Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto
Looking After Each Other
At our weekly leaders meeting we
always open up with a reading over Zoom. Today, it was my turn to read. I chose
a passage from a letter our guru, Prabhupada, wrote in 1974 to his
student/disciple, Sukadev, regarding devotee care. This is the heart of the
letter, dated April 5th:
“First of all, there is no
question of a devotee being ostracized because he has become ill, nor do I
think this is being widely practiced. Who has been ostracized? One of the
symptoms of a devotee is that he is kind, so if our Godbrother becomes ill, it
is our duty to help him get the proper medicine and treatment so that he can
recover. Recently, our Giriraja became chronically ill in India and had to
return to the U.S. for proper medical treatment. There, in our Los Angeles
center, he was given his own room, and was able to recuperate comfortably, and
now he has returned to his full duties in Bombay… So, there is no question of
ill treating our Godbrothers simply because they are sick, nor should you allow
such neglect to go on. So long we have this material body there will be
sickness, but we have to remain on the transcendental platform nevertheless.”
The letter does go on and I read it through to its entirety, but here I’ve kept
to the essential point about looking out for each other.
On this day, I could see through
the temple/ashram affairs that each resident was more or less looking
out for each other and for newcomers as well. When our group went for chanting
in the park everyone did so while being kind. Cecilia heard our chanting from
the distance and wanted to be part of it. She gravitated to us, sat down,
joined and was looked after.
May the Source be with you!
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