Namaste

There is really no reason why I have not been posting. I suppose I could say that I have inspiration but that is silly. A blog like this does not require inspiration so much as it requires a strong commitment by the person blogging to be regular. I am going to try to be regular again. A post a week, how does that sound?

On to other things. I recently bought the book 'What is Hinduism?' by the editors of Hinduism Today. While I think it is a good book I find myself objecting to a fair number of the things written in it and I have really only just twigged as to why. The Shaiva Siddhanta Church, which is the body behind Hinduism Today, is part of the much larger Shaiva Siddhanta sampradaya and as such it is dualistic.

Myself, I am an adherent of Shakta advaita - non duality - and so often have trouble going over the literature produced by the SSC because I object to the dualist philosophy. Sometime deep down inside, something utterly visceral in me, objects to the dualistic philosophy and that may be because my deepest spiritual desire is to merge with God.

However that is not to say I think I am God. This little thing that 'I' am is certainly not God but it definitely of Her. If I was not some small part of Her I would not yearn, so deeply, to return to her. And the dualist philosophy, which says that that is impossible - that I, little jiva (embodied soul) that I am, will always be separate from Her - upsets me on a fundamental level.

I don't know what else to say. Often I wonder if I'm evening making any sense in these posts. I hope I am.

Let me end this post with the prayer I say whenever I attend temple.
Mother, may I ever be in your shadow,
Wherever you are, let me be
As you destroy adharma, let me follow in your wake, bringing dharma.

Om Aim Hrim Klim Chamundayai Vicche Namaha

Chhaya.