Mantra and Moon
Vancouver, British Columbia
A trumpet, two mrdanga drums, a pair of hand cymbals, some clapping and powerful voices permeated the ether at Vancouver’s hip strip, on Commercial Drive. Our kirtan chanting party moved joyously up and down the street, delivering the great mantra of deliverance. As we passed by cafes, restaurants, hair salons, chic clothing shops and such, the occupants inside looked as if responding to a happy tremor.
From there we moved to Unity Yoga, a center off of Commercial Drive, where twice a month, bhakti yoga takes the stage. The scheduled event drew a full crowd, 30 people or so, who took well to our message of the Gita, from 2.17. Done for the first time was a choreographed dance to the chant which involved every human being in the room. The mood was just a carry over from our joy on the street and I hoped that the same contagion had rubbed off on all those who had tended the event.
Given that we entered into a full moon period and an eclipse in the early morning, kirtan was a powerful counteracter to such inauspicious luminary occurrences. After a fruitful day at the temple, the street, the enchanting program at Unity Yoga, I layed down to rest, and as my eyelids got heavy, I reflected on the magical image I saw this morning while on that early morning stroll. It was 4 AM Pacific Time, and the moon was practically like the yoga room – full. I entered the temple for morning kirtan, and then exited at 5:20 AM to view that ball in the sky once again. By now, his eyelid closed on him to over half his circumference. He looked sleepy, as I was.
Let coyotes and wolves howl and let Rahu the dark planet, swallow the moon, but let the kirtan resound and make the world shine.
9 Km
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