Thursday, May 23rd, 2013

I Had A Chat

Malton, Ontario

Before I took to the day's trek (which ended up being extremely brief) I had a chat with someone in the sitting room of our temple ashram. This is the very place where our guru, Srila Prabhupada, spent time. From that second story room I could see through the arched window two fellows in the distance climbing an angular building crane. It was a careful climb upward - way up.

I admit I was distracted while in the course of our dialogue. My mind raced to something I heard our guru say in the summer of '76 in Detroit. I was but six feet away from where he was talking about the leading demon-character from the epic 'Ramayan' - Ravana. The story goes that Ravana was building a stairway to heaven. He did not succeed, however, in his attempted ascension because he lacked the qualification to enter this sphere. According to Prabhupada the practice of intense piety earns one a post in the heavenly abode. Pious? Ravana was not. Therefore Ravana's program was an utter failure. The message was that at least one has to be a 'good person' before one can achieve such greater heights.

I resumed conversation after this inattentiveness on my part. Within such a short span (seconds in fact) my detour went on this lazer-speed mental journey. So much mental territory had been covered.

I was slightly embarrassed when my eyes met with the eyes of the conversationalist. My excuse was that it was just so unusual to see two construction workers make their way manually up this huge crane. I did not voice even a subtle apology. I only hoped for pardon by being super-attentive from there on. I tried to compensate. Overall the talk was friendly, productive.

My day wound up in a suburb, Malton, with a fantastic devotee family who treated me to a great Malaysian meal. After the meal, at a relaxed moment I once again thought of the two guys on the crane anticipating some high-rise heavenly scenerio like Ravana, I'm sure the building will get completed and I'm also sure that ultimately happiness will not come to the future residents unless some soul connection takes place.

4 KM