Monday, December 16th, 2019

Havana, Cuba

Havana's Birthday

Havana is in a celebratory mood.  It turned 500 this year.  It achieved its name from a native chief who was prominent at the time of the Spanish newcomers.  But while the party is on with the city in various ways, Yadunandan Swami, Prana Gauranga and I are having our own good time with such things as kirtan, classes, eating, and of course, some walking. 

Today at the Malecon I met a very animated local—Lester, by name.

"Buddha?" he asked.

"No, Krishna!" I replied.

"Oh, I know.  I have read about him.  You people go ching...ching…ching?  And as he said this he mimed the clashing of two sweet cymbals.  

But I insisted, "No!" We go ching, ching, ching...ching, ching, ching."

"Why you have this?"  he asked pointing to the tilak on my forehead, and I responded that the marking represents the concept that the body is the temple of God."  Questions. Answers. We parted.

After our walk, we directed our meditations to a great Vaishnava yogi.  His name is Bhaktisiddhanta, and he is our guru's guru.  We noted many things about what he said.  Here's one quote.  “Do not give up devotional service, even if there are innumerable dangers, countless insults and endless harassment."

Quite staunch isn't it?

Back we went to the resort, after offering goodbyes to our Havana crew.  In Varadero, we sat in the lounge trying to catch up on e-mails, while people would just come up to us, one after the other—some  from Israel, Holland, Canada—and there was that piano player in the lounge who fully remembered us from the previous year, when she accompanied the mahamantra in front of a big crowd.

May the Source be with you!

6 km