Tuesday 3 March 2020

Thursday, February 27th, 2020


Noida, India

The Temple Room

The temple room at the ISKCON Centre is a sizeable space for worship and meditation.  As is custom, men who live as monks, in the ashram section, rise early for the first devotional service at 4:30 a.m.  We sing songs in honour of Guru and God. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9GTDbnAJ0H/?igshid=k7dp0n2qosjr

There are a good number of young monks living here; my wild guess is about forty.  I asked one of these young and bright men, "How long do you plan to stay as a brahmacari (a monk)?" 

With hand gestures and a smile he indicated a mixed message, somewhere in the area of "forever, not sure” and “whatever."

When it came time in the morning session for the class (I guess Thursdays are the day to hear a recorded class), the day’s recording was of a lecture delivered by our guru, Prabhupada, and that is always something to relish.  However, when the sound projected from the speakers, the voice of His Divine Grace of 1969 in New York came across muddled and echoing.  The acoustics in the room are not favourable for this.  But I decided to stay in the temple, in any case, and write down of the previous day's events for my blog.

For walking, well, there are few places to go with all the traffic.  Noida, the city section where we are, is a Delhi suburb, with cars, trucks and few pedestrians.  My meagre mile for walking, today, was just up and down the tiled floor in the Sudharma Hall section of the building.  Out of the eleven of us, who are part of the drama troupe, only four attend the morning services.  Give it a couple of days and we will likely see an increase in attendance amongst the artists. 

May the Source be with you!
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