Monday 8 December 2008

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Buenos Aries, Argentina

It has been a recovery day from the many hours soared high over the Pacific. I had slept a good straight six hours in the guest room of the local temple. Chanting started at 12 midnight. Confined to the temple’s tiny courtyard with its high property-line wall, I took it as a pleasantly imposed discipline to pace back and forth while chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. I was locked in by pad lock until the day dawned and a local monk who routinely unlocks let me at my usual roaming freedom.

While a portion of my day is captured by the spiritual writings of Srila Prabhupada I often browse this-worldly material keeping myself “in-touch”. November’s issue of National Geographic features an article of the Tarahumara who evaded Spanish conquerors in their homeland of Sierre Madre in Mexico. They were called Raramuri which means,”he who walks well”. To quote,” they’ve been known to irritate American ultramarathoners by beating them while wearing huasache sandals and stopping now and then for a smoke“.

From reading on I felt empathy for the isolated Tarahumara whose lives are now threatened by modern ways.

In Bernal, a hours distance from Buenos Aries, I was driven to facilitate another ND method (nine devotional practices) to a group of enthusiastic participants. The host was Jiva Goswami and his large home with devotional pictures and deities galore became the evening’s venue. People in this part of the world love to drum and chant all night long but for practical reasons we must draw time lines.

6 Km

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