Professor and Friend
Toronto, Ontario
While I moved southbound on Yonge St. on foot, a young couple stepped out of the shop just in front of me, now also going south. the man of about thirty and of south east Asian origin noticed me, gave a 'hello' and whispered something in his 'woman's' ear. they both smiled and carried on walking. Minutes later, he turned around and told me, "You did my mundana when I was one" ('mundana' is a head shaving ceremony done in the Hindu tradition as a rite of passage when one enters into childhood and sheds babyhood).
"Are you sure I was the priest that cut your hair?" I questioned.
"Yes, I'm sure. My father told me much later on," he said.
"Well, I see that it all worked out well. You have a good crop of hair on your head (laughter). When did I do this? Do you recall?"
"It was supposed to be in '81", he said.
"When you have children, you know where to go", I said.
We parted with additional laughter. Moving on to Union Station where subway, commuter and regular trains all meet I coincidentally bumped into Professor Joseph T. O'Connel and wife, Catherine. Prof. O'Connell asked if I'm on any walking marathons these days. He had just come from New York and while on 5th Avenue, accidentally ran into the Chariot Festival which is quite the electrifying event.
I do hold him in great honour. During our great struggle in earlier times to establish the authenticity of Krishna Consciousness in the west, as a scholar of religious studies, Prof. O'Connell would speak eloquently on behalf of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition in the '70's', when the public became curious and often times suspicious of surging religions like ours.
Prof. O'Connell once wrote, "In my judgement, it is indeed fortunate for these individuals (followers) and for the society in which they live that there has been available this outwardly exotic but inwardly authentic and well-rounded way of communal life."
10 KM
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