Author Archives: H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami

243 Ave Rd., Toronto Under One Roof At this wintry time it makes absolute sense to communicate with those whom you share the same roof. With our resident monks we shared Vedic wisdom. Hara Kumar, who in some ways is my senior, delivered this mornin…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Lightness   “Hey,” said the rather bubbly guy, tall, middle-aged, jovial. “I haven’t seen you guys for a while. When I was a kid and we saw you bald and white fellows my dad would say, ‘They’re crazy.’Anyways, here I am no…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Unity and Diversity Song by luminary Bhaktivinode Thakur The following lyrics demonstrate this great saint’s sense of vision on the principle of unity and diversity: 1) Why do you continue to hate the way the Lord is worship…

Queen’s Park, Toronto Beware of Bad Rap   On the wedding day of Krishna’s parents, King Kamsa led the chariot of the newly married couple through the crowds when a prophetic voice from the skies revealed his fate; being slain by their eighth so…

Queen’s Park, Toronto Hard Times/Strong Men   A few of us created another Zoom Gita Study Group, with a west coast crew. It was our orientation day, but I must not forget to include three families from Saskatchewan, where they are encountering …

Hamilton, Ontario About Dad Shortly after my father passed away in 2008, I wrote a poem in his honour, a way of saying “Thanks!” It will be his birthday on the 1st of February. He was born in the Netherlands, the place of tulips, in 1919. As a memb…

Brampton, Ontario Day With Families Nimai picked me up. We left for Brampton to see Pavan at his home. That makes two families joined together, and me. A Chinese meal was on the menu, all cooked by Pavan and all offered to Krishna to become prasada…

Brampton, Ontario Working on the Feet and Teeth   It may sound familiar to you. You’re at the dental clinic for a cleaning of the teeth and before you get in the chair the very friendly assistant starts talking.   I was just hanging my coa…

The Balcony, 243 Symptoms of Transcendence I decided to pace along on the temple/ashram’s balcony floor and in the course of it, chanted some rounds on my beads. The japa, or chanting, with a good dose of faith, is the means to elevate my consciousn…

Downtown Toronto Day Snow Walk   I walked on ice, asphalt, rock-salt and snow This is much like the make up of the world we know They are elemental surfaces that exist under our feet Diverse they are in colour, texture along the snowy heap &nbs…

Downtown, Toronto Night Snow Walk I was on Bloor St. and those pretty snowflakes were twirling down. That excited three young men, perhaps international students from India, whom I passed by. I know they were excited. I could see it on their tan fa…

Yorkville, Toronto Lochana Das Today was the anniversary of the passing of a great saint Lochana Das Thakura. He wrote a beautiful song glorifying Chaitanya, the monk, the walker, the Avatar for this age. The name of the song is “Sri Sri Gaura-Nity…

Pickering, Ontario Twenty-four Gurus Based on a story from Canto 11 of the Bhagavatam, I have this literary piece to offer the readers:  Twenty-four Gurus   A monk had come to visit a king in his royal town And the king asked the monk why…

The Annex, Toronto Sounds Perhaps it’s the season, winter, that permits sounds to be more crisp and distinct. Whether inside or outside, noises subtle or loud had somehow got my attention today. Thank God for noise, sweet or sour. Practically ever…

The Annex, Toronto Taking Stock Our Hamilton Zoom group is nearing the end of Chapter 18 from the Gita. It is the final chapter and involves surrender to the Supreme. The word ashraya refers to “taking shelter of” or “taking the protection from.” Y…

Yorkville, Toronto Dedications While temperatures are a bit down, the sun takes a prominent role in the sky and that’s welcoming. My walking these days is usually after sundown, but I figure I’m not going to pass up on kind rays that stream through…

Yorkville, Toronto Underground History As I turned the corner at Yonge and Bloor, on my evening walk amid corporate giant edifices, I was drawn to the actual writing on the wall of one of them. Below street level, where now exists a bustling commut…

Yorkville, Toronto Chanting, Shoveling I have to hand it to them; Cameron and Vallabha Hari took their shovel carving through the imposing mounds of snow around the building and succeeded in making it accessible for pedestrian walkways with snow wal…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Help Each Other Nature did us a wonderful favour when she dumped tons of snow on the ground, on rooftops, trucks and automobiles as well as on snow. Yes, snow upon snow. It engulfed the north-eastern front of the continent. Pe…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Before the Storm There was a calm before the storm and that was, for me, a few minutes with Vrkodhar and son. His family, of Ukraine origin, just moved here to Canada from Israel. When I walked that historic country – 2009/201…

Galleria Mall, Toronto Ah Yes – Change Vijay dropped me off at the juncture of the Galleria Mall, which is certainly now being tossed in the dustbin of history. From this location, I walked back to my home, the temple/ashram, and I could see major …

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto The Chocolate Question? Someone sent me a question asking about the status of coco. The sender found out that some Vaishnavas of the bhaktitradition consume chocolate. “So where do we stand?” was his basic question, a question…

Kensington Market, Toronto One Cute Story About Wonder One of the people who comes on board for the Thursday Gita class, sourced from Alachua, Gainesville, is a Godsister by the name of Sankalpa. She is one of the rock pillars of our weekly group, w…

Yorkville, Toronto Monkeys Feeling Entitled The material world is toxic, always was and always will be. The Vedas speak of the three energies (modes) that trigger this confusion (Bhagavad-gita 7.13). The cause of this misfortune and its sustainabil…

Queen’s Park, Toronto January 11 – Special For Me Today was my mother’s birthday. She has passed away, but I can’t forget her – ever. I was her first born and she had five more little rascals after me. That was quite a load for any two parents – six…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Jaya! The family of four came from Welland. Dad is Abhiram, Mum is Nikunja and their two boys are Gauranga, who’s four-years-old, and Nimai, a few months. The family recently moved to Canada from Connecticut and they are playi…

Yorkville, Toronto It Was 2 am It was 2 a.m. I could not sleep well so I decided to hit the pavement, or rather the side-walk. I opened the loading door as my exit from the temple/ashram where I live and there lie a man in prostrations, in other wo…

U of T, Toronto Getting Around, Looking While I strolled through some of the U of T campus, I also included meandering through swanky Yorkville, a dodgy strip of Yonge St., the platinum strip on Bloor, and a section of historic Annex. I observed th…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Two Walkers Made It I learned about a couple that survived a 4-month walk from Mexico to Canada along the Continental Divide. In 2017, I crossed the Divide in Colorado and it was at that location that a journalist caught up wi…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Krishna Revealed in Cleveland A 1500-year-old image of Krishna is being restored in the Cleveland Museum of Art. PBS has released the recent story about the deity of Krishna from Cambodia that made its way to Cleveland in the ‘…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto A Short Statement Compiled by Srila Prabhupada, the following is a statement on the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness: 1)       By sincerely cultivating a bona fide spiritual science, we can be…

The Annex, Toronto Under Some Pressure I was just about to take a mid-morning nap (I’d been up since 2 am) when I received a call. “No one is cooking the raj-bhogaoffering. It has to be ready in one hour.” “Alright, I’ll see what I can do. There m…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Prime Target One of my friends is an activist type. I guess we all may have one or two, or more, of those as our friends. Currently that means anti-mask/anti-vax. I consider such persons to be entitled to their opinion. A stro…

Brampton, Ontario Silver Balloon I want to congratulate the six new initiates who received their diksha and their new names. They are a smiling group. Optimists. Ashok Kumar Srivastava’s new name is Arya Das. Pratima Shrivastava’s new name is Pran…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto   A New Year   A new year Day come clear We start fresh Less with the flesh More on the spirit Inner voice – hear it Passions to tame Attention to the name Sing that song Make it long Look to the other See sister or br…

Queen’s Park, Toronto   Thanks   To kickstart the New Year, I wanted to express gratitude to our guru, Srila Prabhupada, with this poem:   Thanks   Thanks for Krishna’s name And for my name For a new goal For this lost soul  …

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto   New Year Kirtan   This poem was written at New Years, in 2019, just before the pandemic, in preparation for an annual New Year’s kirtan in Toronto.   New Year Kirtan   A new day was just about to come And a…

Toronto, Ontario   Seasoned Person   In the ashram we arrange a reading on the memories of our founder/teacher Srila Prabhupada. Croatian-born Vallabha Hari was reading and, with English not being his first language, he came upon the word “…

Mississauga, Ontario   Less Emotion   Erin Centre Trail had a surface of slush on it but that didn’t discourage this walking monk. The trail is flat and the area is peaceful. Only when it approaches the open fields do I hear the call of the…

Mississauga, Ontario   Animals, People and the Virus   In a conversation with my hosts and their small number of visitors in Mississauga, someone mentioned that deer are carrying one of the covid variants and are perhaps spreading it. That w…