Sunday, April 26, 2020

Toronto, Ontario

Garden Now

One of the best things we can do as a calming task during the pandemic is gardening.  It already has succeeded in being the fastest-growing hobby.  Gardening is a sure way to being positively engaged and the results are, in most cases, very gratifying.  If we have a good reason with favourable weather and apply some TLC (tender loving care) then a harvest can reap great fruits – literally fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants.  You can get very creative and who knows, you might open the doors to some great landscaping adventures.

For some of us, having nutritious food at the table when you are the parent of such colourful and tasty offspring is really important.  In the culture of bhakti-yoga we prepare great dishes of veggies, fruits and grains as an offering to Krishna.  In other words the food is blessed.

The time to take up such an undertaking is now.  For those of us in a colder climate we can start by planting seeds in pots and give those seedlings a head-start.  By the time it becomes right for outdoor transplanting, which is less than a month from now, you can end up with a fabulous outcome.

Gardening is so therapeutic and it saves us time from purchasing less-advanced produce.  There is much prana (life-force) in what you can churn out of your garden.  It builds up wholesome pride.  Work on it now and enjoy the work.

May the Source be with you!

O km

Saturday, April 25, 2020

Forest Hill, Toronto

The Book Bhagavatam

I rarely see residents coming or going from their condos across from the castle called Casa Loma but one man did peep out of his stately place and noticed Nimai and I walking.  It was a gray-haired out-going fellow, a Jewish doctor with roots from Hungary.  He was curious.

“You’re Hare Krishna!  I don’t know too much about it.  You live there on Avenue Road?  Really, you live there?”  The conversation went on for quite the while and we left our new friend with an invitation when it’s all over. “Come to our temple and see the restaurant when Covid-19 is under control.”

There is something else for people to consider during this lockdown time when there just might be time for reading.  Apart from dreaming about visiting a place of worship and meditation and a great restaurant in the meantime let’s look at the Vedas, an ancient wisdom from the east.  There is something called the “Bhagavatam” a veritable encyclopedia on self-realization that voices reality from illusion.  It’s so beneficial.

Those of us monks who live in the ashram are crazy about this book.  We spend an hour discussing the science of the self with one person taking the lead.  I will be broadcasting classes on the Bhagavatam three or four times a week.  I will inform you of those days once we decide and also the actual time in the morning for this.  The book has 12 sections and currently our monks are looking at the 10th section.

The set of Bhagavatams are available for purchase at a reduced rate.

May the Source be with you!

5km

Friday, April 24, 2020

Forest Hill, Toronto

Encourage

I embrace that quote by Plato, “Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”

Plato, Socrates and the host of Greek philosophers reflect so much on what echoes Vedic wisdom.  In fact they had respect for the ways and thoughts of the culture east of them.

Here’s a verse from the Bhagavad-gita that resonates the similar tone of Plato.  Krishna states in verse 3.26 to do with karma yoga: na buddhi-bhedaṁ janayed ajñānāṁ karma-saṅginām joṣayet sarva-karmāṇi vidvān yuktaḥ samācaran “So as not to disrupt the minds of the ignorant attached to the fruit of results of prescribed duties, a learned person should not induce them to stop work.  Rather, by working in the spirit of devotion, he should engage them in all sorts of activities.”

The significant phrase here is to keep the spirit and to keep busy.

I was walking with Aishvarya from Trinidad near the castle called Casa Loma and there was a request for me to send a message to a younger practitioner of bhakti-yoga in Trinidad so he recorded some words I shared.  The essence of the message was, “Love, co-operate, work as a team.”  And “you are not allowed to be critical of each other.  Critique yourself first.”

I have found it interesting that the more active you are the more content you are.  The more you have time to sit without purpose the more you condemn others as if you had no faults.

May the Source be with you!

5km