Sunday, December 27, 2020

St. Jamestown, Toronto

 

End of he Year

 

Now, as we wind down the year our little film crew is doing the finishing touches to our production “Rolling the Dice” for public viewing.  Michaela Vaksan, our editor, will have it ready for January 1^st. We already have the trailer out. Now our time is to be spent tightening up our production, which premiered during the MANtra retreat last month. It’s all quite exciting. I’m curious about the response and feedback.

 

It has now been my fourth walk to meet Michaela and Dhruva who live in the same neighborhood. Dhruva has been our sound person.

 

I bring them some prasadam in the form of some sweets and with our sincere meeting we plan and prepare, looking at what needs to be done for the future thespian projects. Covid-19 lockdowns leave little or no alternative to shooting all our theatrical productions, at least for the next little while, until we “reset.”

 

I don’t know how some people are handling this social and financial disaster of the virus. On top of the tragedies Covid is bringing, we also have our regular, natural pauses that life puts us through. In our Toronto community we are seeing a number of deaths as well as senior health-threats taking place among our congregants.

 

The lessons of life to be learned are expressed in our story, “Rolling the Dice.” It is about curbing greed, anger and lust. The final message of peace comes in the approach of surrender. That’s the lesson of Sri Krishna (who is implied in our production but not really seen). Krishna’s message is about letting go.

 

May the source be with you!

2 km

 

Saturday, December 26th, 2020

Yorkville, Toronto

 

Be Practical

 

We have often heard our guru, Prabhupada, define jnanam as knowledge and vijnanam as applied knowledge. The first word is theoretical and the second is practical.

 

Practical application, even common sense, is the way I tried to best steer my presentation tonight, to devotees in Kazakstan and surrounding areas; known as Central Asia. The topic title was “When I Rains, Use an Umbrella,” with subtitle “Be Practical.” I’m quite passionate about the theme of not allowing sentiment to inhibit one’s spiritual growth. Permit discernment to have some say. We call bhakti-yoga­, buddhi-yoga at times—uniting with the Supreme with heart and intelligence. Buddhi refers to intelligence.

 

Those listening from far away seemed to enjoy the talk, followed by a question session. They also enjoyed the opening four minutes and sixteen seconds of the excerpt from the musical, “Singing in the Rain,” where Gene Kelly is strutting his stuff, dancing in a downpour. In this perfectly choreographed piece, he is seen with his umbrella opened up. Then he decides to draw it closed and takes in the rain, almost as if to transcend the wetness. It certainly was a creative way to open up a class or discussion on Krishna Consciousness.

 

What a great feeling it was, communicating and seeing these great souls from the other side of the world. I also had the pleasure of connecting with the Oakville crew. With them we are going over the Gita’s Chapter 16, reviewing the dark side of the soul.

 

May the Source be with you!

3 km

 

Friday, December 25th, 2020

Yorkville, Toronto

 

The Gita & Christmas

 

At noon, Alberta time, I Zoomed a class to out community in Edmonton, explaining the significance of the day. First of all, I spoke about the parallels of Christ and Krishna and then more emphatically detailed the wisdom factor that they both delivered for the benefit of humanity. The comparative notes were appreciated by the listeners. I feel an obligation to share with our congregants the importance of viewing the similarities between traditions and not overly emphasizing distinctions.

 

One area of activity that both Krishna and Jesus had in common, which I failed to mention, was their adherence to the walking culture. Jesus, for instance, did much travel on foot from place to place. The only recollection I have of his using another conveyance was when he rode on a donkey while being greeted palms.

 

Krishna, on the other hand, used so much leg muscle as a cowherd, walking the expanse of pastures with His friends and the calves. These thoughts came to mind when I was doing one of those brief walks through the snow-shoveled sidewalks of Yorkville, just metres away from our temple ashram. In fact, my walk was short due to a commitment of reading Chapter Six from The Gita, entitled “Dhyana Yoga.”

 

Quite a few people were online listening, not just to my segment of Chapter Six, but the entire seven hundred verses, a task of listening for about three hours. And while the reading was occurring through the audible level of my phone’s speakers, in the next room over, the kitchen, our cook was listening to the Sanskrit version. The atmosphere was surcharged with goodness.

 

May the Source be with you!

2 km