Monday 25 January 2021

Saturday, January 23rd, 2021

Queen’s Park, Toronto

 

Getting Around by Zoom

 

My first Zoom for today was with a new group from Windsor, Ontario headed by Kadambha Kanana, who resides there but is employed in Detroit. It is a nice group, or sangha, that gets together regularly. I was asked to speak on chapter 9 of The Gita, and concentrate on the term Mahatma. The definition according to The Gita is “one who is absorbed in spiritual energy, engaged in devotion, is active in glorification of the Great Spirit and is extremely focused in the practice of bhakti.”

 

A second Zoom involved discussions of fundraising for the ongoing renovations of the Toronto temple. The work continues.

 

Thirdly, we conducted a virtual samskara, or blessing, for a five-month-old child. Called annaprasana, it is the administering of the first grains for a child. Here’s how we executed this very touching ritual. Our local cook, Dwarkanath, whom I’ve brought to your attention several times, baked some excellent cakes. He offered them ceremoniously to Krishna, then passed them on to me. I ate one and arranged for a shipment of the remnants to Fredericton, New Brunswick, to the home of Kadambha Priya. His son goes by the name of Balarama. Daddy brought one cookie, mixed in with condensed milk and the kid just loved it. Devotees from Montreal and Winnipeg joined in. We all held a kirtan to my lead from Toronto. It was joyful — a joyful joyfulness.

 

My last Zoom for the day was with the local Oakville group where we observed the behavior of demonic tendencies from chapter 16 of The Gita. Very interesting! After all of that I went for a walk.

 

May the Source be with you!

4 km

 

I invite you to view our new film, Rolling the Dice:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3legHdMgI


 

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