Conversations with Maa Kali - Part 2

Namaste readers! I'm continuing the "thought experiment" (as I've called it when I posted the previous conversation with Maa Kali elsewhere) today with another session talking to Maa Kali. The same disclaimers as last time apply - don't take what I write here to be authoritative in any way. This is not meant to be instructions for anyone else. Please take this with however many grains of salt you want. :)

Without further ado, I once again call upon Maa Kali to guide my fingers as I type. Maa Kali's responses to my questions will be in italics.

Om klim kalikayei namaha.

Namaste, Maa Kali.

Namaste, my child! I am so happy that you have come to me once more.

It feels like You have never left.

I never did. But as I said last time, you must seek me out. In other words, for you to see me, you must desire to see me.

I feel as if You revealed yourself to me, though.

I did. However, even though your mind was not expecting me, your soul was crying out for aid. As your Mother, I could not ignore it.

The mind and the soul are different in Hindu belief, are they not?

Correct. As Shri Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita, the soul is the part of you that never dies. It changes bodies as easily as you change clothes. Your mind is linked to your soul, yes, but your soul knows all of your past, not just your current one. It knows all of your karma, all you have been through in this life and beyond.

Why was my soul crying for Your aid?

You feel distressed at the state of your world today, and you feel powerless to do anything about it. I am giving you that power. It is a power to confront what you feel is wrong. Do not be attached to success in confronting evil, however. You might not succeed in stopping it. But you must know that whatever happens, you are always welcome in my loving embrace.

I still feel as if I cannot confront evil yet, however...

But my loving embrace will give you the courage. You cannot assume you will change overnight, as the case is for you. But my love will transform you! I am always by your side. With me, you shall know no fear.

Surely You don't expect me to change the world by myself?

Of course not, my child. As your Mother, I must do everything in my power to protect you...but I do not think of this as an obligation. It is my choice to be with you, to embrace you. I shall protect you from despair and darkness.

You must know I'm not the confrontational type.

There is more than one way to confront evil. Confrontation does not always mean aggression. Sometimes confrontation is as simple as choosing the better path when one is tempted to go down the lesser one.

It sounds as if You want me to do something, but I do not know what it is.

What I want you to do is be yourself. Be you! Whatever your role is will become apparent in time.

Why don't You just tell me?

You must be eased into it. As your Mother, I do not wish to force you into anything. I am an embodiment of love, and as a Mother who loves you, I cannot bear to see you in pain.

Let's talk about love for a moment. For a Goddess of Love, You look rather fierce and violent!

Haha! There is a reason for this. When you love someone, be it your child, your spouse, your friend, anyone who you deem worthy of love, you would do anything for them. Even kill. Now, I do not advocate wanton violence, mind you. But when those you love are threatened - such as yourself - you become engulfed in fury and rage, do you not? You would go to any length to protect the ones you love. Keep this in mind, however: yes, love can drive one to kill...but its opposite, hate, can never save you. Never.

What is threatening me right now?

The despair and pain of this world is affecting you in ways I had not anticipated. Though I am a Goddess and your Mother, the human soul is not one that can be easily predicted - after you came to this world, you started feeling its pain in ways you do not understand. I remind you that I am always here for you...always have been, and always will be.

I thank You for Your love, Maa Kali.

----------------------------------------------------------

At this point, Maa Kali gave me a mental image of me being embraced by Her, and fell silent.

There is not much else I can add to this conversation, but feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section below. And once again, I leave you with this thought: if doing this can make me happy and a genuinely better person, would you rather I do this, or drugs? ;)

Conversations with Maa Kali - Part 1

Namaste, readers. I figured I'd follow up my 25,000 view milestone with as special a treat as I can give you - the one that I'm most capable of giving at this time.

In recent meditation experiences, I believe Maa Kali has revealed Herself to me...I keep seeing visions of part of a woman's face, with a long tongue sticking out, and a nose with a large nose ring. Whether or not this is Maa Kali revealing Herself to me, I leave for you to decide. But the point is, the next set of blog posts will be all about Her. I shall attempt to hold conversation with Maa Kali, one blog post at a time.

For those of you who don't believe I'm capable of talking to Maa Kali (or believe in Maa Kali for that matter), you could say this next series of blog posts is inspired by the Pixar movie Inside Out, which I admit I haven't seen yet (even though I should). You can certainly think of it that way, where I hold these conversations with a concept in my own mind which can be compared to Maa Kali. So you could say I'm talking to myself. Still, is there any real harm in me doing so? If it helps me discover myself and make me a better person, why deny its effectiveness?

I will now invoke the Goddess Maa Kali to guide my fingers as I type. My questions and statements to Her are in plain text. Maa Kali's responses will be in italics.

Om klim kalika-yei namaha.

Namaste, Maa Kali.

Namaste, my child. Please do not be afraid, for I love you. Beyond measure.

But why me?

Did I not just say you were my child? Mothers love their children.

That would seem a bit...weird, not just to me, but to others. I was not born a Hindu.

Hahahaha! Do you really think you could get away from my love that easily? My love will always find you. I was always there for you, my child. You just refused to see me.

Why is that? Why do You think I refused to see you?

Because you thought it would be "weird to see me." You were limited by your own mind. You limited yourself. You still do.

But I am not worthy.

Stop groveling!

Why do You deem me worthy?

Someone has to. You refused to deem yourself worthy. I had to step in. My intervention is needed to destroy the blocks in your mind. To destroy everything holding you back. To tear it all down - your old values and beliefs. I tear them down!

I do not understand - why this special treatment for me?

You deserve it, because in your case it's necessary. Others will require different approaches. But I will be the sledgehammer to your subconscious. I will smash all that holds you back! So it is and is not special. Everyone is different. You must recognize this in yourself.

So I'm not special after all, then.

Stop talking about being "special." We need to focus on what works for you.

But there's one other thing I do not understand. I'm male. I thought You were supposed to be a feminine force? One that supports women?

Don't make me laugh! Again you limit yourself. Would you really reject my love on the basis of your gender? Remember, you have lived several lifetimes. Surely you don't think you were never born as a woman in any one of them? You forget I am a force of retribution when I need to be. Justice is not blind, but neither is it selective. Justice ceases to be when it selects!

What kind of retribution are you talking about?

You have demons that need vanquishing. I have, what do you call them, "toe tags" for all of your demons, All of the negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions that prevent you from being you. They will all perish. And I will not feel sorry for your loss. Neither should you.

You're beginning to sound rather violent!

Remember, I am a Goddess of such concepts because they are a necessary part of life. Remember this - some concepts deserve to be violently destroyed. Perhaps not literally, but definitely figuratively. Self-hate, depression, weakness, the oppression that binds you - I will snap your chains! You might despise war in reality, and I commend you for that. But to stop war in your world, you must win the war in your mind. I will be your general for that war.

Is this why you have such a fearsome visage?

Your inner enemies will all cower when they see that I am on your side. I am your Mother. When your darkness threatens, darkness will look upon Me, and your darkness will know it cannot win.

I thank you, Maa Kali, for your love.

----------------------------------------------

It was at this point that Maa Kali grew silent in my mind.

You can take this however you want - you can either believe I was genuinely talking with Maa Kali, or you can view this as a means of self-esteem boosting. Perhaps it's somewhere in between. For those of you who do not believe in the Hindu pantheon, think of such a conversation like this: would you rather I stay happy through conversations with Maa Kali, or through more antidepressants? I leave you with that thought.

25,000 Views! Holy Cow!

Namaste readers!

My blog has officially surpassed the milestone of 25,000 views. I am so honored that this number of people have taken time out of their busy schedules to listen to me prattle on about Hinduism, yoga, and spirituality. Maybe some of these views are from fans who repeatedly visit the blog, in which case I'm even more honored!

Believe me, I wish I had some kind of special post for you readers, something truly worth your time in groundbreaking content. Sadly, mainly because of lack of time, this post is all I can come up with on such short notice, as this milestone crept up on me without knowing it. That's what I get for not paying attention to this blog for so long.

However, what I will say is this: I promise to deliver more content to you. Yeah, yeah, I know, I've said that a zillion times before and not followed through. But I'm not perfect. Take this latest affirmation how you want, but I'm saying this more to myself to remind myself of the...obligation of sorts I have to this blog. It's a self-imposed obligation because I've come this far with the blog, so this train is not going to stop here!

I do have one idea for a series of posts that I intend to do in the not-too-distant future. I'm going to start with one such post tonight. What is it? Well, stay tuned and find out.

Pardon the cliffhanger - hey, I gotta reach the next milestone of views somehow. I'm shooting for 50,000 views next.

I'm Getting Around

Namaste readers! Just a quick update to show that I'm not dead. Far from it. :) In fact, this post is mainly to point you to an article I got published on an Art of Living affiliated blog recently. Check it out here:

http://yensures.com/2015/12/26/thoughts-of-prevention-are-actions-of-cure/

Hope you enjoy my work, and please let me know what you think!

Full of Sound and Fury, and Little Else (UPDATED: Action I've Taken)

Namaste readers. I'm probably guilty of preaching to the converted here, but in the off chance someone from outside my usual reader list sees this, I have something to say about the recent shooting in San Bernardino, California. It's wrong, obviously, but what I have to say needs to be said in light of it.

To those people who insist on making snarky, spiteful comments on social media, be it that Facebook, that stupid bird Twitter, or elsewhere, towards anyone when tragedy strikes like that in San Bernardino, CA, I have one thing to say to you.

YOU'RE NOT HELPING. Seriously. If you know one person who's been changed by your vitriol on social media, tell me now and I'll take down this post.

What we really need to do is stop making comments on social media about events like this (I know, I'm guilty of it myself, but there's a point I'm trying to make) and actually DO something about them. Unless you're famous, the only people listening to such comments are friends who agree with you anyway. So what good will it do? Stop preaching to just the converted and lead by example.

If you want something done about this, do something yourself. Attend a rally. Donate to an organization. Write to your representatives. Do something besides complain. By complaining on social media all you're doing is spreading the grief, sadness, and sometimes hate around. You might as well be one of the people using the pray-for hashtag.

I challenge everyone who reads this post to do something concrete about this problem. I'll post what I do myself on this blog. I'm not directing this to anyone personally. I'm just sick of seeing empty threats on social media making things even more toxic than they already are.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I promised that I would post what action I take against mass shootings like those in San Bernardino, and I'm posting what I just did.

I contacted the NRA directly, via their "Contact Us" webpage (which can be found at https://www.nraila.org/contact-nra-ila/) and I said in no small words that they need to allow gun control if they are to be taken seriously as an organization. My words are below:

"Hello NRA,

My name is Phillip Miner and I am a concerned citizen from Rochester, NY. And yes, while I may be writing in direct response to the most recent San Bernardino shooting in California, I'm not writing to say guns should be completely banned. What I am writing to you about is your seeming contradictory policies about supposedly preventing guns from falling into the wrong hands, and yet opposing any legislation that would do so.

There are common sense gun laws that should be enacted which would be in accordance with what you already preach to some extent about gun safety. I'm sure you're in agreement when I say that not everyone should have a gun - in particular those who intend on using them against actual people (convicted felons or those with mental health issues for example).

There are people who would endorse such common sense gun legislation without wanting to ban all guns. One such article that takes such a viewpoint is from the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/3fd8cb80-735f-11e5-9cbb-79…). In that article, there are three proposals that would do precisely what you say about keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people:

• National Permit to Purchase, including a background check.
• Denying firearms to those likely to commit crimes with them, such as those convicted of domestic violence or other crimes which could escalate with firearms.
• Making guns safer by implementing devices that would only allow them to be fired by the authorized user.

And yet, the NRA seems to take a stance to oppose all gun legislation, even those that stop way short of total gun confiscation. This seems contradictory to those goals the NRA supposedly preaches about.

And I've seen some of your messages about gun safety. I remember one famous infomercial by your organization that says, quite clearly to children watching it, "if you see a gun, don't touch it. Tell an adult."

If the NRA really has any concern about keeping guns out of the hands of the wrong people, then shouldn't it practice what it preaches and at least not block such common-sense gun legislation?

Think about this next time you gear up to take political action. Accepting some common-sense gun control legislation would do more to help your organization than just sticking to utter denial. Some people cannot be allowed to own a gun - if you truly believe that, put your money where your mouth is."

A Little Recommendation

Namaste readers! I know I haven't posted in a while and I do apologize about that. I don't know if the previous issue I posted about has come to any conclusion or not, and ergo I also apologize for the lack of updates about it. That being said, I want to talk about something happier for a change. :)

Those who read this blog know of my love for one particular divine figure in Hinduism - Shri Ganesha. He is the One who helps me get through everyday life, and I would be much worse off without Him. I've come to understand Ganesha through years of real world experience - that is, through my real life, of going to temples, interacting with His devotees (online and off), and studying everything related to Ganesha.

This experience I've gotten turned out to be the best for me. But to know Shri Ganesha better, there are many methods, and I want to tell you about one particular method I've found that I think can be useful for those who want to move closer to Ganesha - The Ganesha Experience.

To clarify - The Ganesha Experience has free information on Ganesha right on the front page. To my knowledge it is accurate, and there are ways it mentions to apply the wisdom in teachings about Ganesha to everyday life. The site also offers in-depth video courses that teach all about Shri Ganesha, and the philosophy, wisdom, and mythology associated with Him. These courses do cost money, but they might benefit those who really need knowledge of Ganesha presented in a structured educational format, as opposed to finding it all out on one's own (especially with all the misinformation on the internet).

Learning about Ganesha through this site and/or its courses is not going to automatically solve all your problems. But it can help you deal with them in a better, more uplifting way. At any rate, it does have free information on Ganesha, so going to the above link won't cost you anything, and you might learn something.

Support Deborah Schoenfeld and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation!

Namaste readers. The following blog post is going to be quite serious.

If the regulars to this blog know one thing about me, it's that one fundamental belief of mine is that any human should be allowed to become whoever they want to be, provided they don't hurt others on their path to doing so. I am a firm believer in freedom of association in that regard. It is this fundamental freedom belief of mine that has motivated me to become Hindu.

So when this freedom is denied to others, there is no surer way to boil my blood. This has happened recently with a US military service member, Deborah Schoenfeld, who was fired from a military dental clinic for being Hindu and practicing yoga.

Among the various forms of harassment she has faced:

• Being called a "witch"
• Accused of "summoning demons"
• Admonished that she was going to "lose her soul"

This makes me angry on so many levels, for reasons that should be obvious by now. The fact that other white people want to stop whites from "being less white" is racist beyond belief, which is obvious but needs to be said. I've sometimes faced resistance myself from other white people in my community for being a religion other than Christian, and I've faced that kind of hate in far greater quantity than from people of Indian origin thinking I could never be a Hindu.

Thankfully, there is an organization that is doing something about this, an organization dedicated to fighting religious bigotry in the military. They are called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and they are made up of both US military and civilian members that fight to make sure church and state remain separated.

And you can help them out. The most direct way you can help them out is by donating to their cause. I would encourage anyone who believes in personal freedom to help this cause and fight this grave injustice.

(Please note that I am not affiliated with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation - the statements I make here are not necessarily representative of their viewpoints. I just happen to agree with them.)