Tuesday, September 18th, 2018

Toronto, Ontario

Inspirational Monk

It was just a blessing, last week, having the company of some great souls, one of whom is Ontario-born and became a monk, Bhakti Raghava Swami.  He hails from the north-Hearst / Timmins area and is from a Catholic, French-Canadian background.  He is the real thing in terms of exercising simplicity and detachment from the world; appropriate qualities for a sanyasi(monk).  He is an inspiration.  One time in the ’70s, Bhakti Raghava Swami lost his leg when a dacoit (an armed thief) released a home-made bomb aimed at the swami.  Since then, he uses crutches and operates on one leg.  I did joke with him—and he took it well, I think—that he’s the Terry Fox of the Hare Krishnas.  

It was good to see him in the Ukraine last week.  I might also mention that his specific service is the development of sustainable communities.

Now, on this day, I walked up along Bloor Street.  Being Tuesday evening, garbage and trash were put out by all the shop owners for pick-up.  I was thinking about the environment and reflected on the very powerful purport we discussed in the morning.  Here is a portion of it.

From Srimad Bhagavatam10.46.40:

“We desire to associate with various qualities of material nature, and thus we must accept the consequences.  The Lord provides the field of material nature, in which we exercise our free will. Foolish non-devotees not only attempt to cheat the Lord by trying to exploit His nature, but when they suffer the reaction, they blame God for their own misdeeds.  This is the shameless position of those who are envious of God.”

May the Source be with you!

5 km