There was a sweet briskness in the air as we set out for a 7am exercise session of Chi Gong in the zoologico. The local folks, mostly retirees, were in Chinese silk garb, while us visitors from Canada were attired in our usual Indian dhoti and kurta. The session, held in gorgeous, natural greenery, was so relaxing. I wish that our temple and ashram had sessions like this, even for fifteen to twenty minutes a day.
It was time for our taxi to arrive and to bid farewell to Laksminath, who has been
Bliss is at the beach, but for those of us who are bhakti boys, the earlier in the day, the better; before crowds set in. A couple from Milton, Ugresh and Urmila, joined us in the oceans of water for a morning Sadhana comprised of prayers to the guru, prayers to Narasingha, the lion avatar, and then finally a Bhagavatam discussion.
What do we get out of this? A water massage, vitamin D, minerals nourishing the body, time to touch the brain and heart. Time to touch humility. We dried off and the
My last hours were spent in comfort, both physically and otherwise. I was asked to give another Bhagavatam class, my fourth this week, and I caught up on some rest before the drive to Tigre. Tigre (Spanish for tiger) is a tourist attraction outside of Buenos Aires. There is located a vegetarian restaurant run by Daksha, and so visitors from other ISKCON communities in the country made this fine dining place their stop over before returning to, more in particular, Mar del Plata. We brunched. We
The Chariot Fest fast approaches, mañana (tomorrow) to be exact. Many visitors from different locations in the country have arrived. From outside Germany, comes a monk, Bhakti Bhushana Swami, a wonderful peaceful monk if ever I knew one. I already mentioned about Mahavishnu Swami, who’s from the U.K. And then there’s myself, from Canada.
I met Mark, a New Yorker, now living in Santa Fe, who was startled to hear a kirtan party in one of the sections of Buenos Aires where he was on an art assignm
Hard work with the drama practice, but while waiting for all to show up, I pulled together this poem:
Dream and Cream
It’s a blessing to be alive
In such a honey bee hive
Sharing space of purity
Where darkness becomes obscurity
In a safe ashram temple
Far from the judge mental
We sing and we play
Even on the most gloomy day
Keeping to some regimen
For even Bhakta Benjamin
We sit and hear a lesson
Always time for some question
We honour the best food
At the three point interlude
A ses
My last festival here was in 2019 and now that I’m back at the same service of giving class, leading the chant and directing a drama, it almost seems like I have not missed a beat. The last item is the biggest but happiest challenge.
First of all, there is a language barrier. I know little Spanish. So, how does one direct a play written in English to a Spanish-speaking group? Getting the script translated was accomplished, but, as most people know, intent can be lost in translation. A lot of th
Road rage is very much on the rise. On the previous night, while on the freeway, two drivers involved in a collision were almost at each other’s throats in a shouting match, blaming each other for the accident. They used unholy terms. Not surprising is that this overall “etiquette” on our roads is on the rise. Too many cars. Not enough roads. Levels of speed are up. More and more motorists cut each other off. Check out the words kama, krodha and lobha in the scriptures and where these traits le
Rain had dominated the sky; not a major wash out, but a pleasantly quiet, meditative send-down of moisture. Umbrellas become popular on such days. I put mine to good use with small errands in the downtown area of T.O., which is where I actually live.
But for the evening I was destined for the suburbs, to Mississauga to be specific. To get there, the plan was to take the subway train. As I entered the east-west line of the subway at St.George Street, I was met by a TTC (Toronto Transit Commissio
I am taking my daily dose of herbs in powder form. Called turmeric ashwagandha, it is marketed as golden milk powder or adaptogenic elixir. This superfood is helping to build some strength but it is definitely not everything. While still waiting for a report on more blood tests, I remain faithful to the walking culture that I am so muchhttp://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2022/11/wednesday-november-09-2022.html a part of. This regimen is keeping me going.
After a heartily greet with dear friend,
The current temperatures in some parts of Canada are unseasonably warm and out east, in Nova Scotia, we are enjoying the benefits of this favourable climate with 20⁰ Celsius in our midst. The situation compelled a number of us to absorb as much vitamin D as possible by hitting the trails that take us through hard and softwood trees, lakes and ponds and rocks at both sides, only to be interrupted by the occasional development site. For me it was a straight trek – fast but not furious trek – and
Ambarish and I took to the Chain of Lakes trail from Timberlea; a former rail and now trail path, when we came up with an idea. This particular trail connects with another one, which connects with several homeowners from our Krishna community. We are looking at relatively new subdivisions here and everyone is more or less dependent on the automobile. However, with a little bit of map exploration one could simply connect the dots and voila, now you have a new way of seeing each household on spec
At our weekly leaders meeting we always open up with a reading over Zoom. Today, it was my turn to read. I chose a passage from a letter our guru, Prabhupada, wrote in 1974 to his student/disciple, Sukadev, regarding devotee care. This is the heart of the letter, dated April 5th:
“First of all, there is no question of a devotee being ostracized because he has become ill, nor do I think this is being widely practiced. Who has been ostracized? One of the symptoms of a devotee is that he is kind,
It’s good to be gone. It’s good to be home. In truth all places are home because wherever you make yourself comfortable in devotional service that is home. That’s easy to say because I move about mainly in a free world. What if I were stuck in a place of war like Ukraine, or in a region where there is little tolerance of our belief? What if I resided in a country of poverty, hard to get a proper meal? In such places my sadhana could easily suffer.
The actual key to a constant bhakti practice th
It is that time of the year when leaves are descending, but geese are ascending and soaring to the south in their V formation. Ah, yes, V for Vishnu. Thanks for the reminder, guys. Your honking sound is well noticed by those of us making the trails in King’s Park. What splendour there is in all we see, including a woodpecker who allowed me to come so close. The Assiniboine River is humble as it is low; a notable message we are able to take in as a component to the natural splendour of God.
Much
I spent the day visiting Krishna Bhakti students at their homes. It is inspiring to see their love and commitment to Krishna, their work, their school and their parents. I also had the pleasure to walk along Red River at St. Vital Park. Lots of geese in the pond. Since arriving in Manitoba all households that I visit, they conduct a beautiful ceremony to honour Damodara (Krishna) with ghee lamps.
We were at the dawn of our guru’s anniversary of his passing. My poem, in his honour, follows. Prab
When I flew out to North Ontario, sitting next to me across the aisle was a man, possibly in his thirties, who had his sketchbook out. For that hour-and-a-half I watched from the corner of my eye seeing this guy whipping out page after page of just gorgeous designs coming out of his drawing pen. I envied him on two counts; one is that he was so damn good at what he was doing because each sketch carried a different theme; two is that he was just keeping himself busy, engaged in something product
Rouge National Urban Park is a real gem located in the east end of the city of Toronto. To my understanding it is one of the largest green spaces in a major city in North America. Recently there have been bear sightings in the area. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our group from the Bhakti Academy didn’t see any, although I did take home a tick crawling on my dhoti (lower robe).
This might be the last of our outings for the group this season before late autumn chills set in. For today the scener
Our visiting monk (swami) from Belgium is Bhakta Prabhava Swami, and he was emphasizing at one portion of the Bhagavatam class the importance of sadhu sangha, which means to be in the right company. We all do find ourselves in the situation of the person next to you at work, school or recreation to be not always the best association, therefore downtime is needed through some moments of solitude. A second approach would be to reach out to the acquaintances that you have known to excite and enthu
I really had to think over what I would speak about at the Brampton ISKCON Sunday program. I was in the premises just one day before conducting workshops on kirtan standards, which went well. So, it dawned on me that not everyone attended from the congregation. “Let me try an abbreviated version of the previous day’s workshop, now that I have a larger audience today.”
I took full advantage of the situation. The end result is that people listened, were delighted and informed. The president of IS
Because there is a need to regulate and standardize the practice of kirtan in ISKCON centers, I have taken up the task to do so in my areas of influence, which is referred to as zone one within the context of several US states and all of Canada. Last Saturday, by God’s grace, we pulled off a successful standardization workshop in Montreal. Today it was Brampton. The attendant was approximately forty-five, and to my surprise some of them were children, well behaved.
The questions that naturally
