Friday 4 December 2009

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

On Parting

Buenos Aries, Argentina

Our morning classes have echoed the message of parting on good terms with loved ones and leaving a trail of sadness. From Canto one of the sacred book Bhagavatham we have been reading and discussing the departure of Krishna for the city of Dwarka after He spent quality time with friends in Hastinapura, now known as Delhi. His leaving for his own abode after giving comfort and association to friends and family were parting moments very hard for some to bear. Such feelings of separation are acknowledged as the most endearing of all sentiments in the realm of devotional relationships.

There can be no comparison between the parting of Krishna from His confidential associates and my leaving my South American friends, but for what it’s worth I did leave with a weighty heart. For those I trekked with and those I dramatized with and those I chanted with, and above all those I just sat down with over meal time. It was out of duty and upcoming commitments that put me on that plane to return home. It wasn’t my heart. So until a full year gap, “Adios” to brothers and sisters of Buenos Aries where the air is good beyond the city.

If comparisons are to be drawn at all it would be the natural rainbow that was my last image before entering the terminal for Delta Airlines. Krishna was compared to rainbow in the Vedas. When he appeared in the world he gave human semblance but in fact he demonstrated super-human qualities. It appeared he was attached to the world of bondage as we are and just as the arch of a rainbow appears to be bound at its two ends by string. Anyone knows that if you walk to the end of the rainbow you will find nothing to force its anchorage. No string, no rope, no means whatsoever could bind Krishna to this world.

By the time I embarked on the plane there was no chance to see that rainbow. But it will return and again I will see my amigos again.

5 Km

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