Wednesday, 29 June 2016

Friday, June 24th, 2016

Friday, June 24th, 2016
Vancouver, British Colombia

Obligations to the Guru

From time to time I must jump off the trail and leave it to tend to the obligations of the guru.  One of my responsibilities is to visit centres of Krishna Consciousness and provide a small inspiration.  It goes both ways.  I also become inspired, seeing various acts of devotion being expressed by communities attempting to raise the consciousness amongst themselves.

In my humble efforts to share this higher consciousness I like to greet people along the way, while walking.  Any small encouragement goes a long way.

Today I did no walking, but went to a community pool to swim and take a massage from a professional therapist.  I did reflect on the previous day’s walk with the monks from Chicago.  One of them, Mitch, asked me a question, noticing that I like to greet people in the park by saying, “Hello!”

“Why?” he asked.

Coincidentally I had read, that very day, about a pastime involving our guru, Prabhupada, who interacted with public while walking.  One student of his, Aniruddha, recalls:

“We went on many walks with Srila Prabhupada in San Francisco.  One of his favourite places was Stowe Lake.  Every morning, the same woman would come with her dog and Prabhupada would always say, ‘Hello, good morning, how are you?’  And she’d smile.  Prabhupada never said, ‘Hare Krishna.’  One of our godbrothers said, ‘Swami-ji, why don’t you say Hare Krishna to her?’  Prabhupada said, ‘She would not say Hare Krishna back, but this way she gets the benefit of giving respect to a saintly person.”

May the Source be with you!

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