Toronto, Ontario
On Rama’s Birthday
Today is the birthday
of Rama, known as Ram Naumi or Ram Navami. People come from the
area to partake in the celebrations held in the evening. Where I live in the ashram, community members will come for events like this because
attached to the ashram is a temple
where Rama (who is an avatar of
Krishna) is honoured.
Conveniently, my place
of residence is also the place of meditation.
Also located on the premises is our vegetarian restaurant, as well as rooms for
workshops or seminars. It’s rather ideal
if you can manage that kind of lifestyle.
Your workplace, living quarters and recreational facility (we sing and dance
here) are all under one roof.
Joyously people sang,
danced and listened in the temple portion of the building.
The listening session
was actually a class delivered by American-born Vasu Gosh, who now resides in
India. His message on Rama was well
received. I consider him a dear friend, although in some
areas of discussion our opinions on the subject matter of the guru principle clashes. While I support the concept of female
spiritual masters, he does not.
The argument I would
take on the topic is that if one is qualified as a teacher and lives a saintly
life, what does it matter the gender that one belongs to? In my heart I’m a supporter of the old
school. I like the traditional approach
and as a part of our tradition with roots from the Gaudiya Vaishnava background, women, in some cases, took on the
portfolio of taking students/disciples.
What is the
difficulty?
May the Source be with
you!
5 km
