Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Students and the Park

 

Terra Cotta, Ontario

 

I asked Yogendra to drop me off at the entrance of Cedarbrae Park in order to get some trekking in. We had spent some hours today at Notre Dame Secondary School, then followed the teacher who invited us to her home for a terrific dinner. Judy is her name. She, her husband, Bob, and two daughters hosted us. What an absolutely fantastic family! I would say they are brahmins, by nature, satvic, or very much in the mode of goodness.

 

While taking to that trail in Cedarbrae I was meditating on the fine response from the students at Notre Dame. My presentation along with Yogendra and Laksman, who is visiting from Vrindavan, India, and who conducts pilgrimage walks in that area, was held in the school chapel. The questions asked by students were not highly philosophical yet they were deep. Their questions were centered around themselves. They surely pictured themselves being in the shoes of a monk, imagining what it is like to live as we do and also what it would mean to walk across the country.

 

The questions were, "How old were you when you became a monk?" "At what age can you live in the ashram?" "How many pairs of shoes does it take to walk across Canada?" What also came up was, "Do you guys fast?" The school here conducts a 28 hour fast annually when students have a sleepover at the temple, that's what motivated the question.

 

The students took well to chanting and when it came to the dancing, I just hand picked two black dudes from the group to set the tone for moving. They always have the best rhythm. 

 

"What a jolly good day it was," I thought while trudging through the water drenched trail, a result of run-off. Come to think of it, all days in Krishna Consciousness are truly like this.

7 Km