Sunday, May 19th, 2013

From Fiddles to Mantras

Fredericton, New Brunswick

The province of New Brunswick prides itself on harvesting some of the world’s best fiddleheads; fiddleheads - the early shoots of the wild fern plant. So I happen to be here walking a lonely trail, hoping to perhaps stumble upon some. My confession is that I’m a sucker for these tasty edibles that are unfortunately now about a week out of harvest.

Sentier Trail on the east side of the Saint John River bare them no more. “Fiddles,” I thought, “these are about the best wild veggies you could offer Krishna; I’m several days late.”

What I must settle for is the harvest of humans. Are there some sincere seekers of the truth out there ready for being plucked from their material roots? Of course there are. There are plenty of souls lurking about who are exhausted from materialistic pursuits. Mick Jaggar’s song comes to mind, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” We all hear you, Mick.

11 AM comes about. On the second storey, in downtown as what’s referred to as the art building, Marilyn Mazerolle opened up her art gallery space for our kirtan presentation.

Wade, Ron, Tiffany, Gabriel, Alicia, Nina, Marilyn and also Nitai Rama, all local New Brunswickers, sit for a session on a true out of body experience. I say out of body because when you let the mantra do its own work you feel lifted from this world of puny stimuli.

In actuality, it’s our stubborn rootedness to material attachments that prolong the hankerings and accompanying pain. When submission in a devotional way is applied to kirtan chanting, we yield the best chance at personal freedom.

With Marilyn’s colourful art adorning the walls around us, and being in the midst of the powerhouse of mantra passion, we felt some moments of transcending. I then lead the group as a closure to the session and a brief verse memorization from the Gita, 6.26:

Yato yato nischalati-manash cancalam asthiram

“The mind is always agitated, it’s flickering and unsteady,” is the translation.

“Have you trust in the mind?” was the message. “Fixate yourselves on spiritual sound, let’s be harvested.”

Thank you, Mukunda and Hladini, for organizing the program.

10 KM