Monday 4 May 2009

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Striking Happy Cords

Toronto, Ontario

The cook in the pizzeria was reeling his dough in the air and thumping to our beat as we passed by. The two store attendants, with their chic clothes, suddenly lit up, looked at each other and broke into big grins as we passed by. The jeweler tossed a generous wave of the hand as we passed by. And the enthusiastic photographer took shots of us as she walked backwards on the street, accidentally falling into a back-roll but quickly springing back up into action.

These were just samplings of responses by people towards our chanting party on Bloor Street.

Organizing the chanting parties is Krishnadas, a devotee and successful family man, who arranges time for this sought-after activity. He and his godbrother, Dharmaprana, a monk at the temple, look forward to being the main core of the chanting group. Both are approaching 60 but are not discouraged by the energetic activity of chanting on the streets to the sound of Krishnadas’s drum. They welcome anyone to join in this joyful expression of the soul. We are very fortunate to have such mature men who demonstrate their loyalty to this chanting, which is normally the exercise of the youth.

We can credit Chaitanya, the early sixteenth century avatar, who introduced this light-hearted brand of spiritualism to the world.

4 Km

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