Tuesday 28 June 2011

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

Widening Your Consciousness

Calgary, Alberta

The community of devotees here enjoyed the premiere of our bhakti variety show. Slightly over an hour long, our no-name show was delivered by our little drama troupe, unofficially known as Swami Productions, to congregants at the Radha Madhav Cultural Centre on Edmonton Trail. They laughed, cried, clapped and stomped. What was normally allotted as a time for pravachan (discourse or talk) was actually replaced with drama, comedy and dance. The effect was powerful. Philosophical truths and devotional sentiments struck brains and hearts.

I was restless after the show. Adrenaline, I guess. I used to walk from the downtown, the Cultural Centre's address, to the NE of Calgary off of 68th Ave, via Memorial Avenue, I guess you could say I scouted a small portion of Calgary's endless suburbs.

The city has a vision, otherwise, it wouldn't plan to have such a wide median between the existing road (68th) and the sidewalk. Clearly, city planners anticipate expansion of the road. Since the 70's this oil rich province and now with the discovery of the controversial tar sands of Alberta's north, there has been incredible economic growth. The prairies have unlimited space for growth. As long as oil is sought after with a persistent supply and demand, Alberta, the province, will continue to boom.

I would like to see expansion but of a different nature. Widening the scope of a higher consciousness is what Alberta could use. Some of the remarks from the youth affectionately lodged towards me were, "Hey Orange Man", "Buddha" and "Peace be with you, Man!"

As trivial as these remarks may be, their good nature behind them can indicate that expansion has begun.

7 Km

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