When I told our Gita Chat Zoom Group that we were enjoying a climate of minus thirty to forty degrees Celsius, they were in awe. “How can anyone feel comfort during such a cold snap?” you ask. Well, in such conditions of extremeness, one is more or less forced to be a bear. Yes, you hibernate for a stretch. I was able to do that with three heart-warming indoor programs, since coming here to Calgary. It’s a nice city, but beware, it has its chill factor for a short time. Two very well-attended programs, and one gathering with students at the University of Calgary, kept me in the warmth.
Many of the folks on today’s Zoom were Floridians who comprehend the other extreme of snakes and ladders: the ups and downs of life.
In my talk at the University, I conveyed several times how we all should seek to transcend, and that it’s a human birthright. I did speak about my walking adventures and how life is like a walking metaphor. We go through these “reverses” as our guru, Prabhupada, used to say, and learn to digest irregularities that the day poses. There is the saying: “Man proposes. God disposes.” What God proposes is what really counts. You weather the storm by adhering to duty—dharma.
I was reminded how severe the weather was today when Atma Ram and Bal Govinda took us to this year’s alternative parade route for the Chariot Fest. It was relatively easy to visualize the coming summer of warmth and green, even when we stepped out of our vehicle to inspect the proposed park site. We trudged through snow and were hit by the frigid power of nature. How absolutely nice!
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