The Gardener and the Ghosts
Toronto, Ontario
Practically each morning that I’m here I walk with either one of two devotees, Serge or Shyam. We head off to Yonge St. then west on Bloor, past the ROM museum, the old Rochdale building to the Jewish community centre and then north on Spadina back to the temple/ashram. It is then approaching 7:00am. We have darshan (viewing the Krishna deity’s) and conduct guru-puja, a ceremony for the guru. On Thursdays we read along with other monks the instructive and endearing pastimes of our guru, Srila Prabhupada.
We really liked today’s excerpt which is from Gurudas’ book, “By His Example.” With subtitle.
Ghost Story
On the morning walks, Prabhupada would often greet Tittenhurst’s gardener, Frank. He and Frank had respect for each other, as they were about the same age. Frank was living in a small, cozy Tudor cottage, and he had reported to John Lennon that strange sounds kept him up in the night. He thought the cottage was occupied by ghosts. John consulted with Srila Prabhupada and asked him if he could do something to remedy this situation. Prabhupada replied that he could.
He gathered us together, and we marched in a great procession across the low, grassy hills down to the cottage. Prabhupada led a dynamic kirtan and told us to blow the conch shell very often and very loudly, and ghosts don’t like that sound. After a while he said, “They have gone.”
Frank later confirmed that the strange sounds he heard in the night were indeed gone.
5 Km
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