Sunday 10 February 2008

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tues. Nov.13/07 - Miami Florida
On the flight to Miami the man sitting next to me took some interest in my lifestyle as a person in the renounced order. Although we both wore the same brown crocs our attire was markedly different. While he was clad in regular casual wear I donned my saffron cloth.
“can you pick your own color?” he asked. He commented that he liked the colour. I let him know his comment was appreciated and that this colour was reserved for the single celibate men of our order.
As I deplaned I also reminded myself that this life of self-control along with this specific colour of cloth is something you earn after years of comfortable restrain. I say comfortable because for me it has been thirty-four years of experiencing what Krishna explains in the Gita as the higher taste. Travel, whether it be on foot or on flight with the purpose of touching souls, is a great privilege.
The remainder of the day was spent at the Miami ISKCON Centre at Coconut Grove until it was time in the evening to depart for Buenos Aries. I was happy to see the massive smile of our local legal advocate who is also very much a devotee. Apparently a pending and grueling court case involving the temple terminated into a happy settlement.
Legal battles are ugly and in the current climate of social awares they ciontribute majorly to the stress factor.
Over the years I’ve observed the draining and devastating effects that disputes have brought on. Conflict and disagreement are unfortunate indeed but they are components of this mundane world. If we take shelter of our spirituality then it is possible to survive such a trying world.
6kms.

No comments: