Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012

Mantra Mosquitoes

Inverness, Prince Edward Island

What could be the karma for 3 renunciants who broke one of their precious vows?

Here’s what happened. Newly initiated monk, Hayagriva, Bhakta Matt, also in saffron cloth, and I, a swami, broke our vegetarian vows by swallowing mosquitoes. It wasn’t intentional. The little guests came to explore uninvited, our oral caves. I was coaching the other two monks to chant their obligatory mantra as we walked. To be like a ventriloquist so that the little guys don’t have a chance to make an entrance. Did we ever struggle with them for the first two hours down the Confederation Trail until Daruka came to the rescue. He whipped out our saving grace – bug repellent. Blisters and bites were the first day’s experience of my companions on the gentle island of PEI. Like heroes, they bore the pain. We relished each other’s mutual company.

Meanwhile two other monks of Nova Scotia, Tirta Bhavana from Siberia, and Karuna Sindhu from Canada, were not working, and arranged for a program at Sandy’s place. Sandy is a yoga teacher. He’s a he, and is teaching other males. The turn out to our gathering was mostly yoga gurus, in the masculine gender, which is rare.

They wanted to have kirtan chanting and hear about the importance of sadhana and that it is not all just about stretching. “Let’s get beyond that,” suggested Justin who is also an actor playing the role of Gilbert in the renowned production, Anne of Green Gables. I talked about sadhana as a spiritual workout from a marathon walkers perspective. On the list of sadhakas, who enacted traditional walking feats, were Chaitanya, Shankar Acharya, Sukadeva and Buddha. Kirtan really propped up everyone’s day at Sandy’s home in Charlottetown. Kirtan is always the highest chakra point in sadhana.

Now, if we have offended any living entities, such as murdering mosquitoes in the process of our earlier walking engagement, a big part of absolving negative karma, is by feeling regret. The most relevant thing to do is engage in mantra power. Chanting mantras with the heart relieves much negativity.

30 Km