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For two locations - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Scarborough, Ontario—I zoomed out messages about Mother’s Day and what a glorious day it always is when we honour “Mother.”  For both communities I began my talk about the beauty of motherhood. Mothers give us birth, feed us, nurture us, put us to sleep, protect us, and much more.  “Serve and acknowledge your mom today, if not every day.”

 

I proceeded, however, to bring up examples of “Bad Mothers” found in the Vedas.  From The Ramayana we hear

These days the routine is sleeping, waking, chanting, eating, class-giving, counseling, encouraging, zooming and walking.  What I consider amongst all of the above activities which stands out is the walking.  I say that because it is outdoor experience that makes it unique.

Of course it was a special and precious one hour of being on the phone with Cameron from Hamilton.  We took that time to discuss the intro of the Bhagavad-gita.  That was also a breath of fresh air.  However, it is that air

I rarely see residents coming or going from their condos across from the castle called Casa Loma but one man did peep out of his stately place and noticed Nimai and I walking.  It was a gray-haired out-going fellow, a Jewish doctor with roots from Hungary.  He was curious.

 

“You’re Hare Krishna!  I don’t know too much about it.  You live there on Avenue Road?  Really, you live there?”  The conversation went on for quite the while and we left our new friend with an invitation when it’s all over

I embrace that quote by Plato, “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”

 

Plato, Socrates and the host of Greek philosophers reflect so much on what echoes Vedic wisdom.  In fact they had respect for the ways and thoughts of the culture east of them.

 

Here’s a verse from the Bhagavad-gita that resonates the similar tone of Plato.  Krishna states in verse 3.26 to do with karma yoga: na buddhi-bhedaṁ janayed ajñānāṁ karma-saṅginām joṣayet sarva-karmāṇi vidvān

Every day each and every one of us has so many wants.  For myself I want to place myself in a good position in order to chant on my meditation beads in the most attentive and effective way.  So I came up with something that is relaxing, comfortable and practical.  In a physical sense as well as mental this works for me.  I sit on a good chair with a fairly nice back support. It gets my bottoms off the cold floor plus it’s hard to sometimes make that smooth transition going up when you get older

I was just completing my walk for the day when I received a call from one of our brahmin priests.  Like most people I’m in touch with these days, this bank employer was expressing his awe at how the world is at present and living with the doubt as to when all will normalize.  We both agreed through conversation that it will be a “different normal.”

 

I voiced my opinion that I wasn’t particularly fond of the old normal and that when we get over all of the shutdown existence there will be an adj

Karuna Sindhu and I were setting up our tent at a suburban intersection where it was fairly quiet – grassy with some trees to provide enough privacy for the night’s slumber.  It was just another one of those days, on the road, walking the country, putting in a good 40 kilometres/25 miles.  Some young boys, a half a dozen or so from the neighbourhood, heard about the Walking Monk.  They huddled around Karuna and I as we were setting up.  They were intrigued with our rugged life-style as marathon

One of the most outstanding bhakti-yogis of all time is Prahlad, who while in the womb of his mother, became enlightened when hearing from Narada, the sage.  By the time he was five he impressed upon his classmates the value of spiritual practices.

Prahlad grew up in a culture when social distancing from God was standard.  In the coming days we will remember Prahlad because of his devote connection with one of the popular avatars, Narasimha, a half-man/half-lion incarnation, who manifested (by

It was rather a pleasure to stream three times today.  Online we did go for a group at Farmington Hills, Michigan, for Milton and Toronto.  The presentation was different for each location.  The group in Michigan extended to 90 minutes—lots of questions—highlighting Queen Kunti’s famous words, “May all those calamities happen again and again for when they occur we think of you, My Lord Krishna, and when we do so our samsara (birth and death cycle) ceases to be.”

The message to Milton was simila

I’m rather regulated with my walk through Rosedale and having that balance to the day.  There are dead ends for cars but for pedestrians you can transcend those barriers.  Let me draw a simple analogy.  Spiritualist have a capacity to go beyond, to do the extraordinary, to defy what laws of nature impose.  Spiritualist tread a trail that knows no barrier.

 

For me, well I’m a novice in my practice.  I have a long journey yet to make and that’s alright.  I believe that I have two rods to hang on

“Love thy neighbour as much as thyself,” is a biblical foundational statement which basically can be considered to have universal application.  It was our decision, the small group of monks in the ashram, to join our neighbours on Roxborough St. in the noise-making at 7:30 pm.  It has become routine for a dozen or more households to engage the pots and pans, whistles and shakers in making music in order to rattle the cage of the corona virus.  You can call it a war-cry machine.

 

At 7:25 our “mo

I put in my 7 kilometres for the day, which was a productive day considering I’m locked down like almost everyone else.  I am to understand that not all places are tight on restrictions like much of the world.  I spoke to someone from Guyana and who has connections with Trinidad where life is fairly “normal.” In touch with Cuba, as I go there annually, and right now there are no tourists which Cuba’s economy depends upon.  One of my friends from Cuba said it plain and simple, “It’s dead.”

 

But

Yes, I’m still in T.O. or what rapper, Drake, calls “The Six” (six boroughs), however, my mind is all over the place.  Yes, today it gravitated to San Diego, Calgary, Ottawa, Miami, Australia, Russia, Spain—just about everywhere that a dream leads to—oh, and even the sun.

 

I thought of Hanuman who flew to the sun.  You might as well say I traveled ethereally to all under the sun and in one sense, to the sun as a passenger with the powerful monkey himself.   Today there was no presence of the su

A doctor friend from Florida amicably suggested I hear “Nature’s Way of Telling You Something’s Wrong,“ by the band “Spirit,“ not that it would act as a panacea but perhaps to ponder on an obvious element of truth given the pandemic we are in.  So, I looked them up, listened to the song and it’s fine.  For my medical friend it’s nostalgic.

 

Oops!  But I had to rush downstairs for another broadcast of Dwarkanath, Corrado and I chanted.  We chose this song, “Bhajahu Re Mana” by Govinda Dasa Kavi

Let’s call him Bill.  I met Bill now for two consecutive days in a row—yesterday and today—at nightfall actually.  It was just after our neighbors banged pots and banged whistles outside their doors, an indication that we are battling King Corona.

 

The weather the last two days has been brisk but Bill was out on his bicycle doing what I’m doing, a ritual of sorts.  I’m moving my legs a step at a time and he’s moving his, but off the ground and in a cyclical fashion.  I’m chanting while walking

I managed a walk through Midland’s downtown which is under siege by a construction crew. A big dig. Perhaps water pipelines need to be replaced.

 

In the 1600s this place was also under siege by a certain kind of way.  At that time Jesuits from France came to the New World (North America) and to this region with the intent to preach their sermon to the local indigenous people, the Wyndad, also known as Hurons.  Unfortunately or fortunately the mission failed.  Many of the Hurons were favourable

Nimai allowed me to take the lead and direction for the early evening stroll. “Let’s head for Casa Loma, the castle that’s in our neighbourhood,“ I suggested. So we did and Nimai was so surprised that this treasure of a building is so close by. We took that very street to the west of the edifice and then viola! There it was an all its splendour. 

 

In 1914, financier Sir Henry Pellatt built the landmark for his first wife, Mary, the first chief commissioner of the Girl Guides of Canada. The Got

I make a point of taking a walk every afternoon. Reasons? I need the good Spring air. I need to connect with others who are feeling the same need, and I do it at a solid distance with a glance and a smile.

 

With temperatures above 0°C,  I find it quite pleasant; no coat required. With just my kurta and dhoti (upper and lower garments), I fair fine. I pull my beads out from the bead bag, not only to chant on them—uttering the maha mantra—but to let other pedestrians there in the park know that I

Now I was raised on a small farm. We had—on this ten acre piece of land—a house, barn, sizeable front yard, a garage for two vehicles, and an orchard to accommodate some apple, peach, plum, pear and mulberry trees, and in stock—some animals. Oh, and I forgot the chicken coop in the barnyard. There was a family milk cow, chickens, pigs, a goat, a pony, pheasants and peacocks.

 

My dad was good with the animals like he was with the veggies (oh and we also had a plentiful garden).  But there came

I only did some pacing in our temple room today, and chanted on my beads during that time. I kept myself grounded. The wet, gray weather of the outdoors didn’t necessarily beckon me. Besides, I was at the mercy of my service which required indoor attention.

Most importantly was the broadcast on “Zoom” (Zoom Cloud App-free from your App Store) delivering my message, and answering questions to members of the KCS (Krishna Consciousness Society)who are all young men starting off their careers. I w