We are all some kind of Hindu.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
By the mercy of Krsna I covered 7 kilometers on foot before embarking on an Air Canada flight to Halifax. To greet me at the airport was a young family who moved here from Montreal. Manu dasa, Satarupa dasi and their 4 year old son Nikunja Bihari established themselves here for Manu's masters degree in the fine art jewelry department at NSCAD University. We stopped at a pharmacy to pick up a few items for the evening gathering of chanters.
I am not a shopper so I chose to not stay in the line-up for purchasing. Two women behind Manu noticed he and I had been talking.
"Excuse me, but could you explain the orange (referring to the robes)?" Asked one of the ladies.
"Well he is a monk" replied Manu.
"Is it like Hindu?"
"It is the origins of Hindu, we are devotees of Krsna." Manu continued.
"I thought so. I took a religion course. That is how I know."
God bless those religion courses taken by the public. Although peripheral by nature these educational classes have done more good to inform people of alternative approaches to the Absolute. Fifty years ago you might believe that Christianity was the only thing going on in North America. In reality Christian doctrine only arrived from France in the early 17th century with the zealousness of the Jesuits. Before that all of the Americas were more Hindu than anything else. There was a firm belief in the elemental powers that were often personified. The world was for everyone to share. Rivers were the veins of God. Trees were the hairs on his body. God as a spirit and God as a form, known as Manitou.
You study the African continent with its culture, Australia, early Europe, just about everywhere, universal concepts were shared across the board. Practically the whole world thought "Hindu" without saying the word.
At the home of Manu and Satarupa a small gathering came to honour "kirtan" chanting which is an offering of sound to the Supreme and all that is within, the Gods, Goddesses, elements, time and nature.
7 KM
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