People Know Sam
Wasaga Beach, Ontario
Everyone in Wasaga seems to know Sam. The manager at the local hotel, the gas station attendant, people at the beach and even I know Sam, for that matter.
Sam runs a boxing studio near the beach in this modest size city of 16,000. He was as a young adolescent growing in Fiji a body builder and got in rigorous training for all of his growing years. Something that paid off. "It kept me out of trouble" he once told me. At 69 he still teaches boxing and he doesn't look his age.
On the wall at his studio on Dunkerron Street. He has his students commit to reciting the tagged on quotes from the Gita- quotes that emulate the qualities of a priestly warrior.
"Peacefulness, self-control, austerity, cleanliness, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and religiousness, heroism, power, determination, resourceful, courageous, generous and ability to lead."
Beyond reciting the above the students hear from Sam about curbing fowl language, smoking, and drinking. Sam gets real happy when he sees their commitment and the transformation. Sam himself is a staunch applicant of not only martial arts but of bhakti yoga, the lifestyle of surrender to Krishna. He has a large mural of Krishna and his brother Balaram engaged in stick fighting and a second one with Krishna fist-fighting the notorious opponent Kamsa.
I've known Sam since the seventies when he became a student of bhakti yoga master, Srila Prabhupada. It was good to see him and his wife, Bhismaka, who was the guru's cook in the last months before he passed away. I enjoyed the invigorating walk with Sam aka Vishnu Tattva on the beach which goes on forever, so it seems.
It was a snap decision in the late morning to drive up to Georgian Bay to see them after delivering a talk on the topic of "balance." Sam, by the way, leads that perfect balanced life of levelling spirit and material.
8 KM
No comments:
Post a Comment