu with his discus, Sudarshan Chakra, his mace and his conch, a diadem on his brow. He comes with his infinite glory and stands in front of Dhruva, his dearest and greatest devotee. He places his hands on Dhruva's devoted head. Dhruva opens his eyes with supreme astonishment. Immediately he touches the feet of Lord Vishnu.) \n\n193\nLORD VISHNU: My dearest, my fondest child Dhruva, I am the object of your prayer, I am the object of your meditation. I am most pleased with you; I am most proud of you. I have come here to fulfil your desires and your aspirations. \n\n194\nDHRUVA: My Lord, if you are really pleased with me, then you know what I want. I want only to be all the time at your lotus-feet. I am your child; I want to serve you. \n\n195\n(Lord Vishnu touches Dhruva's forehead with his conch. Immediately Dhruva receives inner illumination. All the supernal qualities, the infinite divine Light, Peace and Bliss of lord Vishnu enter into him.) \n\n196\nLORD VISHNU: Dhruva, my Dhruva, ask me for any boon. Immediately I shall grant it. \n\n197\nDHRUVA: O my Lord, my eternal Lord, you have given me everything I wanted. You have given me all that I wanted and beyond, far beyond my imagination's flight. What more do I need? \n\n198\nVISHNU: No, Dhruva, I want to give you something more. I want to give you a particular place of your own. Yours will be a divine station far above the earthly world. You will become one with the real Dhruva: Dhruva Tara, the pole-star. You will sustain all the stars and other planets in their course. You will guide the aspiring, seeking, struggling world. You will show the earth the world of Light and Delight. You will be the guiding light, the pole-star. It is with you that the earth-consciousness will enter into my life of infinite Peace, Light and Bliss. Dhruva, I bring your mother back into your heart. It was she who advised you to pray to God; it was she who inspired you to come into the forest and meditate. Today all her sufferings have come to an end. In you your mother will have her supreme glory and satisfaction. Also, I bring before you the seven sages who inspired you, who helped you, who taught you how to pray and meditate. Dhruva, you have far surpassed them now. They will be all joy, all pride for you because they want someone on earth to be supremely divine, supremely unconditional, supremely great. They want someone to be my most perfect instrument, and they will now see in you my supreme manifestation. \n\n199\n(Enter Suniti who, seeing her dearest son, is overwhelmed with delight. She touches Lord Vishnu's feet, then sits beside her son with enormous joy and pride, shedding tears of gratitude to Lord Vishnu.) \n\n200\nSUNITI: O Lord Vishnu, you have heard my son's prayers. You are our own, our very own. Each breath of ours, each heartbeat of ours is for you. \n\n201\n(Vishnu offers her his brightest smile. Then the seven sages enter. Seeing Dhruva, they are overwhelmed with joy, delight and pride. One by one they touch the feet of Lord Vishnu and Dhruva.) \n\n202\nALL THE SAGES: Dhruva, long long before you were born we were praying to Lord Vishnu to see his lotus-feet. It is you who have brought down into the world before us his presence, our cherished Goal. It is because of you that we are seeing the chosen object of our adoration today. It is your prayer and meditation that has brought our Lord Vishnu here. If not for you, centuries would have passed by and we would not have seen the lotus-feet of our Lord Supreme. It is because of you that today we can kiss the golden feet of our Lord Vishnu, the eternal Lord
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Hinduism tells me that the Divine manifested everything and everyone in the universe and that the Divine dwells in everything and everyone..thus I would have no problem offering worship to this man, because I would also be worshipping the Divine within this man. Each time a Hindu greets another Hindu we say Namaste which means the divine in me bows to the divine in you. It is said that whenever two people meet, God meets God. I do not need money to worship the Divine within all manifested things, although it would be no different than other blessings that have come about through my actions (karma).
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one god too many forms. just like different facets of a diamond. did you ever heard of the story of an elephant and 4 blind folded persons. each of them was touching different part and expling differently about it. that is how the different relegions describe god.\n\n  posts above me have explained it beautifully. i just want to add thatn hinduism rather includes than excludes. do you know jesus was almost going to be an avatar ? britishers jumped to save it from indianization and in their words currption. \n\n  a grat deal of this harmony is credited to Gupta dynasty. the Gupta kings worked very hard and wisely. this unity was the result of many wise and great men who intermingled different sects and  resultent hindu philosophies. you will get Suprme God as well as Suprme Goddess . and they are not rivals. they make each other complete. they made up even new gods to stop arguments and lead them to monothism. we have an Ardhnarishvar (half man half woman ) idols to represent that they are one. that is combination of a male God and Mother Goddess and it defused tention about if god is a he or she. the god Harihar (Hari + Har)repesented both Lord Shiva and  Lord Vishnu. Hari means Vishnu Har means Shiva. it united two main sects of shaivites and vaishnavas ... result is that all the avatars are form of either vishnu or shiva. but they are one so all gods are one. all the goddesses are form of one goddess Shakti . and Shakti and Shiva are a couple and united they are Ardhanarishwar so again only one god in the end...besides that Upanishads say god has no form. thats ok because he has no definite form thats why he can appear in any form. \n\nif you are atheist thats fine too. just do good work. God is too great to punish someone because he does not believe him. he does not need their confirmation.\n    \n  Great teachers taught  to respect mutual beliefs and the feeling has been strengthened with time. thats how there are so many relegious schools flourished in India. That is our heritage we are most proud of .\n\neven many muslim asctetics in India helped this feeling. some sufi saints followed the local culture and mingled the basic concept of hinduism and islam. unfortunately not many muslims followed them.
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Mercury is Budh according to Indian astronomy and mythology.
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no.way. there are very fundamental differences in teachings. krishna is much more rich philosophy. i am not saying this as a hindu. just read Bhagvat Gita. even a few verses will make u get that.\n\nthe most striking feature is while moses talks about chosen people(i guess he was the firs to coin that idea) and only true god and that thou shall not bow b4 any other god than me.....\n\nkrishna says "those who pray with devotion to another god, it is to Me that they pray." \neven those who worship other gods (anyadevatah), ancestral deities, elemental powers, if they do so with faith, then their faith is justified, for the Divine accepts every form conceived by the worshipper. \n krishna started the theory of Karma.\n\n krishna was not raised as prince though he was one. he was raised by a village chief . the only similarity is that kansa, his uncle tried to kill him because of a profecy that devaki's son (krishna) will kill him ultimately. so first he killed all his brothers at the time of their birth. but  his father was successfull in smuggling him out declaring him stillborn.. when kansa found out that he ordred that all new born children should be killed in that area. \n\n the truth is that original story of krishna had many colors added to it. the story of child masecar could have been borrowed later.
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The Indian god Krishna too bears a tremendous resemblance to Jesus  in the story of his mission and his divinity. He was the incarnation of the Indian's supreme god Vishnu (the preserver and protector of the world) in the womb of Devaki. The Hindoo prophet Bala predicted that a divine Savior would "become incarnate in the house of Yadu, and issue forth to mortal birth from the womb of Devaci (a Holy Virgin), and relieve the oppressed earth of its load of sin and sorrow." Upon Krishna's birth, a great chorus of angles proclaimed "In the delivery of this favored woman, nature shall have cause to exalt." His birth was indicated by a star in heaven. Although of royal blood, he was born in a cave. He was presented with gifts of sandalwood and perfumes. His foster father was told to flee and hide him lest king Kansa might take his life. King Kansa had ordered all male infants born on that night to be slain. One of his first miracles was the healing of a leper. He was later slain and this resulted in an eclipse of the sun and a black circle forming around the moon. Spirits were seen on all sides and he descended into hell, rose again, and ascended into heaven with many people being witnesses to his bodily accent. He will have a "second coming" in the future which his followers continue await. There are countless other similarities with what is known today as "Christianity" even though his religion was well establish centuries before the birth of Jesus . The accounts of Krishna's childhood agree quite closely with the apocryphal accounts of Jesus' childhood. In the ancient epic poems, Krishna is simply regarded as a great hero, it was not until about the 4th century BC that he was elevated to the position of a god.
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Hinduism has many gods and goddess. Do your homework...
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I think it's a matter of personal preference. I know many Pagans who don't choose specific deities and others who do. Personally, I worship Bast as my patron Goddess simply because, in most things, she most closely represents my personal beliefs and preferences. That doesn't mean that I haven't asked for assistance from others, or paid them tribute, at different times. I tend to think of the Green Man as my patron God just because it feels right, and I find that a lot of the time you should end up doing what feels right. I don't think it's something you should worry too much about since most Pagans believe that all of the Gods are aspects of the same, and all the Goddesses aspects of the same. For that matter, most Pagans tend to believe that they are all aspects of the same deity and we simply think of a male and female being because it's easier for us to comprehend that way. So do what's right for you. Pick a pantheon, don't pick one, mix pantheons... They'll be there for you regardless.
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get you favourite idol/idols of god . set them in referably north east corner . so that when you worship you face in that direction. it can be north or east too. avoid facing south when worshipping. you can bye small temples which are often of wood or metal in the market. if you want to proper pran pratishtha you can call a pandit. but you can do it on your own .
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Vishnu is regarded as a major god in Hinduism and Indian mythology. He is thought as the preserver of the universe while two other major Hindu gods Brahma and Shiva, are regarded respectively, as the creator and destroyer of the universe. \n\nThe original worship of Vishnu, by the Aryan conquerors of India or the original Dravidian inhabitants is not definitely known. In the ancient Vedas, the body of literature known as the Veda, and sacred literature of the Aryan conquerors, Vishnu is ranked among the lesser gods and is usually associated with the major Vedic god Indra who in the epics and Puranas fights against dragons and demonic forces. These latter writings emerge during the later development of Hinduism. \n\nIt is throughout this literature and especially through incarnations that Vishnu is raised to higher rankings within the Hindu pantheon. He becomes the prominent second god of the Trimurti, the Hindu Triad, while Brahma is first and Shiva is third. \n\nIn some Puranic literature Vishnu is said to be eternal, an all-pervading spirit, and associated with the primeval waters that are believed to have been omnipresent before the creation of the universe. \n\nThe concept of Vishnu being the preserver of the world came relatively late in Hinduism. Presumedly it sprang from two other beliefs: that men attain salvation by faithfully following predetermined paths of duty, and that powers of good and evil (gods and demons) are in contention for domination over the world. When these powers are upset Vishnu, it is further believed, descends to earth, or his avatar, to equalized the powers. Further it is thought that ten such incarnations or reincarnations of Vishnu will occur. Nine descents are said to have already occurred, the tenth is yet to come. Rama and Krishna were the seventh and eighth. \n\nAnother interesting speculation concerning Vishnu's role as preserver among many modern scholars is that it is characteristic of the practitioners of Hinduism to raise local legendary heroes to gods in the Hindu pantheon. \n\nVishnu is portrayed as blue or black shinned and has four arms. He has a thousand names and their repetition is an act of devotion
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I tried searching the web and came up with this, which claims your quote comes from the Hindu sacred text, the Rig Veda.  They have the quote as: "Are Men the dream of the Gods or are the Gods the dream of man" but I wasn't able to verify that anywhere else.
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To see Krishna as love or valentine god is absurd.\n\nThe Bhakti era Krishna-Radha love is not from Mahabharat era. It was written with Sufi influence in which Krishna is supposed to be god and Gopi a human soul tryiong to reach God.\n\nKrishna left Brij as a kid and never returned. An Adult Krishna is no love god. \n\nThere is a love god in hindu mythology though. Kamdev aka Madan and he has a wife named Rati. but he is not related in any way with Krishna.
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The Vedic mythology is best recorded in the four Vedas, also called the Vedam, which are part of the Hindu Śruti. In Sanskrit the word means Knowledge or Truth, and is cognate with the word "wisdom" in English (as well as "vision" through Latin).\n\nHindus believe that the Vedas existed since time immemorial as vibrations in space, some portions of which are believed to have been perceived by seers and sages, and transmitted accordingly through an oral tradition. Some believe that the Vedas were transmitted orally for up to 8000 years (see Fisher). Most Western and a few Indian commentators see this as an exaggeration and date the earliest part of the Veda, the Rig-Veda Samhita, to around 1800–800 BC. However, it is acknowledged by most that the Vedas did indeed have a long oral tradition and were passed from teacher to disciple for at least many centuries before first being written down