Wednesday 20 October 2010

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Veggies Make You Strong, Cannabis Makes You Weak

Toronto, Ontario

The two proud parents of their 13 year old son told me, “Whenever the kids at school give him a hard time about his being vegetarian he beats them up.”

Internally I thought that although we never promote aggression in our culture there might be a time and place for standing up for yourself. What a plug in for the meatless diet. Here’s a kid that can destroy the myth of affiliating vegetarianism to being anemic, even being a wimp.

I guess the boy has gained a level of respect. Karen, his mom, says that protecting animals and his love for Krishna are his strong convictions. I had the opportunity after meeting the couple, visitors to our temple/ashram, to do a presentation to both business and nursing students, all from George Brown College. I spoke about the virtues of not only being vegetarian but the abstinence of gambling, intoxication of all sorts and being faithful to one sex partner in marriage with family planning.

I also let the group know that with these vows under your belt you can achieve things such as walking across Canada three time, some 42 kilometres a day, average. Speaking of which when I closed the day before retiring I took a southbound walk on Yonge and back. A young man caught up to me and started talking, “I haven’t seen a Hare Krishna since Cheech and Chong’s ‘Up In Smoke”. He asked what’s our take on cannabis to which I responded, “One of our gods, Shiva, smokes ganja on occasion."

“Ah, Shiva, the destroyer, right?”

“Yes,” I said, “but we do not endorse it. He can smoke and he has the power to destroy the universe. When we smoke the stuff it can destroy us.”

He agreed with me.

8Km

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