Montreal, Quebec
Going and Stopping East
Our departure by car was at 2:20 a.m., with Hari behind the wheel—his wheel. We arrived in haste, five hours and fifteen minutes later; enough time to ready myself for delivering the Bhagavatamclass that morning. From Canto 7, we learned that dictator, Hiranyakasipu, was consoling his relatives who were grieving over the death of his brother, another tyrant.
Hiranyakasipu was a smooth talker, a man with the gift of gab. He spoke like a pundit. "We met as spirits and in time we disperse and may never come together again." The message was: Do not be too attached to those you come in contact with. They will be replaced.
Basically, I'm headed east, so Montreal became a stopover, the place where we discussed about the Hiranya boys. We could learn diplomacy from them, which is in the arena of politics. "Vaishnavas do not get involved in politics," said Bharadraja, quoting our guru, Prabhupada. If, however, one enters the administrative ring of today, you just may have to be prudent in what you say and when you say it. The current times do not reflect such manners.
It was great to hear Bharadraja, who spoke of the old days in ’68, in Montreal. He and Malati had come to celebrate a golden jubilee of 50 years since our guru came to Canada for visa purposes, and stayed for six weeks!
A large party of chanters then stormed the streets at McGill University and the district where devotees had spent their glorious and humble beginnings of Bhakti, devotion, in Canada.
Fortunately, I got to slip in three kilometres of walking.
May the Source be with you!
3 km
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