What Do I Take?
Toronto, Ontario
What does it take to prepare for a trek that's going to stretch out for sometime? Tomorrow morning I'm set to drive, direction - east, with Daruka from Winnipeg and his companion, Billy the parrot, to continue Canwalk 4.
The essentials for physical upkeep are sleeping gear, a tent, a two-burner Coleman's Stove, my robes (dhoti, kurta and chaudder), toiletries, shoes of course, food supplies and maps. For spiritual maintenance I'll have my japa meditation beads, reading material including the Gita, writing material and also books to distribute and sell.
In addition to this I will carry with me, or rather it will carry me - a ton of enthusiasm, loads of good health and showers of mercy from guru and Krishna.
Naturally, when you plan a trip you'll be forgetting something important. What that is, who can say? At a moment of importance the left behind item will reveal itself. Then you may kick yourself for not remembering to take it with you. Then you will recall how you are a resident of Kali Yuga, the age of forgetfulness, and are vulnerable to imperfections of life.
The book Bhagavatam informs us that in this age we are short lived, slow to self-realization, lazy, misguided and are generally always disturbed. I would say that these are the very reasons for the serious trek. It's good for health, body, my spirit, my sannyasa (renunciation) will be put into traditional action. With mantra, guru and God, there lies a power in you. There's a hope that the world will slowly transition and that the malpractices of Kali Yuga will first go down a few notches on the priority list and that a harmonizing amongst the living entities of the world will be the happy by-product of the dynamic undertaking. This undertaking is a form of sankirtan, a cooperative enlightenment. There will be many mantras chanted along the way, lots of sharing and encouragmeent as was done on previous marathons.
There are new trails to travel and new hearts to connect with.
10 Km
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