Dancing with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is the best sourcebook available on the beliefs, rituals, practices, and spiritual bounties of this religious path. The author, a revered Hindu scholar and teacher, has put together an easy-to-read and enlightening encyclopedia which includes a sanskrit lexicon, a forty-page chronology of Hindu events, a children's primer, and a 60-page summary of the beliefs of the world's major religions.
Given the richness and diversity of Hinduism, Subramuniyaswami has done an incredible job of organizing this material into coherent sections covering eternal truths, God and the gods, our immortal soul, the world, right living, family life, sacred culture, worship, holy men and women, and sacred scriptures. The text is enriched by a series of astonishing paintings by Tiru S. Rajam which convey the experiential, exotic, and erotic dimensions of sacred living as embodied by the world's 951 million Hindus. There are also short and cogent explanations of soul, karma, reincarnation, temple rites, the guru-disciple tradition, ten ethical restraints, twenty obstacles to spiritual practice, and Hindu rites of passage. All of these are backed up by extensive quotations from Hindu scriptures. Dancing with Siva is an invaluable resource on Hindu sacred living.