This is a longer version of a recent comment i wrote in a diary by Timaeus.
First, i have so much admiration for the staff at the Help Desk. Any request, notice or question that i have put to them over the years has always come back to me with help, knowledge, courtesy and kindness. They have, for me, solidified me KNOWING that this is a caring community on ALL levels.
This is why this is such a sad mystery. I believe that their hands are tied...and i continue feeling for them as i did before this episode. I won’t speculate on the reasons of others here for their decisions, because i haven’t walked in their shoes and don’t know all the variables that they do.
Mahakali Overdrive and i have a lot in common, that she was unaware of, because i had never written about it. We are both HindJews, Jews that incorporate teachings from the Hindu path into our Jewish path, and we both honor the Mother in the Hindu sense.
For the past two years, once a week, Shabbat, i spend cooking prasad at my local Ashram and serve and feed the pujari’s, devotees and guests ..after feeding the Mother. And am entrusted with performing or assisting in various temple rites. Ask any Hindu what that signifies and you’ll realize the honor that that is.
My interactions with MO over the last few years have been unfailingly the same. She was knowledgeable, passionate and courteous to a fault. And kind. To a large extent, we have the same political beliefs and a similar upbringing, which i gleaned from her writings.
Then came the news of the Portland stabbings. And it was whilst reading a diary by ExpatGirl that it all came together for me in my realization of my connection to one of the victims and the victim’s mother...and that i would be driving to Oregon from my Colorado home pronto to do homage in person.
Here is mahakali overdrive’s last comment to me, which was, for me and for many here, the essence and embodiment of her…… a reflection into her soul…...
Many blessings to them all, Tevye, and to you, dear soul. May your journey be filled with love and light. Asha’s beautiful son died a hero, a warrior, protecting the beautiful daughters of other beings from terrible harm. My heart is with her and her other children, fiercely, and Taliesin is one with the universe.
Om Jai Kali Ma
Om Namah Shivayah
Om Jai Kali Ma
Om Namah Shivayah Namo Narayana.
Jai Jai Jai Kali Ma.
ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ नमः शिवाय
The same mantra i recite whilst serving the Mother. Which she was also unaware of. My heart became so full. And i felt the protection, the ‘Shield of David’, throughout my pilgrimage to honor a hero.
Om Namah Shivayah, dear mahakali overdrive. Om Jai Kali Ma.
Shalom aleichem.
You are a Light.