Saturday, January 22nd, 2011

It's All About Meeting

Thornhill, Ontario

A doctor came to relieve me of half of the stitches. He noticed my kurta.

"Are you with Zen?"
"I'm with Krishna," I said as he snipped away.
"Oh yes, that's the root of it all, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," I said with some exhaustion recovering now from surgery.

I had lunch with all patients but I'm treated to a strict diet. I believe I'm the only one who is vegetarian in the hospital. Everyone, however, knows people who are. The fellow next to me at the table claims his two daughters are on a meatless diet. Rose is an ex-hippie who hung out at Yorkville during hippie heyday. And across the table was a gentleman with a Dutch name - Vander something-or-other. He looks like Jimmy Stewart. I told him so. His wife, next to him, said many people have told him that.

"I've been called Kevin Spacey, even though I've never seen the actor." Mrs. Vander .... said, "Yes, I can see that."

From there we dropped the small talk to discuss more about spirituality. They wanted to know. So I began, "We are all divine sparks of life, regardless of gender, race, or species. We have a chance to purge ourselves and if we fail this time around we are given another opportunity in the next. Our teachings are based on the ancient text called Bhagavad-gita and I am a Bhakti Yoga instructor."

"Yes, I have played the role of chaplain at a school," said Mr. Vander Jimmy Stewart (take no offence).

I meet just about the nicest people at the Shouldice. I believe I have some purpose here apart from the cut and the stitches. In fact, Mr. Vander Jimmy Stewart was willing to accept that his Catholicism was influenced by the 'root' culture from India.

I was fortunate to meet these and other folks. Other visitors came at the two designated visiting hours. The first batch of devotees from the temple could not resist a soft chant in my hospital room. That terminated when one of the nurses came in to see the packed room and asked, "What are you doing?" She sternly questioned.

So everyone drilled their way quietly down to the spacious solarium to resume our metting.

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