Pal Mare, Mauritius
The day began, as usual on this island,
with an arati and chanting. Then, onward soldiers. Forty folks came in total.
Just minutes into our journey and the
rains came. They weren’t moderate either. We were wet worms. I called for a
vote on whether to turn back and conduct a dry Sadhana program under a shelter
or to go on wet whatever the weather. With smiles, the exposed arms ascended
with water dripping outside the shelter of their umbrella. We were at a
standstill and I had to raise my voice to be heard over the rain. The vote was
for – to continue.
That’s why I call them soldiers – troupers.
Time went on. We walked through the town of Belle Mare. Another deluge. We
didn’t vote this time. Someone mentioned about a Shiva Temple nearby. “Okay,
those who have your backup vehicles, will drive us to that temple”. There we
went and there we rested, conducting a calm guru-puja, a song to honour the
guru. We then forged ahead, but along the sandy white beach at Pal Mare Beach.
We sat on those sands and chanted, “Om Namo
Bhagavate Vasydevaya” followed by my talk on the verse of the Gita, chapter 7.
We had breakfast. We enjoyed each others’ company.
A
more grand event was planned for the evening. I prefer the sand but, here, at
the Ramnath Mandir, we sat on chairs. This is a regular venue held by our bhakti group here. I was not too impressed with where “my”
chair was placed for delivering another message from the Gita. I looked at the
layout of the place and where chairs were positioned. I spontaneously decided
on a control post, right in front of the Shiva Lingam where I could view and be
close to everyone.
First, we began with kirtan after I
demonstrated a dance step, hoping everyone could follow. For the most part,
they could. The evening with its program went on in an interactive way. That seemed
to work.
I feel a kind on gratification seeing to
having a solid morning and evening sadhana just as our guru, Srila Prabhupada,
would like it.
12 KM
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