Saturday 9 March 2013

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Dripping Sap and More

Mayapura, West Bengal

The date trees are dripping this sap. A spider spun his web and is doing a bounce on this net. For more Cirque du Soliel, monkeys scammer about and in great leaps move to shake the trees. Such acrobats!

I had taken a small group of Brahmacari monks down my usual trail here in Mayapura and let them go down my path of wonder. Along the Jalangi River, Coriander flowers release their scent. Aromatic they are. The mere smell arouses the desires to walk more robustly. Soft dirt is felt under the feet. It’s all good.- very good- and very spiritual. This is the land of Chaitanya.

And then after we completed the fine walk (and topped it off with a full cup of that date juice), I was called on to lead the kirtan for the guru, Srila Prabhupada. What an honour that was- chanting the lead in the midst of forty to fifty sannyasi monks from around the world. There were other Krishna leaders who were also part of the assembly with the kick-start of a major retreat, the first of it’s kind- we spent a few hours together in brainstorm and celebration.

Finally the day culminated in taking time with youth working on voice projection, dance, stage- blocking, martial arts moves- all in an effort to pull together a production to be staged in only a matter of days. What put closure to the day was moments of ecstasy as our little troupe came to terms with the joyful night. Philip picked up his guitar, started reggae then jazz, all to the sound of the holy name while Roman b-boxed through it all. Rasalila was coming across like Ella Fitzgerald and a young Punjabi, Pariksit, made his vocal contribution as well.

Here is all this talent just exploding in a bopping trot back through the campus and to the Gada Building, my place of rest.

Magic it was.

8 KM

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