Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Monday, September 29, 2014

North York, Ontario
 
Back In
 
I am back in Canada, but still moving around. I was booked with Krishna Club at York University to speak on “A Day in the Life of a Monk.”  To reach the location on campus for sitting in the round, I decided to walk two thirds of the way there to Sheppard and Bathurst.
 
A young woman, Sonia, was waiting at the street corner near Holy Blossom Synagogue, when she saw me cross.  I heard her audible question over the traffic noise. “Are you a monk?”  I did a pedestrian u-turn and got to the spot of her standing point.
 
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”
 
We got to talking. I wish she could have attended the talk I was delivering.  All along my trek on Bathurst I could see there were responsive people, including Jewish private school students, and Catholic Filipino folks now off from work.
 
I was reminded of the multicultural world we live in, not much different from the town I was raised in.  We had people of varying backgrounds, a veritable potpourri of folks.  English, French, Belgian, Dutch, Czechs, Italians, etc.  Even a brown Trinidadian man came to move to town to teach mathematics at the high school.
 
Eventually I did get picked up by Yura and Aastha for the balance of the trip to York U.  Aastha does standup comedy.  On her request, she had asked for topics she might include in her act.
 
“Why not open the Bhagavad-gita and derive some ideas from there – topics such as karma , dharma, the three modes, yoga, liberation, and happiness to begin with?”  Happiness is a topic she’s already been toying with, hence the question, “What else?”
 
We met with students in the round and delineated on a day in the life to a degree.  I believe the young minds were transported.  But I think the kirtan at the end of the session allowed themselves to travel for a moment extra-terrestially.  
 
May the Source be with you!
 
10 KM

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