Toronto, Ontario
To Another Friend Gone
I just got the news at 10:52 p.m. A phone call from Gainesville. A female voice, Eastern European, was on the phone—Nistaranga by name. “ Your friend, Kalyapani died over an hour ago. An eighteen wheeler hit him. He was on his motorbike.” http://mycbs4.com/news/local/alachua-fire-rescue-responding-to-fatal-motorcycle-wreck
Of course, I was in shock. We did the travelling monk thing together in Northern Ontario, in what we call sankirtan. He was a serious follower of Prabhupada. We bore the bites of those mosquitos in the summer nights. We also travelled on the youth bus tour. He was the driver. I was the drama director for the boys on the tour. Kalya also acted. He was the stuntman and with his pulleys he could do almost anything. For his age, he was very good, agile and slim.
At the Alachua Krishna community, he tended to the gardening and maintenance. He was respected for his tasks and readings at the temple.
God, I don’t like machines that move faster than the human being can handle. Here comes another statistic; another Vaisnava knocked out of life. Hard lessons are to be learned while being in this world.
We will miss you, Kalya, your friendship, your sharpness, your regular task-mastering, your English accent, your love for guru demonstrated by your complete involvement. There isn’t anything outside of devotion that you were made of. You had a lot of fire in you, physically, but your fire of bhaktiexceeded any other flame.
So long! So long, Friend, well-wisher of all. When I go to Florida next, I will walk by the place where you left us—at the corner of the pavement and the sandy road.
May the Source be with you!
4 km
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