Monday 2 December 2013

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

Relief!
 
Santa Clara, Cuba
 
What a great relief!
 
In Cuba you can approach a person or pass by one on the street and not have to deal with a moat around his castle. I mean to say people here, on the whole, have not yet been burdened by pods and pods or I this or I that I, I, I, I, I,…
 
Yes, I say it’s a consolation, seeing a human being and having it be an eye-to-eye situation, instead of an eye-to-I. There are little or no gadgets. I feel liberated! I feel I’ve reached moksha, nirvana.
 
A small group of us from Canada went on a two block excursion on the street in Santa Clara to test the waters of human interaction. Cuba strikes No.1 on my gauge of personalism. We got such a nice response. There was no bar between us and them. Our kirtan actually was a raft, slow chant with a drum beat to boot. Inquisitive they were.
 
We found the same at Cuba’s renowned “El Mejunje”, a community square in the heart of Santa Clara when Iksvaku, a Cuban-born American, conducted a fire ceremony for three new initiates in Krishna Consciousness. The audience was curious and yet divided. To one side were the managers of the place. Hugged around the small fire pit were committed devotees. The tattered bleachers directly in front of the pit were spiritual seekers. To the other side were young lovers locked in each other arms. To the far right of the pit were the hipsters. I saw these distinct groups yet they all became one during the final chanting session as we “sweat like hogs” in dance under three shady flamboyant trees with three sided graphitized walls.
 
By the way the three ladies taking diksha were Maite, on behalf of my godbrother, Jayapataka, is now Madhumati Vishaka. Santa is now Sruti and Nancy is now Nandarani.
 
A regret is that I couldn’t walk much. It was a full-on bus ride to Santa Clara from Matanzas. Only by evening did the opportunity avail itself. People are not so car-dependant here. In some villages, half the transportation is by horse and carriage. What else is different? In Cuban homes, toilets and faucets don’t always work, although rainwater from a tank could suffice. You get used to it.
 
One thing I’m also getting used to, is communicating with human beings that are straight-on, with no device between us. Agreeable! It’s so nice!
 
May the Source be with you!
 
3 KM

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