Yogendra, The priest for the event, was all set up with his kund, a sacrificial apparatus for a fire ceremony in his home in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Etienne had his array of musical instruments—harmonium, mrdunga drum and hand cymbals—at his place in Moncton, New Brunswick, the next providence over. He was poised to play along with his daughter, Kunti. It was 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time in Toronto, where I sat in our temple on Avenue Road, prepared to be on the same Zoom network as them for delivering a talk on the importance of initiation. I am the guru who’s initiating.
Now the missing link to this mystical scenario is the candidate for initiation. His name is Marshall Daley. He’s a native of Halifax and is taking that step towards transcendence. Meanwhile friends and moral supporters of Marshall tuned in from other parts of the continent. Through the screen I recognized people dropping in from British Columbia. Hello, Brhat! And Dhruva, from Calgary. Samuel, from Montreal, also participated. Bonjour!
A virtual event it was, and when it came time to administer a new name suspense was in the air. Marshall had his new custom made japa beads in his hand, which I touched as he outstretched them to the screen. I announced his new name, Mangalananda, which means “auspiciously joyful.” Congratulations!
Two more Zooms were on today’s agenda. One for Edmonton. Indeed I spoke about child Krishna in His month of Damodara. A second Zoom was a memorial event to praise a friend, Krishnanandini, who is renowned for her compassionate disposition. A mother of 10 and admired the world over. We gave homage. She passed away from cancer. I had to skip a fourth Zoom, which was a chanting session for Bangladesh. Unfortunately my dental bridge snapped off.
Source: http://thewalkingmonk.blogspot.com/2020/12/sunday-november-29-2020.html
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