Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Yamuna
 
Toronto, Ontario
 
Back onto familiar sights – Victorian homes  - Nice!  Corporate buildings.  Not nice!  A pedestrian with skates wrapped around hockey stick.  Okay!  Wind.  Okay!  Night.  Okay!  Back to the ashram.  Great!  Morning sadhana.  Great!  Breakfast baked potatoes.  Yum!  Phone call from Raja.  “Yamuna’s gone!”
 
That was hard to hear.  Yamuna, my godsister.  Sister or mother to us all.  Pioneer of Krishna movement in the west – passed on in Florida.  I know she had a struggling heart.  I’ve visited her at her rural Canada home at Saranagati numerous times.  They were powerful moments.  Dina, her partner, was also there.  I needed to just be alone.  I was tired from lack of sleep and 2 hours walking.  I lay down and I thought of this saint Yamuna whose voice is heard daily in thousands of places around the world with the recording “Govindam adi purusham.”  “A lady of fineness.”  That phrase came to mind and then a poem to follow after I awoke from a nap.
 
To Saint Yamuna
 
A glance from the master
And out of disaster
Came lady of fineness
Of gentleness, kindness
With a voice of grace
In her servant’s place
She’s going home
Ending her roam.
There’s no substitute
Feeling is destitute
 
A chef’s gone
A friend is gone
Her song’s ever more
At the 7 AM score
From the voice of grace
No flaw to trace
She would shout, “More Gaur!
More Gaur!” she would shout.
 
This very awesome devotee, Yamuna, is a big loss to the world wide community of devotees of Krishna.
 
10 Km