Saturday, August 18th, 2012

Off The Ground

Toronto/Vancouver

I found myself off the ground, in the air, with flight 367 West Jet. My morning including speaking on the topic of deity worship and attending two weddings held back to back before being strapped down to soar into the ether onwards to Vancouver.

Difficult keeping those legs behaved for the four and a half hour flight. They are accustomed to a rolling 30 Km along the road. I could understand the term much better, ‘itchy feet’. It’s tough.

The Simpson’s were playing on the screen in front of me. No need to listen. My lips were moving practically the whole time with a subdued, “Hare Krishna”. I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking at one point of the young chap who’s been carrying over his head a 70 lb pink canoe on Highway 2. He has been raising awareness for breast cancer, a disease that has stricken the female members of his family, his mom, his grandmother, etc. He’s executing a sacrifice, which is commendable, inspirational. People have been telling Daruka and I about this fellow. All cheers to him.

I was greeted by Akrura in Vancouver and driven to Stanley Park for a kirtan evening. Here, various chanting groups of the area were on stage to draw their crowds in a festival of Kali-yuga-challenging music. I never thought of it like that, but kirtan does that. In the world today, denigrating sound fills the atmosphere, it’s all around us. This, then, contributes to the mundaneness of our current world. To counter this we have kirtan (Kali-yuga-challenging music). In the queue of kirtan leaders was Karnamrita, a devotional singer who travels the world on the yoga studio circuit. Karnamrita has a golden voice, she’s also an avid walker, having trekked 1200 Km of the Santiago de Compostela. Just prior to her hopping on the stage, she told me about her desire to walk Israel.

“Hey, I’ve done that country, in 2011. I know the route. I’ll tell you about it. Mostly you follow the Mediterranean Sea. You might want to avoid the Gaza Strip, it’s just too political there.” She acknowledged.

3 Km