Thursday, April 9th, 2015

Toronto, Ontario

I Will Come

It was a type of conversation I’ve had before with people who have mystical notions about monks.  I was walking and came to the juncture of Ave and Dav when two young guys, one with hoodie and one with toque, saw me.  “Are you a monk?” said one. 

“Sure am!” said I. 

“I thought monks don’t speak.”

“In some orders they have taken vows of silence.  Our group makes lots of good noise.  We drum and we chant mantras...” 

I invited them to our ashram just two blocks away saying that our morning session was about to begin at 4:30 AM.  They weren’t quite ready for such a wakeup experience.

“We’ll come, promise, sometime soon.”

Another person I met on my way to see Devamrita Swami, a monk friend from the States, works with the Parks and Recreation division of the city.  He was in uniform and was parked on the side of the street.  He starts to speak, “Are you chanting?  Did you have your prasadam?”  I never met this person before to my recollection.  Then he identified himself as Michael and said he has a brother in Florida whose name is Mahavir, and who recently started a Hare Krishna bikers club. 

“I know him,” I responded, “he opened up so many Krishna centres in South America, right?” 

The fellow got a little jovial and then said, “Yeah, his hair’s a bit too long.  When it comes to hair, I’m more like you guys.”  And with that he pulled off his hat to demonstrate his lack of hair. 

And then I remarked, “Yeah, he looks at times a little like Shirley Temple with his hair.”  (Laughter)  “Come to our temple sometime, we have a great restaurant, you’ll love it.”

“I will come!” he said very determinedly. 

May the Source be with you!

9 KM