Sweet Encounters
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
“I can’t believe it!” said the young woman, “I just saw the Ghandi movie in my world religions class, and here you are.”
I have the great privilege of travelling with 8 brahmacaris, monks, and we all made this rendezvous at a parking lot outside Saint Francis Xavier University. Two of us sat by the curb after I completed 25 km on foot, when this young woman, a student, made her remark.
In a way, our group of saffron clad monks took this university town of Antigonish by storm. Our mere presence created quite a buzz. An anthropology professor asked what we were all about, and the answer came, “We are walking that nature, spreading a higher awareness, so we have these books which tell us all about it.” A few more samples of encounters were...
With Michael.
Michael lives in the woods, 20 km out of town, and he loves it. He told us his dad works horses, and not a tractor. Michael was happy to see us, and took our book, ‘Chant and Be Happy’.
We met with Dave.
He spent days with Krishna devotees in South America some years ago while on a Spirit Quest. He now runs a massage and martial arts studio downtown. He said he was ready to train us. “Okay, younger brahmacaris, go for it, but for now I’ll keep trekking.” Dave was thrilled to hear our chanting party go up and down Main Street.
With the Chief of Police
One of the brahmacaris, Yogendra, went deliberately to see the town’s chief of police who was very cool about us being there. After all, these monks have something to share about goodness and the world could use a lot of that in these crazy times.
From Auld’s Cove I trekked through a nasty wet drizzle and then ocean-and-car spray, along with Dhruva on a fairly quiet Highway Four. Then the sun burst through clouds and we drove to Antigonish, for these and other great encounters. As mentioned before, years back, someone mentioned the name of this town when I asked, “What do people have against Ganesha, the adorable elephant headed demigod.”
30 Km
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