Thursday, January 31st, 2019

Toronto / Port of Spain

Getting Up There

I'm off to Guyana, with a stop-over in Trinidad. Unfortunately, I'm not on foot, walking, rather my feet are placed under Seat 24E on Caribbean Airlines.  Next to me, occupying the window seat, is forty-two-year-old Naveen Deodat, an actual employee of the Toronto Airport.  He has a few days off.  It's holiday time for him.  He was surprised to see me.

"Have I seen you before? On YouTube?  Maybe giving a talk?" he asked.

"It's possible.  I'm—"

"The Walking Monk.  I knew I'd seen you.  This is a pleasure.  It was meant to be.  It's not an accident...."

Naveen and I hit it off quite well.  He mentioned that years ago Sri Chinmoy visited his home.  He has a copy of Bhagavad-gita:As It Is, and has gone through it.  Talking about spirituality with Naveen was no problem.  He's single, and at one point asked what is the prerequisite for becoming a sannyasi—a monk.

My answer:  "A certain amount of dedication.  Study of the sastra (scripture) is required, in addition to doing japa meditation for two hours each day.  Some principles are to be abided by: no meat, no substance abuse, sex only with one partner, no gambling...and share what you know.... There are also first and second initiations. A third one means you are taking sannyasa after being on a waiting list for some time...."

He assumed sannyasa was a high position, and as we were talking, we were soaring high—10,000 feet in altitude, 15,000 and at least to 25,000 in the jet stream. I thought, Wow!  Of course humans are supposed to reach zenith levels—in consciousness.

May the Source be with you!

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