Thursday, March 4th, 2010

A Cockroach! Agggh!

Toronto, Ontario

It was a long flight for Doug, Max, Dustin, and myself. It was also a long journey for another soul- a cockroach. For him/her it must have started in Tirupati. As I unpacked the little creature was found in a folded dhoti (lower robe) wiggling his legs and then making a dash for outside the established comfort zone- my suitcase. The necessary had to be done. Hare Krishna! Can't let them spread. Absolutely not!

The little guy had a free ride. Thousands of kilometres in the air after crawling inside my travel bag, from Tirupati, to Delhi. There it was a stop over for a day and a half in Delhi to be on the ground. I forgot to mention a brief landing in Hyderabad where more passengers were picked up. After a Delhi stop then in the air to Brussels for another stop-over, 2 1/2 hours and finally a smooth landing in Toronto then by car from the airport to the ashram downtown.

Lucky dog he was! In the package deal were likely free meals, crumbs of prasadam (sanctified food) and maybe some nibbles from a flower garland, a favourite for these crawling things.

Being in the brief association of Vaisnava monks he was possibly privy to the name of God. So, that's why I say lucky.

Unlucky, however, is that for the entirety of his life it was mostly a life of food searching, sex, sleeping and defense. Oh, he moved fast when spotted by a devotee present during the unpacking. He was defensive.

Our response to his appearance was also defensive and it was natural to respond and it had to be quick.

In the world of freedom, moksha, or liberation, there is no need to respond as if things are life-threatening because there is only life and it cannot be threatened. The atma (soul) lives permanently. While we are here, however, it's a different story. Practicality is so much a part of life.

When, our guru, Srila Prabhupada, would take rest under the mosquito net some moments would be taken to help those flying souls move on with a smack onto their new body. They were in good company while it lasted.