Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Our Peace in the City of Conflict

Haifa Israel

The dream to reach Nazareth today had to be shelved until a future Israeli trip. We would not reach there because of time constraints considering the flight home tomorrow. Bala Krishna and I reverted back to completing the coastline adventure to Haifa, a significant-sized city in this wondrous country.

An Israeli devotee Audaria drove up from Harish to locate us and join us, but his endeavor was in vain. Regretfully his tires got stuck in the sand and he remained stranded like that for hours until someone on that quite beach turned up and assisted him.

The bulk of today’s affairs were in Jerusalem, where we met with Eli and Igor, two well-read men who are very inclined towards Krishna Consciousness. I asked them how they became attracted to being conscious of Him and they replied by saying that the search for Indian food led them to a Hare Krishna cook book by author Kurma Das. One thing led to another a finally their staunch approach to Judaism made room for an additional belief in chanting and in Krishna.

Eli became our guide for a tour within the walls of older Jerusalem he encouraged our party of six to hold kirtan at the top of the tower of David, so we did. We were brought to the crypt in honour of Mary Magdalene, to a German basilica, a mosque and finally a lunch at Greg’s Restaurant where we settled for fabulous salad and sandwich. Both items on the menu were consecrated by way of mantras as a way to bless the food as prashadam. It was an on-the-spot implementation. Thank you Eli and Igor for a great afternoon and telling us about the famous temple in India, where they worship rats-a place of pilgrimage you stopped at on your visit to India.

The evening sat-sang was held in Ariel, a final one on this trip. Our verse learning today expressed another opulence of the Absolute. From the Gita we have verse 10.20 which reads, “I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.”

That brought everything to a bright finish.

20 Km