Wednesday 16 November 2022

Thursday, November 10, 2022

The Beaches, Toronto

The Beach / The Farm

I couldn’t resist bringing my dear friend, Kalakantha, to the Beaches area of the city, not for a swim and certainly not for any gazing at scantily clad beach lovers. We are not like that and besides, it is much too cold for swimwear only. The favourable 19⁰ Celsius is, however, unique for this time of the year. The reason for any recommendation to invite him and members of the Bhakti Academy to the sand and sun was that, historically, it was at the Beaches boardwalk that our guru, Prabhupada, took a brisk walk in the summer of 1975.

It was so pleasant. One man playing on his drum-set in the outdoors had spread out in front of him several boxes of musical instruments – shakers, bangers and tambourines. As we strolled by, he gestured to grab anything and participate.

“On our way back”, I told him.

And so, we did. We took any old noise maker he had displayed before him and went wild with a kirtan to honour this special place; the boardwalk tread upon by a sadhu, holy man.

Another blissful aspect of the day was a drive – a super slow one, being in Toronto – to Caledon and the ahimsa dairy farm called Gopal Goshala. Gathered there were all our members of the Tuesday night Gita Chat group. It was educationally ecstatic.

Before rest I took a moment to reflect on the next morning, November 11th, which is the veteran’s Remembrance Day. Peace to the freedom fighters.

May the Source be with you!

5km



 

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