Oshawa, Ontario
A hospital visit to see a dear one was time well spent. The patient is Rupa Manohar and he is one of our community developers. He takes interest in people's spiritual lives by himself dropping in to see potential spiritualists as well as the already committed. I was happy to see Rupa gaining health from his surgery and it's always important to give support to your main people.
That visit was followed by an hour east (by car) or three days on foot, to Durham College in Oshawa. Rick, the professor in religious studies, asked me to speak on eight essential points that all speakers are asked. The following are the points asked and my mini-abbreviated answers:
1) The Absolute:
Q: What is the most essential concept for believers?
A: The Absolute is perceived in 3 phases, as Brahman (spiritual pervasive presence of God; as Paramatma (God in the heart); and finally God as a loving and guiding person. This final phase is Krishna.
2) Word View:
Q: How do you view the world?
A: There are two energies - matter and spirit. Matter, the world or energy in which we live, is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world.
3) Humans:
Q: What are they compared to other life forms?
A: Humans are social animals who can penetrate beyond the propensities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. They have a spiritual potential unique amongst all life forms.
4) Problem:
Q: What's wrong in the world that needs to be corrected or avoided?
A: There is a lack of spiritual perception and therefore a lack of balance of powers. Corporations rule.
5) Solution:
Q: What would make human life idea?
A: A spiritually centered perma-culture based society.
6) Ethics:
Q: Community's standards of conduct?
A: (Here I explained about our lifestyle.) We believe that through group chanting it brings unity and inner peace.
7) Life after death:
Q: Life after death?
A: Our book the Bhagavad-gita explains that we are born again and again until we purge and develop profound love, bhakti.
8) Relation to Other Religions:
Q: Inclusive, exclusive or indifferent?
A: Our doors are open to all. We involve ourselves in interfaith dialoguing and see a validity to various approaches to the Absolute.
Students at Durham College as were students at York University, our final venue for the day. The campus' Krishna Club invited us down for the Nine Devotion's Workshop.
I had so little time for trekking today yet I was in ecstasy nevertheless.
3 Km
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