Go To The Public
Rakiraki, Fiji Island
The famous seventh century chanting Saint Tukaram from Maharastra said that one must sing kirtan in such a delightful way as to move the hearts of the listeners. In our efforts to execute public chanting we keep this message in mind. In Fiji, wherever our walking party travels there is no exception at this attempt.
As a group of a dozen or so chanting enthusiasts unloaded ourselves from the vehicle in this down town location we saw a lot of movement of shopping pedestrians. Once the mridanga and djimbe drums started thumping with a mantra and voices to take the lead the town virtually stopped. I would say that minimal activity continued such a cash register making a noise but truly, customers and retailers came out to hear and to see. The town was rather mesmerized by sight and sound. We started a procession covering practically every inch of retail strip including our favourite stop – the farmers market. After a hot walk under Fiji’s western sun we took to a high “carb’ diet at a prominent Police Officers home. To beat the heat, five of us traveling from town to town were treated to an exotic Australian owned beach front facility called the Volivoli Beach. Young Nick, the owners son asked “why the walk” and I said it’s a “dying art” that you won’t die from.
From Volivoli, Rasa and Daniel, my male companions and I took the treck back to our accommodation on Kings Road. We interacted with many cane field workers. One group in particular sat down their machetes to rest and talk to us. I asked these men when they start their walk.
“From 4am to 6pm with a break in the middle,” said one worker with the biggest smile and with no complaint. It was a refreshing tone that you rarely find when speaking to a North American about their work. Finally, in the evening I spoke to an interesting group at the Krishna Centre about the need to go to the public, meet them, get inspired and try to inspire.
7 Km
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