Thursday, March 31st,2011

Rejection/Acceptance

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Not all that you give out to people gets accepted. For instance, last night at the gathering of yogis, at least one yoga teacher got up and left without having a meal. He liked the chanting but not the philosophy as I presented it. My guess for the non-acceptance is that I spoke about the Absolute more in terms of being a person as opposed to a power. It was a bit disappointing to see him go. "You failed." I thought to myself. "You cannot satisfy all of the people all of the time," I heard our guru, Srila Prabhupada say at Lake Michigan in Chicago. That rings true a lot.

I made a number of visits today for home blessings and also including a kirtan at Be Yoga Studio. There was a full acceptance feeling coming from the facilitator, Tiffany.

Here's where real approval came from today. I made a visit to the home of Rachitambara and family. She is a phenomenal devotee of Krishna. Her father, now deceased, was knighted by the queen, via the Governor General of Canada as Sir Graham Fraser. When Rachitambara decided to become one of those Hare Krishnas when she was a young woman, her Dad, Sir Graham Fraser wasn't really thrilled.

Of all her years in devotional life which was spent in India as a school master, in Austrailia, France, and Canada Rachitambara said he never really approved of her chosen lifestyle. She was telling me this with her usual oh-well, what-can-you-do attitude, but then she described how I was rolling through Ottawa on my third cross Canada trek. Local television set their cameras out to follow me walking and stuck with me for several blocks.

Sri Graham Fraser watched the news that night on TV covering the story of the walking monk. "My dad got so excited and immediately called me to give compliments about my Hare Krishna ways. After all these years he finally approved when he saw that telecast."

"Well, there, that was a feel-good remark," I thought. It goes to show that someone may reject you, another accept and then there’s a third category. Someone may say "no" and then suddenly turn around and say "yes."

3 KM