I lived in very nice apartment in Emeryville, CA because my job was there. Had a view of SanFrancisco Bay. Neighbors came over, all excited because they’d gone to see a Hindu guru who just built an ashram nearby. “You have to see him.” Nice Jewish couple in their 50s or 60s. So I went.
After decades of people and piests telling me “God will punish you for that” “You’re going to hell for that,” I felt pure love from the Swami...and all of his followers, distinguishable because they wore cothes from India. They were followers of Shiva.
A few years later, I was in New York on business, had relatives there. Friend of mine and his wife were going to be in town too. So we went up to some ashram many miles north of NYC where I had an uncle to visit. Uncle thought we were nutcases to see Hindu guru, but when we got back a few days later, he said we were all “glowing”. Friend who came with me was a Baptist minister.
Are you interested in various dieties or just coins?
I’m interested in the intersection between history, language, ethnicity and religion. Mostly for indo European and Dravidian but also Afro-Asiatic (Semitic, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Berber).
The various forms of Shaivite beliefs especially their Bhakti form as seen in Tamil and Andhra country is interesting to me, but not from a spiritual point of view as for you.
I am interested in the Hindu philosophies again from a scientific point of view.
Have you delved deeper into the theology or is it the mysticism that interests you?