Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Toronto, Ontario

Through the foot healing process I have been employing many methods (all doctor approved, of course). The latest has been sporting this air cast around the right leg. This leg device as it stands on its own looks like lofty foot gear from a Star Wars feature. Our community at the Sunday festival saw the latest in monk's fashion as I entered the temple's main hall. A few eyebrows were raised. The final prescription for the day to address the ongoing foot inflammation was to have someone gather clean snow, submerge the foot in it, dry off the foot, and repeat. So I did (I don't know how Francis of Assissi walked those snow trails in total oblivion).

On the more sober note our sizeable gathering of four hundred people heard the glories of one of the topmost ascetics of all times, Shiva, as it was his birth anniversary. Indradyumna Swami spoke extolling his glories, Near the tail end of the program I offered dedication to the recent innocent people who died in the cross-fire of Singalese and Tamil warfare in Sri Lanka. Civil war has persisted there for years. Now the struggle has intensified.

There are at least 250,000 Tamil people living in the Toronto area, most of them from Sri Lanka. A percentage of them have shown great interest in Krishna devotionalism in recent years. For them we grieve as well as for the lost and killed victims of Sri Lanka, whether Tamil or Singalese. These identities relate to the temporary body. If we can grasp the wisdom about our own essence, that we are spirits, then we would look to moving into the direction of compromise and negotiations, and dissolve another senseless war.

The comomunity co-operatively chanted the maha-mantra in the name of peace - all in unison. It was very powerful.