Distractions and Reactions
Buenos Aries, Argentina
One person mentioned to me that there had been some public outcry about the city’s billboards that advertise photogenic women and men promoting underwear. For motorists it becomes a distraction to see these huge blown up, sex in the face images. (Sounds like a monk’s complaint). Accidents have occurred. For pedestrians it becomes less of an issue. You have to have your eyes on the sidewalk. Dog dung is rather plentiful on the residential sidewalks and you want to be careful otherwise you lose your traction on the stuff. In the pre-dawn hour I brought a miniature flashlight as my “dung detector” so I demonstrated it to a group of brahmacaris with me. We started our jaunt with a giggle.
We made our way to the university grounds. Some residential party-goers shouted obscenities in Spanish. Another car load of the same genre of people gave out a boisterous, “Allah!” thinking we were Muslims. At least the last remark was complimentary.
The previous day’s Ratha Yatra event drew a lot of interest to the evening Sunday program at the new temple location. Some candidates from the community became newly initiated. Hanumatpresaka Swami’s message was strongly putting emphasis on the wish of our guru to continue treading the path of past masters which was to have students who will then become gurus/teachers themselves. In our Krishna society, Prabhupada remains as the dominant guru.
The ceremony culminated with a powerful kirtan (chanting) led by colleague, Ajamila, also from Canada.
Kirtan is like a panacea. It gets the mind off illicit sex and the dancing accompanying it is a million times more fun than sliding in dung.
5 Km
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