Thursday, September 12th, 2013

Deer Me

Highway 13 and 21 Junction, Saskatchewan

Today is Radhastami a day to honour the eternal consort of Krishna. In ashrams and temples all over the world, celebrations are centred around the feminine aspect of the Divine.

Daruka, Billy and I are far from any place of such traditional colour and ceremony, and yet we become assured from within that something special will happen today. For an early start, however, something inauspicious occurred. On our way to my starting point for the day, we hit a fawn, it was badly injured. The car took a beating on the right side, doing damage to the lights and the body. The poor fellow, the fawn, was tossed into the air and in to the side of the ditch at the car’s impact. Just after we noticed a family of four hovering the highway at predawn, Daruka was awfully broken up about it, being the driver. He returned to the victim after dropping me off, only to sit there and chant to it. The fawn did not stay long, and as we understand it, his soul was preparing for a journey to the next life.

In North America, deer and moose are the major causes for auto accidents. It’s not Daruka’s first time, so you can understand the frequency of this challenge on the road.

The day began well rounded, however, when Brenda had us over for dinner and for conducting a satsang. In this small town, called East End, population 600, if you can draw a group within less than a 24 hour notice, you’re doing good. Her place got filled up and so I presented “Tales From Trails” and interwove universal truths from the Bhagavad Gita followed by kirtan. The kirtan or chanting was quite new for the folks there, but they loved it.

We reserved time for their questions. There were many. I thank Brenda, who’s a yoga teacher herself, for clarifying to the group that yoga is not just about stretching the limbs or about improved breathing. She remarked, “First there was bhakti, devotion, then later came the exercise part.” To endorse her statement, I offered this, “In the beginning there was bhakti, and that means stretching your heart,” implying that yoga is more than just exercise and stress relieving. It is entirely holistic.

We also presented to the group the concept of Radha, the eternal partner of Krishna. That was well received.

Looking back at the deer mishap, the circumstances, although painful had an auspicious edge to it all on this sacred day.

33 KM