Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Flashback!
37 years ago

Toronto Ontario

It was 37 years ago at Christmas time that 5 monks came into my life to change me forever. Their names - Visvakarma, Ayodhyapati (now Bhakti Brngha Govinda Swami), Satyohit, Dustadura and Drupada. It was in a mining town, Sudbury the nickel capital of the world, that I first met these boys with their extraordinary names. I had been searching and trying to find myself in those months as an art student roaming some of those streets when one day in December I acquired a "Bhagavad-gita".

This joyful group of monks were chanting and drumming in front of a downtown mall when Visvakarma's arm extended out with that unique book with two unfamiliar characters on its front cover. There was some exchange of words. I asked "how much?"

"Give what you can. Five dollars is pretty standard ", said the smiling Visvakarma.

I was interested in the monks as much as I was in the book. They had been staying in a church’s basement, courtesy of a minister. But they were interested in my offer to stay at my apartment for the night. That night the five monastic shaved headed men came over to the large room. My room-mate, Michael, was gone for the weekend. His marijuana plant in the apartment caught the attention of the visitors. They remarked that it should be a tulasi plant.

"What's a tool-si?" I asked.

And so they remarked about this plant of India held sacred for thousands of years.

"Okay!”

That night all six of us crammed in the room to rest. I slept not a wink. My world of wonder and indecision was spinning at an incredible velocity. When they awake they showered and wrapped their robes around themselves preparing themselves for what they called a sadhana. I hoped it wasn't going to be something sad.
Visvakarma conducted a class. The men all prayed on their rosaries after which Ayodhya read a story to me "The gopis attracted by the flute of Krishna".

"Whoever wrote that has a wild imagination", I thought.

By noon the men were on their way home to their ashram in Toronto. That brief stay impacted me so much. I became an instant vegetarian. I started chanting on beads and started to get clean about everything. I read a lot. I constantly looked at a picture of the monks' teacher.

I had written a letter to Visvakarma asking him "Why does maya (illusion) exist?" His answer -"To protect Krishna from those who were insincere", he replied.

Since that time I have been having a good fight with maya.

5 Km