Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Last Day in Dallas

Dallas, Texas

It was brahma-muhurta hour, a space of time ideal for spiritual concentration, that I took my steps walking on the Dallas centre grounds on Gurley Avenue. Just behind a Samadhi tomb of Tamal Krishna Goswami, a prominent monk and early pioneer of Krishna Consciousness, I spotted a moving object larger than a rat and bald as an old man. It was a possum scurrying along, making his way towards the temple. Off to worship? I don’t think so! Not in this life! He was just doing his thing; on a food hunt I suppose. Anyway, it perked me up.

At drama practice there are times I get to play out a brief part to demonstrate to the actors just what I’m looking for. That really seems to perk up our acting volunteers. It’s a change from just sitting on the director’s chair all the time. I must admit, this “becoming someone else”, even for a flash, is so much in me. It’s great to step outside of your own shoes and walk around in someone else’s.

What was really gripping for me today was attending a session on mental disease and depression that hits our communities like anywhere else in society. Our chairperson, Tamohara, from Florida, raised the question as to what do you do when you have someone in your ashram (monastery) who is stricken with mental challenges? I pondered on what it would be like to have this mental uncertainty in your life. Many people in the world suffer from depression, anxiety and lack of sleep. It triggers many other abnormal difficulties including physical problems.

Most of us have someone near or dear who have been suffering tremendously. My own mother had her challenges in this regard. It is a foul karma that people have to go through. This I remarked to a friend, Anuttama, who said, “If it’s not one thing then it’s another.” Such is the nature of an unstable world – this material world.

One important thing that I gleaned from Tamohara’s presentation is that victims of such instability should never be abandoned, even if living in the ashram is to be terminated.

6 Km