The Redemption of River (Sex in Seattle Book 4) by Eli Easton

Author:Eli Easton [Easton, Eli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinkerton Road LLC
Published: 2020-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

River

On their fourth day in Mumbai, they took a break from restaurant hopping and toured the local temples. The Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Temple had fantastic paintings of the Krishna and Radha saga as well as a garden on the grounds and numerous animals that were protected within its walls. The Swaminarayan Temple, dedicated to Lord Krishna, had impressive architecture with a many-domed roof. The Mumba Devi temple, the oldest in the city, had a thick vibe of sacredness about it. It was dedicated to the goddess Mumba, with her black hair and orange face.

Although it was a sightseeing excursion, River spent some time in prayer and meditation at the Mumba Devi temple, while Brent walked around at a leisurely pace, taking everything in. After a while, Brent knelt next to River at the railing.

“Is there a specific deity you believe in?” Brent asked. “I mean, that statue—”

“Goddess Mumba.”

“Right. I never heard of her before. Is that who you worshipped at the ashram?”

Brent was being very careful, his tone respectful. But the idea that he might think River worshipped an ancient goddess statue with an orange face made River smile. “No, Brent. I don’t worship any specific deity. I believe in a divine force, but it’s more an all-encompassing energy.”

Brent looked thoughtful. “Cool. I guess that’s more or less my idea of God too.”

“You have an idea of God?” River feigned innocent surprise.

Brent narrowed his eyes. “Are you calling me a heathen?”

“Sorry. Just teasing you.”

The more comfortable River got with Brent, the more his acerbic sense of humor made itself known. Fortunately, Brent didn’t seem to mind.

He nudged River with his arm. “You wound me. Seriously, though, Hinduism does worship specific gods, right? Even Buddhism.”

“Well, some Buddhist sects do worship Buddha as a god. But others see him as an enlightened teacher.”

They got up and started strolling out of the temple. River went on. “I think most people need to have something specific they can visualize and pray to, to give God a face and a name. But usually a specific deity just represents one aspect or interpretation of the universal God.”

“Like the blind men and the elephant,” Brent said.

They stepped out into the bright Indian sun. River looked at Brent quizzically.

“Dr. Halloran reminded me of that old parable. You know, the one where a group of blind men try to figure out what an elephant is by touching it, but since one feels the ear, one the trunk, one the side, and so on, they all reach different opinions about what an elephant is.”

River nodded. “That’s a great analogy. Sometimes I think a deity says more about the worshipper than God. For example, there’s a whole tradition in Hinduism that worships Bala Krishna, basically Krishna when he was a baby. In that tradition, the worshipper is like the mother, and they see God as an infant they love and protect. So you could say those worshippers are most able to access their spiritual side through their mothering instincts.”

“Even for men?”

“Sure.

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