Thursday, December 5th, 2013

I Missed Something

Toronto, Ontario

I missed a purport in order to get my passport.  Let me explain, to secure my passport it’s a 3 KM hike to that office.  Who needs a car, right?  It’s advisable to go as early as possible and avoid lineups.  Leaving early in the day though meant I had to miss a purport.

What’s a purport you ask?   By dictionary’s definition a purport is, “the meaning or substance of something, typically a document or speech.”  In my own simpleton’s terms, it’s an explanation.  For 40 years plus I’ve been seeing with my eyes this word ‘purport’, almost as if it’s a constant walking companion.  I make it a point wherever I travel, by foot, air or other, where the location has an ashram, I will find myself sitting down amongst monks and laypersons, wrapping attention around a purport.

In the standard texts that we read such as in the morning’s Bhagavatam verse, you will find the joining purport or elaboration.  It’s not just a footnote as you might find at the base of each page in a Shakespeare play.  The Bhagavad Gita in its 700 verses also has practically each verse clarified by way of a purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.  For many of us on the devotional path, Sanskrit verses could appear abstract, even when translated.  It’s as if they are a voice from another world and another era.  It’s the accompanying and illuminating purports that bring it all home.

On my return journey from the passport office I found myself caught up in a momentary self-lament because I missed the morning class with its purport.  Of course, I was elated to carry a spanking new document in my pocket.  So to compensate for the lack of purport, I attempted to insert a spiritual message into my head while walking.  I passed by Saint Michael’s hospital and viewed this massive sign of a mammoth angel’s head at the side of the building.  The image has a blue tint to it, so guess who this reminded me of?  Just the sight of this massive bust gave me a boost, even though there was no philosophical message behind it.  It is just gorgeous and it’s a remarkable break from the downtown atmosphere.

Purports are realizations, revelations, epiphanies.  And what I find really great about them is that after reading through one of them in Prabhupada’s books, you also hear the facilitator of that day deliver a purport to the purport.  By good fortune, I am also one of those on the schedule to elaborate or speak on the morning’s purport when called for.   Our guru, Prabhupada, also encouraged his students to write down any realizations you may have (purports).  Hence, this blog.

May the Source be with you!

13 KM

Wednesday, December 4th, 2013

Two Wings

Toronto, Ontario

I had with me two companions on my night trek and one of them asked about polarity and how to deal with it.  More specifically, he expressed a dichotomy involving two people in his life whom he really respects over the fact that they have opposite opinions on a particular subject.

“What is the subject?” I questioned.

“It’s the topic of female gurus, one person is for and the other one is against.”  One of the two people he was referring to was myself.  I’ve made my position clear to him in the past, I’m for both male and female gurus (spiritual teachers) as long as they qualify.  My logic behind this conclusion is that there’s a great need and demand.  Teachers are small in number, the growth of people in this service description is very slow, while you have an expanding society of bhakti yogis.  So, I support the increase of gurus because there are many qualified, even senior women.

The position of the other person with the opposing view is my companion’s own guru who takes a more conservative and perhaps, traditional stance.  Mind you, in June of ’76, just two blocks away from where the three of us were walking, the founder of our movement, Srila Prabhupada, was asked this question about female gurus.  It was Professor Joseph T. O’Connell who was making the query.  At the ISKCON Centre, the answer given by Prabhupada at the time was that in our gaudiya lineage of Krishna Consciousness, the wife of luminary, Nityananda, whose name is Jahnavi, accepted many students confirming female guruship.   The dilemma my companion was going through was who was right and how can there be differing opinions?  To this, I responded that there is no dispute that the guru principal is essential in aiding the spiritual student towards spiritual progress.  We all agree with that.  For many issues such as this one, you have a right and left wing circumstance.  Without two wings a bird can’t fly.  Let the two positions be deliberated upon and something fairly satisfactory should be the outcome.  The exercise of intelligence should carry on.  After some flying in the air, the bird usually comes in for a landing.

May the Source be with you!

7 KM

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Home

Toronto, Ontario

Ken, of yesterday, also asked me, “Which is your favourite place in the world?”

And so I told him what I really felt, “Wherever I am.”

I don’t know if it had come by some coincidence, but this morning the verse which we read from the book Bhagavatam seemed to allude to this type of message – “You are at home even though you are away from home."  At least, this is how we discussed the topic.  In other words, a person should be comfortable in any setting because he/she has the Supreme on their mind.

I could be hundreds of miles away from the nearest temple or ashram and let’s say in the middle of Ireland, walking, but if I vibrate from my lips the maha mantra, my consciousness is there and then I am at home, away from home.  The real home is the spiritual world, but I should also develop the vision that all that is around me is a product of the Great Spirit, that there is always a connection.  The only loose connection is in my head, with my mind.

When we ponder what is mundane and go down the dark tunnel of ME, then we are actually homeless.  I believe that everyone wants to make the homerun.  Recently when I was in Cuba I saw particularly how the young men take to American baseball.  It was Saturday afternoon and in at least three different ball diamonds and parks that I passed by, these young guys were active at play, interested in the homeruns.

It was this day that I met Jan Peters from Newfoundland, a person whom I’ve known from the first of the Canwalks in ’96.  She had lunch in our temple’s dining room with her friend Maggie.  She had just made her first trip to India and just returned.  She had visited temples and orphanages, she was really at home while there, so she conveyed, and plans to be back there soon.  It looks like she’d been in touch with herself, and that is the point.  Home isn’t necessarily at your apartment.  In her case, the Battery, Saint John’s, Newfoundland.  Home is not even far away.   It’s where you are at present.  Then you have a healthy heart.  There’s a great connection.

May the Great Source be with you!

6 KM

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

Six Plus Six

Toronto, Ontario

The morning was overcast.  Monday morning.  “Aggh,” many will say.

I was dashing to the passport office for the renewal of this handy document.  It brought me into the corporate sector of the city, or at least to the edge of it on Victoria Street.  All seems robotic, all seems straight and square, and there’s the gloomy looking faces, my God.

Anyways, business got done.  I’ll pick up a ten year valid passport on Thursday morning.  I trekked back home by way of Church Street through the gay community for a change, and before that through Ryerson Campus where students are abuzz.  Then I ventured through the platinum strip of Bloor and Bay in Yorkville.  Places that are all dolled up for Christmas.  I also passed through the Eaton Centre, the giant mall, where there are massive lit up reindeer.  Over the speakers you could hear, “Oh Holy Night,” that classic.  When the lyrics came out, “Oh night divine… When Christ was born…” my objectionable mind questioned, “Yeah, but Christ wasn’t born on December 25^th.  Christmas was slapped on to the pagan holiday at Winter Solstice, a clever and imposing move to save souls.

I left the mall and made the journey back to the ashram to make a total of six kilometres.  A golden opportunity arose for one more trek in the evening to give us another six kilometres.

Ken, a friend from Australia (we say ‘Oz’) wanted a quiet Monday evening experience on foot.  Ken, who works for the Red Cross worldwide and drops in occasionally, does all kinds of charity work and also finds himself tending to cows in India’s goshala (cow shelters) and helps the expanding school in Vrindavan.  While trekking, he asked a question after admitting he enjoys being single and is also not necessarily interested in being in a stationary place as in living as a monk in a monastery.  He sometimes feels the pressure though, “They joke, ‘why don’t you settle down and get married?’ While others say, ‘be a brahmachari’.”  He asks further, “Is it wrong to work and carry on?”  Here was a sincere soul asking a sincere question.

“Not at all,” I counselled, “you’re a natural nomad, keep your hair and keep Krishna.  Monastic life isn’t for everyone.  You’re doing good.”  Anyways, Monday night seemed less gloomy.

May the Great Source be with you!

12 KM

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

The Flying Monk?

Varadero, Cuba

It dawned on me that perhaps I should start a blog called The Flying Monk since I’m so much in the air.  But, no chance!  Sitting in aircraft lacks adventure, so there really isn’t too much to speak about except for something that slightly humoured me today – about a couple next to me.

It was Sunwing Airlines flight 627 on its way back to Toronto when all was well with him and her until something was said by one of them that flared up a snarl and a growl which went back and forth for a while.  It was irrelevant what the topic was.  It was none of my business and it was kept hushed enough in volume that it remained private.

Some ambivalence struck me though when I sat through this, especially when the communication broke off.   Initially I felt bad for them, but then I reasoned, hey, this is just normal, get real.

She was in the middle of us two.  When they stopped talking to each other, she switched angles with her body and then swung over to my side to pretend to shut off and sleep.  She practically leaned on me and that was just when I thought I’m glad I’m a monk and I don’t have to go through this type of thing.  I enjoy my singleness.

She sat quite resentful for a minute with her back to him and then turned towards him for one more moment to grab her passport which was set with his in the chair’s pouch in front of him.  She then placed her own passport in her own pouch.  Now, if that isn’t a clear statement about how one person is not on speaking terms, then I don’t know what is.

So now, here’s how a sneak look at the Gita’s chapter 10 comes in handy.  There, Krishna states, “Of subduers, I am time.”  Our grand prince and princess for the hour were taking a much needed chill time.  By the time we all landed, had gone through customs and were waiting at the carousel for luggage, I noticed they were friends again.

Indeed, time plays an important role in life.

May the Source be with you!

6 KM

Saturday, November 30th, 2013

The Kissin’ Kind

Varadero, Cuba

 

There were a number of wet faces, tears being shed while viewing the documentary, “Your Ever Well Wisher”. An old movie house, cinema 23, in Habana, now refurbished played host to this 30 year old account of the life of the most prominent Krishna monk of recent times. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s life, whom his followers beautifully address as his Divine Grace as well as Prabhupada, is documented in this film. I guess it’s been 20 years since I viewed it. It tapped my emotions seeing it again.

 

I especially loved the image where he is depicted in a dark room, from a distance. A faint light sheds enough illumination to do his important work, in the wee hours of some morning, speaking in a Dictaphone as translation work on his books. I find it fascinating: this elderly person, a father to so many of us, working tirelessly for the world, even taking on the world. He challenged the status quo with his purports and had us believing in conspiracy concepts that were not for us to immerse ourselves in. He had us trusting in a powerful deity, Krishna, who had multiple manifestations such as Buddha.

 

For our last day in Cuba, location Varadero at the Memories Resort, our Canadian contingent from Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto regrouped. While having a chat, a woman, a tourist from Niagara Falls, Ontario, approached me.

 

“Hello, how are you?” she said. “You’re Buddhist?”

 

“I’m a Krishna monk.”

 

I didn’t volunteer to express the similarities of the two cultures. I relayed that I a pilgrim having trekked Canada now almost completing a fourth time.

 

It was a brief encounter. Here at the resort, it’s not Cuba. It’s a tourist destination. There is a gulf of difference between Cuba and this 22 KM stretch of beach.

 

I wonder what the Cubans think of us tourists. From my perspective tourists are more unshapely, sour-puss faced and more cordial than warm.  There’s really an aspect of this country that the world can learn from. People here are not spoiled by capitalism. They are very loving and kissin’ kind and are easily touched by a person (Prabhupada) whose message is for all.

 

May the Source be with you!

 

5 KM

Friday, November 29th, 2013

Get Down With Bhagavatam

 

Habana, Cuba

 

It was India’s Ambassador for Cuba, C. Rajasekhar, whom we had the pleasure to meet yesterday at the embassy’s stately building at Calle 21, Vedado in Habana. India has had a special bond with Cuba for generations. From the main lobby to ascending the stairs to the Ambassador’s room, the walls are flanked with photos of dignitaries representing both countries, for instance Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Fidel Castro and others are seen in mutual exchange with each other.

 

Our small contingent simply made this a courtesy visit. We had no other agenda but to keep up a communication. Rajasekhar mentioned that he wished to join me on my next pilgrimage. I alluded to the fact that it’s not in India that I traverse, rather it’s outside of India.

 

“Please let me know. I want to accompany you.”

 

“In Canada?”

 

“Yes, why not?”

 

Apart from thinking that it would be an honour, I raced in my mind what the logistics would be. We shall see.

 

Then he asked for a publication of the book “Bhagavatam”.  “It’s a text that was engrained in the family.” he said.

 

“Consider it done!”

 

It was this evening in the midst of monsoonal rains that I ventured with another contingent to the Episcopal College some blocks from the Embassy where I was asked to introduce mature students to the epical book “The Bhagavatam”. Somewhere in the course of the delivery I mentioned “Noah’s Ark”. At that moment torrents came down while we were comfortably set in the classroom. Timing couldn’t have been better.

 

The response to the class was absolutely wonderful. We even slid in an opportunity for all to chant together, not that the philosophy of the Bhagavat is alien to transcendental sound. In addition to the other visit at the college we also took quality time to tell of Bhagavatam stories to eager listeners to our small devotional ranks here in Cuba.

 

For the day’s overview it was several times that we dodged rain, even to and from the college on foot. Content to be embraced by the pastimes contained in the Bhagavatam, we couldn’t help noticing on our return to our room, the bars in Habana being occupied. From a monk’s perspective I wondered, “I’m glad I can take a daily drink of this divine text’s message. I’m fortunate to have left the pub scene behind and taken to the monastic way.”

 

May the Source be with you!

 

7 KM

Thursday, November 28th, 2013

On the Roads in Cuba

 

Havana, Cuba

 

A man promptly trailed along the street with one of those famous Cuban cigars set in his mouth. I had expected more of this type of image in Cuba. I see few young folks smoking them. They resort more to cigarettes.

 

According to one of our Cuban members here, Raja Guyam, ´´Cubans are not so big on drugs as they are on drinking, and gambling is out of the question. In ’59 it was outlawed and you get penalized quite heavily if found doing so.´´.

 

When we conducted our second initiation on the island on this trip, the candidates who made their vows, have no qualms about abstinence towards gambling and for the most part intoxication. When I looked into the eyes of those initiates as they expressed their commitments, I wished with an optic discharge that they would do well. I said, “Be an inspiration to others.”  Being quite young, Claudia is a young mother to the first Vaishnav baby boy in Cuba and has a good chance to succeed with a supportive husband, who is now in Spain on a scholarship. Alex the other initiate is only 20, with a promising future could easily be swept away given his good looks, so we wish him well. Stay in spiritual company and you are safe.

 

Hayagriva and I, along with two female devotees, took to the charm of streets in Rodas. We compare life here to the villages in India: simple circumstance with modest homes and basic needs being met. Walking in such a neighbourhood is heart-warming.

 

Opportunities to walk came in doses. On the autopista, an eight lane highway, en route to Habana, for washroom breaks I vied to walk a stretch of it. I figured people need to get used to the robes. I’m going to be coming regularly.

 

The final trek was along the Malecon, the sea walk, where the road was actually closed to the traffic. The Atlantic seemed angry with blasts of water spraying over into the several lanes. We kept our distance from these water walls which have the potential to totally knock you out. Danger lurks at every step.

 

Alex is now Adidev. Claudia is Chaitanya Lila. Congratulations!

 

May the Source be with you!

 

7 KM

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

Never Before

 

Rodas, Cuba

 

Never before had such loud thunderclaps fallen on these ears.

 

5 AM was our agreed-upon time for a trek through and beyond the town Rodas, a place we visited last year. Friends from Matanzas had taken what seemed like the day-long bus ride to this place and had now converged for a walk. Cuba and Canadian contingents unit, I guess you could say. In the early wake of dawn Indra, the god of rain, had shown his generous side.

 

Quick! We moved to the nearest shelter and spent a good 2½ hours there in a meaningful chatter of things that were devotional. The young Cuban devotees were eager to hear from Hayagriva and I. At that time we shared what we could as stormy dynamics occupied the space beyond the old Spanish-flavoured edifice we took protection within.

 

Once heavy rains cleared replaced by sprinkle, we headed for the home of our host, Mercedes and her husband who is a Steve Martin look-alike. After a smoothie (Cubans had never heard the term before) we went into further bhakti discussions. (By the way, the smoothie, my concoction, consisted of yogurt, fresh guavas, bananas and a tomato.)

 

The afternoon engagement was held at a local Culture House, a decent facility with an art gallery and a hall equipped with a stage. Electricity wasn’t up to par, it was just not working, period. I spoke more or less in a half-lit/half-dark situation about Vaisnava art culture which was followed by participants chanting. As the term was used before, we are fun addicts, and hopefully not perceived as fanatics.

 

A second public venue for the day was the movie house, a cozy place really, where the spiritually inclined gravitated; about thirty in number. The task at hand was to keep the very young who were present, seniors and all in between, perked-up, so we implemented some improvisation and enactment of the philosophy of the Gita. Volunteers came forward to portray images from the text. To give an example, “Be a lotus” for instance, the message being, “Remain dry in the midst of water or be unaffected by material entanglement”.

 

The meal at the end was novel-spaghetti and sweet potato halava.

 

All is good with our stay in Cuba. Not only did Steve Martin appear to be with us, but a Ray Charles look-alike also participated. No he didn’t play music but he sang with us with Krishna on his mind.

 

May the Source be with you!

 

4 KM

Tuesday, November 26th, 2013

Relief!

 

Santa Clara, Cuba

 

What a great relief!

 

In Cuba you can approach a person or pass by one on the street and not have to deal with a moat around his castle. I mean to say people here, on the whole, have not yet been burdened by pods and pods or I this or I that I, I, I, I, I,…

 

Yes, I say it’s a consolation, seeing a human being and having it be an eye-to-eye situation, instead of an eye-to-I. There are little or no gadgets. I feel liberated! I feel I’ve reached moksha, nirvana.

 

A small group of us from Canada went on a two block excursion on the street in Santa Clara to test the waters of human interaction. Cuba strikes No.1 on my gauge of personalism. We got such a nice response. There was no bar between us and them. Our kirtan actually was a raft, slow chant with a drum beat to boot. Inquisitive they were.

 

We found the same at Cuba’s renowned “El Mejunje”, a community square in the heart of Santa Clara when Iksvaku, a Cuban-born American, conducted a fire ceremony for three new initiates in Krishna Consciousness. The audience was curious and yet divided. To one side were the managers of the place. Hugged around the small fire pit were committed devotees. The tattered bleachers directly in front of the pit were spiritual seekers. To the other side were young lovers locked in each other arms. To the far right of the pit were the hipsters. I saw these distinct groups yet they all became one during the final chanting session as we “sweat like hogs” in dance under three shady flamboyant trees with three sided graphitized walls.

 

By the way the three ladies taking diksha were Maite, on behalf of my godbrother, Jayapataka, is now Madhumati Vishaka. Santa is now Sruti and Nancy is now Nandarani.

 

A regret is that I couldn’t walk much. It was a full-on bus ride to Santa Clara from Matanzas. Only by evening did the opportunity avail itself. People are not so car-dependant here. In some villages, half the transportation is by horse and carriage. What else is different? In Cuban homes, toilets and faucets don’t always work, although rainwater from a tank could suffice. You get used to it.

 

One thing I’m also getting used to, is communicating with human beings that are straight-on, with no device between us. Agreeable! It’s so nice!

 

May the Source be with you!

 

3 KM

Monday, November 25th, 2013

Cool Cuba!

 

Matanzas, Cuba

 

It´s winter so water can be rough, like it is today. Hayagriva, my assistant monk and I, consider that the waves on the Atlantic were doable for a swim, but we stayed at the edge. After a fight with the waves and a good attempt at singing mantras simultaneously, we went to dry as the local lifeguard came around only out of curiosity.

 

“Where are you from?”  he asked.

 

“Canada,” said Hayagriva who manages in Spanish. We let people know we are part of a spiritual mission: Krishna Consciousness.

 

This is my fourth trip to Cuba and I can see the family is slowly growing. In Matanzas, the home of Hari Keli has become a regular meeting place for enthusiasts in bhakti yoga. Little has been done to the building repairs and needs. Foreign finance seems to be the way to resolve that problem. Devotees who joined the Salwan family and I, came from Alberta and are offering to help.

 

The greeting of local people, who mostly have converted to vegetarianism and bhakti, was a resounding welcome. Such zeal! They are so genuine in their devotional expression. My dear friend, Iksvaku, is here to do the translation for a class I gave on the lesson number one from the Bhagavad-gita; that is the soul’s persistent journey through various lives.  “If death comes tomorrow, don’t lament. A new body awaits you.”  Several times I used the phrase, “Why Cry?” and the group repeated the message. It was as if they were learning a Sanskrit mantra and some English at the same time. In any event, the message, well, they got it, at least in rational perimeters.

 

Nitai from Edmonton, Canada, has a reputation for bhajan singing and he led a killer kirtan, although his voice could have used some amplification. Folks here just can’t afford to buy or to rent. You’re lucky to earn $15 US or Canadian in a month.

 

To highlight the evening apart from chanting, the youth enacted a drama written by Alberto, a playwright. That sure pulled my heartstrings.

 

May the Source be with you!

 

5 KM

Sunday, November 24th, 2013

From the Heart

 

Varadero, Cuba

 

You see Brits, Germans, Russians but mostly Canadians in Cuba, 87% of tourists. I met a Belgian couple who spoke Flemish. I was surprised I could pick up on some words.

 

My first language was Dutch, akin to Flemish. This couple and others wanted to know, “What group are you with?” Even a smiley Cuban guy, a waiter, wanted to know. I was the only monk in the entire buffet at Memories Resort. I stood out.

 

I like standing out but only for the sake of being a representative for my guru, Srila Prabhupada. Whatever I do, it is on his behalf. At the entrance of the buffet you are greeted by pressed-dressed people who offer a “Hola”. I return a pranams (palms together). They then give a quick spontaneous bow.

 

You fill out a form voluntarily at the dinner table after a meal. They want feedback. Okay! Here it is. Under the section  ”Comments on the beer” I wrote "I don’t drink poison.”  On the resorts entertainment I wrote “I meditate.”  On the buffet food I wrote “please separate meat from the vegetarian items.”

 

I am waiting for my monk assistant, Hayagriva, and his companion, Sahil, an excellent drummer, but while I wait I hit the Atlantic beach and swam its waters. There I caught up sadhana songs, praises to the guru and Krishna. It’s a usual morning session. It’s what I miss when I’m not in the temple ashram. I also walked on the beach, as others were doing. Here I don’t stand out due to swim wear but an obvious white string, a brahmin’s thread, keeps me apart. It’s no fashion statement. It’s my mark as a devotee of the Divine.

 

The family I flew here with is the Salwan’s, a kindly clan from the Punjab, now residents of Canada. We all enjoy a great temperature (in the 20’s) after leaving our first snowfall for the year, in southern Ontario; a fresh white powder blanketing the upper part of Mother Earth. We are fine. We have fun.

 

And manana (tomorrow) we will start our spiritual program together: a reading of sastra (truth teachings), discussion and singing “Hare Krishna”. It might take on a salsa flavour though. As long as it’s from the heart, right?

 

May the Source be with you!

 

7 KM