Thursday 6 October 2011

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Old Men and Peace

Toronto, Ontario

When someone comes to town more for pilgrimage than tourist sightseeing, I like to take them to the Beaches boardwalk where our guru in the summer of '75 did walk. A visiting family from Florida and a devoted member of ISKCON's Detroit chapter came to spend a few days. What a blessing to have great guests whose motives are to grow within!

On the perfect Indian summer day, we took to the trail shared by others who had come to enjoy the sunshine and the placidness of the lake.

(Pardon me for being a trite too mundane as one reader to this blog felt spiritual content was lacking. The intent here is to keep the blog new-comer friendly and to see it as a springboard to reach greater spiritual heights. Anyways, here's the mundane-ness and you can judge for yourself if it inspires or not.)

While we took to the trail of the purest of all souls, Srila Prabhupada, we saw an elderly group of men lawn-bowling. We also saw an ancient man soaking in the sun at a bench. I thought of the peace they were seeking. I also thought of that marvelous poem read to a group of us spiritual leaders at an interfaith gathering. Coordinator, J.W. Windland, read Maya Angelou's poem, "A Brave and Startling Truth" and its reference to peace. Here it goes:

And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

Another stanza:

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

That was delivered on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and now to us.

At the event I had the pleasure to speak on the topic of peace as presented in the Bhagavad-gita. The message there is a step above.

11 KM

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