Sunday 21 November 2021

Monday, November 15, 2021

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


 

No comments: