Everyday Hinduism

While on my expedition to find the meaning and goal behind Hinduism, my friend and I went to the only Hindu Temple in town, and were left empty handed. The people inside had little information to discuss with us, we were given a pamphlet and told to come back on a Sunday. My friend contacted a close family friend, who attends the Hindu Temple on Sundays, and we scheduled a day to visit him and discuss religious matters. His name is Ranjit Jain and he follows the Jain religion- which has similarities and differences with Hinduism. The majority of the time we spend with Ranjit, we discussed the concecpts of Hinduism belief and then compared them to Jainism. Hinduism has a great deal of stories which contradict themselves, and thus that is how other sects have emerged from it. Hinduism believes that everything is already destined to happen, no one can be pro-active in their own life, the gods have already chosen the path of the world's events and its people. Another concept is that the faith you must have for your gods is that of blind faith. Whereas Jainism wants you to be proactive and conscient about everything you do. It also calls for non-violence and to have a balanced karma- all positive and negative sides must come together to balance out to zero.