Saturday 18 April 2009

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Humour in Spirit

Durban, South Africa

After the exerting Easter weekend at the Chariot Festival we usually organize a small PPP (post production party). As a group the young performers of the plays over the weekend converge for a bonding time over food, smoozing, chanting and some form of recreation (I confess to a good game of soft ball once a year).

It was a good evening in particular with a group that jells so well together. Our stage manager, Krsna Chandra, is the life of the party being a professional comedian. “Laughter is the medicine that cures all ills is sometimes the saying. What is ill is this world of struggle. As the Gita points out “we struggle with our senses and especially the subtle mind.”

What makes light of this grave and serious world is humour. It’s the obvious antidote. Our guru, Srila Prabhupada, employed humour in his dealings when needed. As a matter of fact, he consistently pulled the strings of sobriety, wisdom and warmth. Humour is definitely a component of warmth. It is a necessary ingredient in creating the encouragement that we hanker after.

The great contemporaries of Chaitanya, who wrote books on the science of devotion declare that humour is a feature of all of us as well as a feature of the Creator. Yes, even God had a sense of humour.

4 Km

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