Thursday 18 June 2020

Monday, June 15th, 2020


Toronto, Ontario

 

My Reasons for Joy

 

There are three reasons for my being very content today. First of all, my brother, Jerry, drove an hour and a half from his home in Peterborough to drop off two boxes of old family photos for me to browse through. These pictures will go back a hundred years to my father’s childhood. There’s a substantial amount of stuff to go through. Another beautiful project to embark upon. 

 

Secondly, a student/disciple, I hadn’t seen for years, showed up. Mahamantra is from Pickering, east of the city. He came along with Scott, his buddy, on their motorcycles. The reacquaintance was cherishable. He hasn’t forgotten Krishna.

 

A third reason for being cheery was a visit by one of my Sunday School students. “You haven’t changed at all!“ he remarked.

 

“I beg to differ.“

 

“No, you haven’t,“ he insisted. His dad recently died in the UK from Covid 19, and as is custom, the son will do something to honour the father‘s passing, so he dropped off several bags of basmati rice for the temple/ashram. It was a pious deed. He is going through his bar exams at the moment. I wished him luck.

 

Okay, so a fourth cause for joy was meeting Lewis. At the corner of Wellesley and Sherbourne, I organized a small chanting party. We sat on the concrete ledges, and then Lewis, who resides in the area, came over to introduce himself. He is originally from New York (lives now in Toronto) but he used to meet and chant with our guru, Prabhupada, at Tompkins Square Park. Lewis has become a kind of guru in his own right. He’s in his late seventies. Looks sixty. We chatted forever.

 

May the Source be with you!

6 km 

 

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