We just “lost” two of the most prominent luminaries, a true saint Shiva (Swami Atmatattwananda), and Dr. Joseph Prabhu, the veritable embodiment of in-depth interfaith-interspiritual  understanding. They left the body within eight days of each other. They were both the product of an Ivy League education, Yale and Cambridge respectively, and lived their passions to the fullest. I could always be sure that any depth of spiritual or human journeying (as if they could be different!) would be completely appreciated and affirmed by my dear friend and champion Shiva, and I could always be certain that any wild adventuring in the landscape of thought would be met with generosity, and an expanded multi-perspective context by my dear gifted and brilliant friend Joseph.

Perhaps it is a sad fact of life, that we only really appreciate someone when we have “lost” them in form. I think of all the unshared mystic intuitions, of all the unexplored intellectual feats of derring-do in the shared landscape of multi-faith-belonging that both these pioneering giants were capable of inspiring within one.

Yet, the other side of the coin is that neither of them were here purely for themselves, or for the satisfaction or elucidation of my own spiritual and intellectual passions. They were here as looming sunlit signposts, sometimes obscured cosmic placeholders, pointing the way inward for us each to discover the light that burns not, to dive deep into the living waters of divine sustenance, and inspiring us each, in our own unique ways, to equally stand here in the midst of our very human lives as grounded beacons of hope, sharing the blessed assurance of the Presence as best we can, in the same way they did.