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வழங்குபவர் ரிக் நஃப்ஜிங்கர்
எப்போது : 2-5 p.m. Jan. 13
எங்கே : Borders Books, 10776 Trinity Parkway, Stockton
அனுமதி இலவசம்

தகவலுக்கு (209) 649-0396

Hindu devotee to talk about book on forms of the Goddess
By Anna Kaplan
Record Staff Writer
January 06, 2007 6:00 AM
When Rick Nafzinger was 14, some Hare Krishnas in the Denver airport handed him a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, an essential book of the Hindu faith. During the next two weeks of family vacation, he read the book over and over.

That was the start of a lifelong spiritual quest for the 51-year-old Stockton man, who recently published a book of Hinduism-inspired daily meditations. He will read and discuss the philosophy and religion behind "Combating Inner Terrorism: Strategies of the Goddess from the 'Devi Mahatmyam' " next Saturday at Borders Books in Stockton.

The center of his religious outlook - which draws from Eastern and Western traditions, mainstream and alternative alike - is an emphasis on Goddess or "the other half of the divine."


Nafzinger leads the Circle of the Feminine Divine, a Stockton group that takes an interfaith approach to revering the feminine side of deities ranging from the Virgin Mary to the Hindu Goddess Radharani to the Wiccan Earth Goddess.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people who have spiritual inclinations are going to congregations with a male deity," Nafzinger said, adding that he wants to change that.

Circle member Jim Buik, 76, used to be one of those people. He had always been interested in religions that "see the Earth itself as a mother" though he was raised Catholic, the retired Stocktonian said. Buik spent a long time unaffiliated with any specific religion, and now attends Unitarian Universalist services in addition to Circle meetings, where Nafzinger's ideas for the new book began.

"Combating Inner Terrorism" is a collection of daily meditations inspired by verses from the Hindu scripture Devi Mahatmyam. Nafzinger wrote these reflections in temples and other inspirational sites around the world every day for a year, and they are meant to be read at the same pace.

Nafzinger's introduction to the female deities of India might have started in that Denver airport, but his willingness to accept God as a woman came much earlier.

He recalls once in his childhood overhearing his parents arguing. He went to his room to pray and found himself praying to a Goddess rather than a God.

"I knew that God the father wasn't fixing the problem, so maybe the mother would," he said.

At 15, a year after the fateful encounter in Denver, Nafzinger ran away from home and joined a Krishna temple.

"It was just so different," he said about Hinduism. "I grew up on a farm in Colorado. We had two different kinds of people: Christian and Catholic."

It wasn't until a year and a half ago that Nafzinger finally became ordained in Hinduism. In the meantime, he's also been ordained in Christianity and Wicca, went to school in South Carolina, ran a church in Denver, had five children and worked his way up to finance manager at United States Food Service in Livermore.

Nafzinger is currently the chairman of the Interfaith Council of San Joaquin County, where he uses his experience with these different faiths to bring people in the community together.

"Rick brings a spiritual awareness that I don't think many people have," said Gloria Morisaki, 49, Stockton Buddhist Temple member and the vice-chair of the Interfaith Council. "He has respect and understanding of all traditions and faiths."

Contact reporter Anna Kaplan at (209) 546-8294 or akaplan@recordnet.com.

Preview
Rick Nafzinger

When: 2-5 p.m. Jan. 13

Where: Borders Books, 10776 Trinity Parkway, Stockton கலிபோர்னியா

Admission: Free

Information: (209) 649-0396

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