https://www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1280395/hydra-in-the-1960s-a-musicians-saronic-paradise/

AesopFan:

I can go either way.

Basically I see Christianity as a form of bhakti yoga — devotional love of God — which doesn’t please most Christians for reasons I understand but don’t worry about.

Neem Karoli Baba, a 20th C Hindu guru, had many Western disciples. He enjoyed telling them they ought to return to Christianity, which annoyed the Westerners. He spoke very lovingly of Christ.

One of his Western disciples was renamed Krishna Das and he became a rock star on the Western kirtan (Hindu chanting) circuit.

One of his concert numbers was to tell a long shaggy dog story about going deep into the jungles of India and encountering a magnificent statue of a god who seemed to be holding a telephone to his ear.

The chants to this god were no longer intelligible, but Krishna Das was going to sing them anyway and perhaps the audience would glean some meaning from them:
___________________________

Jesus on the mainline, tell him what you want.
Jesus on the mainline, tell him what you want.
Jesus on the mainline, tell him what you want.
You can call him up and tell him what you want.

–Krishna Das, “Jesus on the Mainline”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV2FNSAkUYg
___________________________

Actually it’s a black gospel song after the telephone was invented. That’s how Krishna Das rolls.

Works for me as prayer or meditation.

“I’d like to see it [the nation] heal,” the president said in a brief telephone interview with NBC News. “But we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/shocking-oxford-union-trust-secretary-resigns-protest-after/

The Honorary Secretary of the Oxford Literary and Debating Union Trust (OLDUT), the charity that owns the Oxford Union’s buildings and oversees its charitable responsibilities, has resigned in protest, citing the callous behavior of the Oxford Union’s President-Elect following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in the United States.

The Secretary declared he could no longer remain in his role as the Union’s charitable overseer while its incoming leadership celebrates political violence and trustees refuse to intervene.

After news broke that Kirk had been shot, Oxford Union President-elect George Abaraonye allegedly wrote on Telegram, “Charlie Kirk got shot, let’s f*ing go,” according to The Telegraph.

IMO, the fault is not so much with Abaraonye (his vitriol is disgusting, but he is entitled to his opinion), but with the people who elected him.

This is the same problem we see in one institution after another, captured in Iowahawk’s classic description of The Skin Suit.

https://x.com/iowahawkblog/status/664089892599631872?lang=en
David Burge @iowahawkblog
1. Identify a respected institution.
2. kill it.
3. gut it.
4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.
#lefties

I’ve seen that done, but although there are good reasons for meditation, it is NOT prayer.

Caligula’s horse comes to mind, although that appointment was for different reasons, and he was a trifle insane.

Wikipedia: “According to Suetonius in the Lives of the Twelve Caesars (121 AD), Caligula planned to make Incitatus a consul,[1] and the horse would “invite” dignitaries to dine with him in a house outfitted with servants there to entertain such events. Suetonius also wrote that the horse had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones.

Cassius Dio (165–235 AD) indicated that the horse was attended by servants and was fed oats mixed with gold flake,[2] and that Caligula made the horse a priest.[3]…
The accuracy of the received history is generally questioned.”

I did not know this: “Caligula’s Horse is an Australian progressive metal band from Brisbane, Queensland.”

Their reaction to Kirk’s assassination became too big too fast for them to hide.

Exactly. When they tell you who they are, believe them. More and more Americans do.

Personally, I find that praying verbally keeps my mind from wandering off-track.

Exactly again. God doesn’t need prayers. We do.

Maybe Jews and Christians should market praying as meditation so the bi-coastal folks can get it.

–Bill Maher, “Charlie Kirk | Club Random” (97 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblCcO7-Alg

I’m struck by how open and decent Kirk is. You might say Christian. Clearly he doesn’t agree with Maher on many points, but no interruptions, no shout-downs, no put-downs.

Maher is OK, but he takes Kirk’s decency as an opportunity to do most of the talking.

Charlie, I hardly knew ye.