Monday 30 September 2013

Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Willis and the Gita

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

I met Willis at German Town, he was just having a smoke outside the pub when we greeted each other.  First of all, because he was curious, I had to clarify which monastic order I belong to.

“What’s your belief system?” he asked.

“We follow the ancient teaching of Bhagavad Gita.”

“Hey, I read Bhagavad Gita,” which he pronounced perfectly.

“What do you think of it?”

“It’s got a lot of positive energy,” remarked Willis who I learned is a writer and a real estate agent.

Eventually our conversation lead to many spheres and especially the topic of male/female union.  He asked me what advice I could give of his urge and pursuit in this direction.  Frankly, I suggested to find the right partner and be committed to the one.  This way you both work on patience, tolerance and selflessness.  “We will all exit from this world at one point, and we want to leave this world being very clean inside,” I said.  To this he nodded in agreement.  It seems that Willis knows the people in the neighbourhood where two blocks away from our ISKCON centre, he succeeded in pulling a couple of guys over to let them in on the conversation.  We eventually parted on amicable terms.

Hours later I found myself in the office of Ravindra.  I had asked him for a critique on our dramatical rendition of the Bhagavad Gita called, “Gita: Concise”.  He was just cool with everything he had seen and had heard on the stage the previous day.  He did offer a brief suggestion for perhaps inserting a script, an emphasis on everyone’s natural role in this world as a servant.  Thanks, Ravindra, consider it done.

By the way, my performance towards walking was poor today, but a second take on the drama where my energy went, enthralled our Sunday crowd at the ISKCON Open House, including the university students that came.

3 KM

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