Friday, May 10th, 2013

True Identity

US/Canada Border

People say that since 9-11, when the New York Twin Towers came down, the world has never been the same. That might be true from a safety/security point of view, but really, there must have been a 9-11 in every generation. If not, then in every decade.

Personally, I’ve noticed more intense watchfulness when you cross the border into the US. At the Fort Erie/Buffalo Peace Bridge, Customs was only doing their job I guess when they pulled over our van to look further into 2 of our 5 passengers – one from Latvia and the other from the Congo. When we stepped into the official security waiting room, the 5 of us who were destined for a spiritual retreat in West Virginia, realized we weren’t the only travelers being sifted through . The room was full. Investigating people has so much to do with bodily identity, with no consideration for the soul. You can’t blame Customs for the territorialism that we all latch on to. In the name of patriotism, we strut about in this world with a false pride, thinking, “I am this body, and this body comes from the best land because I was born there.” This, of course, is downright incorrect information.

We held in our hands our individual passports to reinforce the myth that we are these bodies while two of us offered a PR form, Permanent Residents, which is another lie. Who is here permanently in this world? We witnessed one woman in the queue being called to the counter and then after the interview, sat down crying with tears rolling down her eyes.

Fortunately when our name came up over the loud speaker after a long line and wait, we got down to a greater truth. We were asked by a rather friendly personnel behind the counter and computer how we were all related to each other. “We belong to the same spiritual community, Hare Krishna.” The Customs officer seemed to know about us and that gave us a sigh of relief.

Even though we are truly not these bodies, we do have some identity and that is our connection to the Blue Mystic, Krishna. We gladly left the customs building and drove off to one of the most ecstatic events of the year, the Festival of Inspiration, which always reminds us that we are unmistakably happy spirit souls, and that is our true identity.

4 KM