Friday 4 November 2022

Wednesday, November 02, 2022

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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