Brampton, Ontario
Being Reasonable
It was Dharma who drove me to Brampton
Civic Hospital to see Madhurya Lila, a dear member of a Brampton branch and
who’s struggling with cancer. She has a few days remaining and so I chanted by
her bedside, convinced that this is the only resort. Krishna, bless this very
good soul.
Before I arrived at this huge facility –
the hospital – Dharma treated me to lunch. I hadn’t the time to eat so he
arranged pizza from a nearby outlet called Pizza Depot. The person who came to
pick me up after that meaningful visit was Bihar, an enthusiastic devotee. When
I told him I had no lunch due to the fact that I was occupied in the morning
with filling out forms for my right knee surgery, it left me no time to eat, so
Dharma ordered a veg pizza.
“Oh, you can do that? Eat out?”
In other words, someone likely told him
that it was wrong, even sinful, to eat food from karmis, or
materialistic sources. I don’t consider this good man to be a fanatic. I was
trying to tell him that I generally don’t eat out and that back at the temple
there would be nothing to eat given that our Govinda’s is closed on Monday.
(Our guru, Prabhupada, would go to a famous kachori shop which was not run by
devotees).
In the evening, Ananda and his wife,
Suskil, treated me to “Planta,” a chain restaurant specializing in plant-based
food. It was good. We had chanted some mantras to make the food prasadam;
consecrated. As mentioned, I rarely eat out and this occasion was a learning
experience of taste and service attitude. My additional remark is that I refuse
to fall into the fanatic category. When you do you play into madness that
creates war.
May the Source be with you!
6 km
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