many gods no masters

Lately I’ve been using the hashtag Many Gods No Masters.  It makes me giggle–it’s a spoof on the common anarchist phrase No Gods No Masters.  Yes, I’m a bad anarchist, for being religious.  I see God everywhere.  She is my favorite.

Here’s an arati for the sect of Hinduism I did for 20 years.  I think this is the Hollywood temple.

I say I did that sect for 20 years, but in some ways I’m still doing it.  That would get me to more like 25 years.  Why am I still singing in Sanskrit and watching the video, if I don’t do it anymore?  The altar style and photos, the flowers, the costuming, and the worship style all comfort me greatly while stoking spiritual longing.

Yes, the ashram in Sacramento was my spiritual shelter for 12 years or so.  I went to other ashrams in other places I lived.  I did spiritual practices, thinking I was wasting my time.  But something drew me back.  Now I understand I was healing from harm and developing some cool capacities.

I’m ecstatic that the ashram was there for me to go almost every day.  I wish I could give them a ton of money.  My ex and I chose our apartment based on being close by.  And no one harmed me there.  I managed to dodge harm wonderfully.  I’m amazed.

birthday

Oops, that’s not a normal arati.  It’s the birthday of a direct disciple of Ramakrishna: Shivananda.  Ming and I listened to the story.  I boo-ed when the parents prayed for a son.  I laughed when he threw his horoscope in the Ganges.  Surprised, I backed up the video to verify a phrase I heard about Shivananda being taught to read minds.

“That’s not cool!” I told Ming.  “There’s a reason our heads don’t have windows!”  Ming agreed.  Boundaries matter.

Some misogyny is woven into the religion, as misogyny is part of the culture.  Part of almost all cultures.  Ming and I have not woven it into our family culture, thank goodness.  I would remove that thread!

why we do it

I’ve heard critique of Catholic Worker activism.  Some say that breaking into a nuclear facility and doing the symbolic pouring of blood is pointless.  Critics say we should be mobilizing tons of people and doing huge actions–that’s how to cause real change.  They say that spiritual symbolic actions are self-righteous, self-congratulatory, and a waste of time.

Feels like a false dichotomy, to me.  Why do we have to do activism in only one way?  How about they try to mobilize a ton of people, while I cook for hungry activists, sing, and pray?  People can study history to try and understand what works.  But who knows what will really work.  To predict and stay entrenched in one opinion seems…superstitious!

There are all different kinds of work, for creating change.  Some people working spiritually seems ok to me.  I like to do multiple things.

When I think of huge protests like in Seattle for the WTO in 1999–I’m not saying that was a waste of time.  But they amassed 40,000 people.  Did a regular person really know what was happening there?  Not sure how it was reported on the tv news, a regular person’s way of knowing things.

Did that protest spark revolution and change everything for the US?  I’m not saying that protest failed, but huge numbers don’t necessarily equal huge change.

spirit

I love the idea of many gods no masters.  It’s ironic that one of the nicknames of Sri Ramakrishna is Master.  But I was never in it for him.  I’ve always been in it for Sri Sarada Devi.

I have friends who do tarot, friends who are pagan for sure, Catholic friends, UU friends, interfaith like me–many faiths, practices, and ways of being.  Spirit shows up in many forms.

resources

When I watch the worship in that video, I see a deep expression of faith, with symbolism and meaning.  And I can see also how an anti-religious person could hate it.  What a waste of resources, they could say.  You should take the money for flowers and candles, to clothe the poor or foment revolution.

Foment is a cool word.  The ashram in Sacramento has a huge garden, which I helped tend long ago.  Flowers and fruit for the altar are grown there.  The plants were planted long ago.  Water to help them grow is expensive, I remember.

But I think we can do it all.  Some people need to pray a lot–please don’t begrudge us.  Sanskrit thrills and motivates me beyond almost anything.  Our praying doesn’t stop you from rioting.

Thank you for rioting and trying new things.  I will make yellow split pea soup for you to eat when you get out of jail, and Ming will tend your wounds.