Christie Pits, Toronto
Priceless Encounters
The light winds aroused the
spirits of people as I walked on Bloor St., West. It was a struggle at
intersections to get my dhoti (lower robes) to behave. But I was having
fun with pedestrians.
The first one to approach me was
like an elder hippie who came up beside me and said, “Are you on the path of
enlightenment?”
“I’m on it,” I said. “It’s truly
a work in progress. How about you? Are you taking steps to get there?”
To this he responded, “I’ve taken
them.” We reached a red light and he made a sudden about face when our
communication ended.
Not but five minutes later came
another elderly person, bearded and partially bald, who stopped his bicycle to
ask, “What do you think of the world?”
“It’s polarized. We need to step
up on our dharma.” He wanted clarification. “I mean to say we need to
get back to basics; back to obligation.”
“Even 20, 30 years ago people
were not like they are now,” he noticed.
I proceeded Westerly when a
smiling, middle-aged woman with a son and a partner halted, “How are you, walking
swami?”
“I’m talking to people. They want
to see a better world.” Just then a motorcyclist recklessly whizzed by. His
music was pumped up to the max and he was actually gyrating with his bike quite
precariously.
The woman asked me to bless her
son, so I uttered a mantra and placed my right hand on his head.
“I used to hang out with you guys
when I was at York U, in my anthropology class. I love it at your temple.”
My last encounter was with a Kolkata man who said from behind me, “Hare Krishna!” I turned around and we shot the breeze for a while.
May the Source be with you!
6 km
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