Moundsville, West Virginia
To the Hills
Raj sat behind the wheel, with me up front, as passengers Partha and Uttama from British Columbia rode in the back seat. The four of us were enroute to the first ever, official, ISKCON men’s retreat, promoted cleverly as the MANtra Retreat, hosted in West Virginia, in the hills. Our walk-less trip took us eight hours, and much of it through some fierce rain. https://www.instagram.com/p/Boiw0Hbl29M/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1wut5krq0j139
Periodically I pulled out my pet book for the time—a second read of Mukunda Goswami’s book, “Miracle on 22ndAvenue.” Any piece of literature which features the pioneer years of the Hare Krishnas is what I am most fond of for its contemporariness—it’s happened in our lifetime. I am indeed a sucker for those times of change—the ’60s. I even interested our car crew in the detour to Butler, Pennsylvania, where fifty-three years ago our guru, Prabhupada, stayed for one month. One can marvel at that—that the first place of his teaching the Bhagavat philosophy outside of India was in Butler, and not New York City. https://youtu.be/LzSjg3xT01Q
With the rain pouring down as it was, we still managed to take pics of the old YMCA where he stayed, and the home of where his sponsors, the Agarwals, were visited by him on a daily basis, and where he cooked a bhakti-packed meal for them each day.
By the way, monks can cook, play chess, do janitorial services and even walk treacherous trails. Sigh. I walked through here three years ago.
May the Source be with you!
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