Sunday 8 August 2021

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Kew Gardens, Toronto

Slowly Getting Back

It was liberating to get back to giving a Bhagavatam class and also to leading a kirtan at noon in the temple room. Varun came from Ottawa to participate, so did Krishna Chandra, our local yoga instructor. Paramahamsa was also on board. Then, to follow, was the trickle of people for Darshan, or viewing of the Krishna deities.

 

Covid restrictions have been gradually lifted and so now Saturday and Sunday are open for visitors and congregants to come in and benefit. However, those of us, like myself, who reside in the premises and are moreso spending days bedridden, are super enthusiastic to get out. So, four of us headed out to the boardwalk that our guru, Prabhupada, took to in 1975. For those of us in Krishna Consciousness, this walkway is a place of pilgrimage.

 

Still, there’s another reason for us to get out to this Lakeside. We were scouting out the ideal location for a planned one-day outing of sangha for young men. It would entail walking, swimming, kirtan, picnic, yoga and just shooting the bhakti breeze. We believe we found the perfect location at the end of Kew Gardens from Queen Street.

 

With it being Canada, these days of summer events become limited, therefore, planning to insert outdoor devotional events is necessary. The walking, now on crutches, is also necessary. I’m no different from everyone else in terms of needing to heal by getting out, and a big part of it is seeing people like those who take to the boardwalk. I did catch a glimpse, like a flashback, of 1975, when he, Prabhupada, walked the same walkway as we now did.

 

May the Source be with you!

1 km


 

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