Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Monday, February 5th, 2018

Mayapur, West Bengal

Food Unites Us

Food unites people. This was so when the Canadian delegates got together.  I mean to say, “We pilgrims from Canada!” We made that connection, a bond which rarely happens.  In fact, because we are a group of people in a land spread so far and wide, we can only come together once a year and that’s right here in Mayapura.

It was Keshava, Mayapura Hospital’s dentist, who organized our lunch at 1:00 p.m., the venue being at the Gauranga Garden and sponsored by my own doctor, Jagannatha Misra, also of Canada.  It was a special day on our calendar, on top of our little gathering of fifty people.  Our grand guru or param guru, Bhaktisiddhanta, whose birth anniversary was today, was honoured with a half-day fast, then feast.

From as far east as Newfoundland, to as far west as Vancouver, we Canucks got together, to get to know each other.  Mind you, a few extras came on board from the U.S. and abroad.  Banu Swami, originally from B.C., is of Japanese descent, and he also came, in addition to Gopal Krishna Goswami, originally from India.

Young Dustin Hines, the opera singer, was there and he let me know that he was the first person to formally sing the new Canadian National Anthem, or rather the new version which is now gender neutral.

You could tell by the happy conversations and a certain plate and cutlery language that pervaded the shaded room at the restaurant, that food does it, and even better still—prasadam.

May the Source be with you!

5 km

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