Saturday, December 24, 2022

Caledon, Ontario

What to Do With Christmas?

Okay! So, it’s Christmas Eve and what might a believer in Krishna do on such a day, a day when Christians celebrate Christs’ birth?

One of our members of the Greater Toronto Area, Vishal, runs a successful family business – a mattress business to be exact. On the strength of the business, the family has channelled much of their energy towards developing a rural farm with Gir cows and bulls; bovine species from India. There are plans for greenhouses for growing plants. They built a lovely home and tonight was the night for a home warming. People came despite winter weather.

We held kirtan chanting sessions. I gave a talk on blessings and so did Vishal’s mum. Food was a big feature. People pitched in with methodology potluck. The mood was sweet.

I did mention about this time not being Jesus’ birth, but for the pagans it’s the birth of the sun and, hence, it was a big celebration. Theologians say Christ was born on January 6^th, at least some have taken this position. And St. Nicolas was born December 6th. You have different Christian groups from Eurasia celebrating birthdays at different times. In any event, people have some time off and in our Krishna community, we are engaged in a glorification of the Divine in the form of Lord Krishna.

There is always a good excuse for us to come together.

May the Source be with you!

 

Friday, December 23, 2022

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto

Don’t You Close Down

Schools are closed. Shops are closed. Businesses are closed. Some roads – shut down. It is not the weekend. It is not Christmas yet. Winter solstice, Gita Jayanti and Hanukkah have been celebrated already, or at least have kick started. The reason for the CLOSED signs being put up is because of the bad weather. Simply that.

However, one place that remains open and is on duty is the fire department. We know that because the sirens were sounded and the fire brigade dashed through the streets and headed for our ashram. I knew that something was up because the fire alarm went off in our building. In the most efficient way red fire engines responded.

I was curious, naturally, and made my way downstairs to check it out. Sure enough, one of the fellows in thick fire-protection regalia found the problem before I got to the scene of the problem. “No fire!” said the fire fighter. “This is an old-school issue here”. He explained that the fire alarm pulley was part open and one of our residents or workers swept by and his shirt got stuck in the device. When trying to set himself free, the alarm went off.

Clearly it was a false alarm. Whew!

I believe false alarms go off all the time. For instance, in the case of the general public always going after sense gratification – the dangling carrot – and when it doesn’t actually come to them, they go into a panic mode. It’s as if the world was to come to an end. And when some patience and austerity is called upon, they freak. The frenzy tactic is really a false alarm. Instead of feeling some deprivation over our stimulation, why not enjoy acceptance of a virtue?

May the Source be with you!

 

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Burnaby/Vancouver/Toronto

A Friend In the Air

Every once in a while, I meet a real nice person as a passenger on the plane next to me. The timing on the flight between Vancouver and Toronto couldn’t be better for dodging storms. Vancouver got clobbered and there’s more to come. Predictions indicate that storms will hit Toronto, so there was a break of winter chaos and that happened to be my flight time for Air Canada 108. The stress reliever is always mantra power, so that’s what I resorted to. An additional soothe space was in meeting Mike, 23, whose last name was Greek.

A graduate of McMaster U., he is a smart chap who was fascinated, not by the latest action movie on the screen, but in the fabulous sunset which he photographed. He also indulged me in the topic of another of his passions such as the wonder of Egypt’s pyramids. He showed me some data from his screen on mathematical precisions that would indicate extraordinary accuracy in their engineering.

We talked of aliens. Would artificial intelligence, extra-terrestrials or aliens be somewhat involved in these incredible structures? These were our thoughts. I did tell Mike of such possibilities of demigods and celestials who likely participated in man’s early development on this very planet, according to the Vedas.

Our discussion went the way of spiritual concepts as well. “We are not these bodies. We are spirits that change bodies.”

Mike is a good listener. Naturally we talked about walking marathons. It was great to be able to pass the time quickly through meaningful conversation.

May the Source be with you!