Wednesday, May 20th, 2015
Toronto, Ontario
How You Know You’re Human
With young Devala, a mridanga drum teacher, we took to a
trail’s walk. With a few more monks, and
one nun, we took to the corporate tourist and municipal area of the city,
including, perhaps for the first time, Church Street, which is the established
gay community. Gradually, we are
covering the downtown core in areas where people just haven’t seen Krishna
monks for a while. This second
installment of walking was featured with drums and karatalas (hand cymbals), and our voices, of course.
Back
at home base in the evening, I was sitting in the
main office when a smartly dressed young fellow walked into our
building. I greeted him. We exchanged names. I asked where he’s from
and he answered that
he’s from Bangladesh and identified himself as coming from a Muslim
background. We sat down and he admitted
to coming for the first time. He had
loads of questions.
I volunteered to say that Bangladesh was a part of India
not so long ago.
“Oh yes,” he said, “It got its independence in ’71.”
We continued. “At
one time, that whole section of the globe practiced a Vedic culture.”
He had never heard of the Vedas from India. Then we jumped over into the topic of the
supernatural. He asked what is our take
on ghosts?
“Disembodied beings, souls who are frustrated for not
having a body through which to have sensory experience. In fact, we are all travelling through
bodies. Our soul transmigrates, it
sometimes becomes suspended.”
“As in purgatory?” he asked.
“Yes, as a ghost, or in a place like pitri-loka, or, purgatory.”
We went on and on. He seemed
fascinated with this explanation and more.
I introduced him to our visiting Lithuanian monk. It was there that the newcomer had spent his
last minutes at our ashram. He then left with many thoughts on his
mind. Yes, there are many things to
think about, and that’s what makes us human.
May the Source be with you!
9 km
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