Thursday, January 7th, 2016

Thursday, January 7^th, 2016
St. John's, Newfoundland

The Newfie Chill

By the courtesy of our dear friend Jan Peters, I got settled in at one of those charming wood framed homes on Battery Rd. Overlooking the St. John's Harbour. Just after stepping into the cozy space with Jan and Sheeshan, a recently arrived Krishna devotee from Mauritius, I realized that I'm in Newfoundland now. It's like another planet, an actual huge island within the Atlantic all by itself.

"I have to slow down and simply chill because that's the spirit here. It's like old times," I thought. A visitor came who's going through life's challenges and I basically listened to what he needed to say.

It was the evening engagement at Memorial University where it was a Q & A session on the topic "The Walking Monk: ABCs of life as a Swami." Questions ranged from monastic life and walking, to meditation. The audience of close to 60 people had mild to provocative questions but one question got us laughing,

"Do you ever get grumpy?" Now Jan has known me for twenty years, so I deferred the question to her. "I've never seen it," she says. In all frankness I do at times feel grumpy but I masquerade it with a smile. I learned from my Dad and my guru that upbeat-ness is the way to be.

Basically I thrust the audience's attention to a Vedic sutra- message- such as "I am not this body, but a soul."

That message is powerful

May the Source be with you!

7 km