Saturday, March 12th, 2011

Walking to a Wedding

Mayapur, India

A planned youth kirtan was restricted to the small stage of the Samadhi
Auditorium due to a storm. That was last night. Yes, the winds were high
and rain did come down. Hurray! Nevertheless, the kirtan soared and those
who came, the twenty or so youth, took to the theatrical kirtan, unlike the
very, very common sit-down standards of these days.

With the damper weather conditions and from left up all night to thwart off
mosquitoes, I woke up with muscle spasms in the back. A little extra rest
and then a trek was my anticipated care. It turned into a 7 kilometer bound
trek with Gaura, our leading actor for the play "The Three Lives of
Bharat". We had ride offers but we declined as we were happily en route to
a wedding at the Jagannatha temple.

"No thanks," I told one motorist, "We are going the civilized style. We're
losing our legs!"

The lucky couple being betrothed is Gopal and Avatari. Since the departure
last year of Aindra, 24 hr kirtan guru, Gopal has since taken over the
supervision of the noble task for around-the-clock chanting at the cultural
centre and temple, ISKCON Vrndavan. Avatari, looking like an Indian
princess, I have known since she was 4. What a good match they are!

I didn't have a chance to speak at the ceremony but I left a brief message
in their blessings book:

To Gopal and Avatari,

Keep it together, keep it Krishna-centric. Do it and you will shine even
more!

7 KM