Wednesday, June 25th, 2014

Harrison Mills, British Columbia

Start of the Valley


It was breakfast time.  We were breakfast.  Mosquitoes were out in full force and Karuna and I were the natural target.  There were no other humans visible to take on in the out of doors along the highway.  We survived, even though deprived of our Burt’s Bees herbal insect repellant. 

In the Fraser Valley, temperatures were in the low 30 Celcius, quite hot for continued walking.  At break time, one god brother (classmate of the same guru) had invited us for lunch.  He goes by the name of Tota Gopinatha; he resides in Chilliwack and has a heroic history.  He became a Krishna monk at age 15.  Eventually he got married and ended up working in the Ministry of Children and Family.  He managed to reach success, even on a grade 6 education, in helping orphans and abused children.  Even though he left monastic life years ago, he maintains a strict level of sadhana (internal exercise) which includes mantra meditation.  He cooks up a great veggie meal for our small Canwalk team.  We were grateful for his blissful company along with his wife, Paulette.

From Tota’s home, we ventured by car to West Star Auto, managed by Tulsi, origins, Mauritius.  He called the local media, Greg from the local paper.  He also called in all of his staff.

“Meet the Walking Monk who can tell you the purpose of life,” he said as I walked in.  Tulsi’s style is curt and cute at the same time, “Take this Gita, read chapter 2.  We are not these bodies.  Learn how to get out of the cycle of birth and death.  The monk will tell you.”

It was instant friendship with his open-minded staff.  The final piece of glory that crowned this day when a couple of Krishna devotees from Vancouver tracked me down to walk some kilometres for the evening shift.  In fact, I was greeted by one of them playing Highlander bagpipes.

May the Source be with you!

36 KM