“Perhaps you’re one of the few centres that’s really taking care of older Vaishnava men,” remarked an observer, a friend, the other day. Mind you, we do have younger men as residents in addition to the five who are average 71 years of age. Yes, I am one of those golden boys who joined monkhood in the 70’s. I’m in that age bracket, naturally.
We scheduled a meeting in our new seminar room and called it a “Seniors Meeting” to delve into the conditions of our remaining lives for the coming years. We gave out a survey form to fill out, asking the boys what kind of future lies ahead. We are planning to find, or build, a facility for seniors in our community and that includes women.
Presenters to initiate this program were dear friend, Krishnadas, Adi Kurma, a younger professional, and myself. The topic of a senior’s home with personal assistants was most welcome by our boys. No one is getting younger. And anything can happen to anyone of us with chances of physical failure rising as we age in our maturing years.
Our talk and dialogue amongst each other were progressive because, simply put, we are dealing with a group of people who would like to be spending their later years in a devotional environment with each other; sharing a diet of prasadam and chanting and so forth. Hence, we have begun an effort to do something to make the last years pleasant ones. The fact is that the current facility, the ashram, is not equipped for the aging Vaishnavas, so something needs to be done.
Source: http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2021/07/monday-july-5-2021.html
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