Toronto, Ontario
Happy Holidays
I had only two hours left in the day to get
some kilometres in before the midnight approached and Christmas Day would
begin. I tied my shoe laces and grabbed
my phone, then dialed an old friend whom I wanted to wish well. I shut the door behind me. I was outside now in a snow-melting
Christmas.
“Hello!
Visvakarma, it’s been a while.”
“Yes it has. Hare Krishna.”
“I’m walking as we talk.”
And talk we did—of old times, ’73, of
people we know and also wish well, of the world situation, of the power of the
technique of chanting. And as we did, I
saw people, some having the spirit and some not.
“Where are you now?” asked Visvakarma when
music of yuletide was playing from the outdoor speakers of Holt Renfrew.
“Bloor, but getting close to Yonge,” I
said.
Much later on, an hour or more, after a
muscle car burned rubber, and he could hear the sound penetrating through a
hopeful “Silent Night, Holy Night,” he asked again, “Where are you now?”
“I’m near Dundas. I got to Queen and turned around.”
I was happy to hear that he’s been in touch
with God-brothers (“Go-bros” I call them, sometimes) and giving encouragement
to each and all about doing their japa
(mantra meditation). Some had drifted
from this request of our teacher, Srila Prabhupada, but to his credit,
Visvakarma is pulling them back in again.
It was time for me to sign off on the call,
which was no doubt positive. I had
listened, spoken and observed the rough and refined. My last leg was a slippery slope over ice,
water and snow. Just a reminder of the
care we must take as we do life.
Happy Holidays.
May the Source be with you!
7 km
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