Sunday, 17 September 2017

Friday, September 15th, 2017

San Francisco, California

The Last Steps, But Not

Well, it is done!

After a sensational trek over the Golden Gate Bridge, (and I love moving over bridges with a water flow underneath) with a mere 1.7 mile expanse, the last few steps on Irving Street to the Pacific were accomplished.  Dear friends, Vaisesika and Nirakula from San Jose, also came to join us for the last four miles from Masonic and Page to Irving and the Lower Great Highway, the path of the original Jagannatha Fest a half century ago.  https://youtu.be/pjn7c1uqhkU

When finally we pressed footprints in the sand to beeline our way to the ocean’s waters and offer our obeisances to that beautiful body of salt water, we took the opportunity to reflect on all the highlights of a collective six month trek.  I asked both Hayagriva and Marshall to add to the memories of our recent past as the small group of us stood with sand under our feet and an unusual sun above our heads.  It was a total of 3,550 miles or 5,713 kilometres.

The U.S. walk entailed spanning—and in some cases edging a corner of a state such as Michigan and Wyoming—the balance of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California and Hawaii.  It also included a walk-through, at the pivotal juncture, Butler, Pennsylvania, where our guru, Prabhupada, spent an entire month in the city of his sponsors, Gopal and Sally Agarwal, before registering his cherished ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, in 1966.

We hope that Prabhupada is pleased with the walking endeavour—a pilgrimage, a padayatra.  I hope Krishna’s smile is broad.  Maybe Uncle Sam is also delighted that some seeds of bhakti (devotion) have been planted along the way.

May the Source be with you!

6 miles

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