Monday, August 29th, 2011

Weeds and Curses

Inglis Falls/Toronto

Through patches of jewel weed we did roam. Priyam is about to enter high school next week, is an avid soccer player and now saw another side to sports - walking. His dad, Rajesh, also on the trail less travelled, was like the two of us - not exactly sure where we were going. It was dawn and the trail wasn't always traceable. You stumble here and there on unforeseen rock and trip over the odd tree roots. It made us alert though.

We vowed not to talk, or let's say, it was understood our soft chanting was to take dominance. The challenge was not how to shut out mother nature either, but to feel a union of the Creator, the sound of mantras, with creation, the nature around us.

We began this stretch of our trek by marvelling at Inglis Falls, a pretty sight. Father God (Krishna) and Mother Nature became married, in a sense. From there we took to a trail's loop and meandered somewhat. At one point I broke our apparent silence to inform the two with me that the patch of jewel weed we were brushing against to our right and left provides juices to cure an irritable poison ivy rash. A friend, I recently found out, got covered with the infection. He was doing a farmer's job in the harvest of hay when the ivy got caught in the mix. Rajesh offered to say that there is some similar plant like that in India. What it was, he wasn't exactly sure, but something is out there in the jungles of India.

I guess you could say infections of all kinds are everywhere. You search for the cure. One time our guru, Srila Prabhupada, explained that there are three main infections in this world. Of course, he was referring to the more psycho-physical traits of the gunas as described in the Vedas - satva guna (goodness), raja guna (passion), and tamo guna (ignorance). these gunas or conditions are the soul's irritants.

The cure comes form the change of heart. The method is to chant attentively and feelingly.

At the end of the day I was back in the Big City again - Toronto. After hours of administrative and advisory service, I felt a deserving trek would do. What an environmental adjustment it was from the morning! There, at Inglis, it was quiet. Here, it's hip hop blaring from auto radios, outdoor salsa dancing at a street corner, smells of pizza exhausting out of their shops, people on cells. A lot of guna stuff, I would say.

I walked and walked and kept the sound of the mantra with me.

17 Km