Author Archives: H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami

Oakville, Ontario   In the Boxing Ring with Maya   When someone uses the word “boxing,” as in Boxing Day, it refers to the day after Christmas when shoppers go bananas over deals on sale. But in the more popular context, it’s a sport. I did…

Etobicoke, Ontario   Quietest Day   This is the quietest day of the year. Even Walmart is closed. This, then, is a time, a mere 24 hours, when people have a greed-break. However, tomorrow, the 26th, all hell breaks loose again. It is Boxing…

Vancouver/Toronto   Christmas Eve   I’ve been telling people that I’m going to catch Santa’s sleigh with his reindeer after his last chimney delivery. Well, timing-wise it couldn’t have been closer. It’s Christmas eve and I flew on a five-ho…

Burnaby, British Columbia   Of Geese and Men   Some geese just do not fly south for the winter. Here, at least, some prefer to stay. As long as green grasses linger and temperatures remain mild enough, they just might stick around.   K…

Surrey, British Columbia   Events   One of the most inspiring figures of saintliness is Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. He is our param-guru, or guru’s guru. Today we honoured his passing from this world and we did so at the temple with …

Burnaby, British Columbia   Winter Solstice   It is winter solstice this very day Nights now shorten, nature does portray While days lengthen through months May And June and weeks pass away   It’s an annual turning point A seasonal jun…

Surrey, British Columbia   By the Asian Farms   Stephen was with the Canadian Forces some years back and so I thought to ask him to accompany me on the Sunday night walk, brisk and cold so it was. I thought he was tough enough to accept the…

Surrey, British Columbia   The Here and Now   I’ve been in touch with Neil who’s a sculptor from Ontario and who forwarded me some pics of his new wood sculpting assignment. This is a project we’ve been speaking about since the summer last….

Burnaby, British Columbia   Clean It Up   While this yatra (community) in British Columbia is engaged, like many places on the globe, in sharing Gita wisdom, a group of us felt the need to buckle down, roll up sleeves, and pull up socks for…

Burnaby, British Columbia   Killed Instantly   It came as a shock to hear that one of our local Krishna girls was killed instantaneously when a motorist hit her one block from her home in Surrey. Prema Manjari just turned 19 this month and …

Burnaby, British Columbia   Good at Willard St.   I was on Willard St., relishing the dusk of the day. The sun was indeed casting rays and releasing some vitamin D. Some days this is hard to come by. Today was good.   The street here i…

Burnaby, British Columbia   Thanks, All!   A moment of gratitude hit my soul. First of all I want to thank Dhruva, Yogendra, Rajasuya and others for moving this blog.   I want to appreciate a couple in Toronto that are an inspiration i…

Burnaby, British Columbia Night Walk Sarva Rasa agreed to join me for an evening walk down by the greenhouse enclave. This was after a full day of his teaching and then catching up with the final portion of a reading of the Gita in the temple. Toda…

Kitsilano, British Columbia Gita Wisdom  Once you were in the body of a very small child Then you grew up to become a little wild Your body as a youth showed all this passion When people carry on in a certain kind of fashion And then you took t…

Burnaby, British Columbia We’re Coming Together I have known Abhidheya since the late ‘80s, through a cow protection program we had in Ontario, where she then lived (still trying to get back home). She has been extremely helpful with plays I’ve dir…

Burnaby, British Columbia Alignment Planets have been making alignments with the moon as of late. During my evening walk this night I could see when the clouds were not covering. I spotted the moon and also a companion, another heavenly body situate…

Burnaby, B.C. Bhakti Yogis Are Precious It was a full day of rain and I’m not used to this, but such is nature. Special about today, though, is that it’s the birthday of Vrnda. Who is Vrnda? Well, she’s a very sweet and intelligent woman who is do…

Burnaby, British Columbia Walk With Purpose As Sathya, Sunil, and I were about to embark on our backroads walk, we chanced upon a person we all know. His name is Hadai and I told him, quite frankly, the three of us were taking a break from people. T…

Port Coquitlam, B.C. Along the Dyke It was the first sunny bright day in weeks, so a number of us took full advantage. We took to De Boville Slough, which has a dyke running along to one side and then edges along Pitt River. Bears do frequent the a…

Burnaby, British Columbia Reading What Nature Says A fresh snowfall descended recently and has blanketed the surface throughout most of the province. Nature, it seems, speaks to us all the time. With the whiteness of snow, the message is “be intros…

Chemainus, B.C. Catching Up My younger brother Paul, and his son John, popped over to see me at the Jagannath Temple, owned and operated by hosts Gadadhar and Manoharini. What a treat! Manoharini greeted them with a resounding “Amazing Grace,” play…

Chemainus, British Columbia To the Mountain Cabins Jaya Govinda, Dawn, Leah and I took to the early ferry at Horshoe Bay for a water voyage to Vancouver Island and then drove onto Chemainus, to the unique home of Gadadhar and Manoharini. I say “uni…

Burnaby, British Columbia Exam Preparation At UBC a group of fifty to sixty young, Indian students came together for a Hindu collaboration, which included mostly devotional songs. It was indoors, Diwali-like in atmosphere, and timed just before exa…

Vancouver, British Columbia Sorry to See You Go Jaya Govinda, Deepak, and I did some serious walking on 1st and 2nd Ave. near the Science Centre, just to see if the park sites and nearby streets could be a possible new area for next year’s Chariot …

Burnaby, British Columbia Santa Behind Plexiglass He’s loved by the young ones. Benevolently, he works hard to please the kids at this time of year; operating in the North Pole in great preparation for the snow season. His beard, if big and white, …

Burnaby, British Columbia Getting Around I’m getting around now, being in B.C. Travels recently have taken me east, west, and north. Just to be on the safe side, I’m keeping it domestic for now. Anyway, it’s great to be back after two years of bei…

Burnaby, British Columbia Getting Around I’m getting around now, being in B.C. Travels recently have taken me east, west, and north. Just to be on the safe side, I’m keeping it domestic for now. Anyway, it’s great to be back after two years of bei…

Toronto/Vancouver Moving to Places I left our ashram in Toronto for the airport feeling good. David has pruned the bushes in the front yard and Cameron really took to the elbow-grease-work of cleaning the resident washrooms. These areas needed some…

Toronto, Ontario Proper Perception From the purport of text 11.7.8 from the Bhagavatam, we read, “When a woman loves a man, she is most eager to see him, and she daily sees him dressed in different clothes. Actually, the woman is interested not in …

Sudbury, Ontario Today While my host Damodara, and his student occupants, took that extra Sunday morning rest, I snuck out for a quiet stroll. The sun hadn’t yet risen so “all is calm and all is (not yet) bright.” It was really soothing to know tha…

Sudbury, Ontario Walking a Bit of the Past There are places in Sudbury I just had to revisit as part of my personal “memory lane.” First of all Ramsey Lake, a sixty-five feet deep and eight kilometre-long body of water within the city limits; a plac…

Sudbury, Ontario Back Where It Started This is where it all began for me. My seed for bhakti was planted on Yonge St., in Toronto, and Victoria, B.C., where I had brief encounters with Krishna monks. However, it was here in this town, Sudbury, the …

Toronto General, Toronto Take Care Vaishnava I trekked in the rain to see our beloved Vaishnava Prabhu at the Toronto General Hospital. His heart is not in the best condition and so he deserved a visit. Being in the CIUC is a very protected and sec…

Montreal, Quebec Sweet Etiquette We had such a sweet time with sadhanain the morning. Thanks to our guru, Prabhupada, who brought a morning program into our lives. It starts at 4:30 AM with singing. We are swaying. We are playing our instruments. T…

Montreal, Quebec Some Warmth in the Cold   Dark, ominous clouds set in and at the corner of Guy and Maissoneuve Streets in downtown Montreal, thousands of Concordia University students were making their way to destinations – classrooms, apartme…

Montreal, Quebec In Separation I wanted to offer my congratulations to the four new initiates from Mauritius. This last Sunday, we got plugged into the Zoom system with the community in Bon Accueil, in that country which apparently holds the post of…

Hamilton, Ontario For Kali It’s Kirtan   One very hip street in Hamilton is called Hess Village. It’s trendy and it is natural to have a few yoga studios in the area. One such place is in a loft. “Church 444,” for some reason or another, is the…

Ramsden Park, Toronto  Marvelous Moments Two young students from the Toronto Film School lined me up for a documentary assignment interview. The questions included, “What is Hare Krishna?”, “Do you believe in an after-life?”, etc. The filming we…

Ramsden Park, Toronto Raised in Lebanon “I was raised in Lebanon” said the 25-year oldish woman when she saw me and only after she told of her religious affiliation with Islam. “There was a lot of anger and hardness, so I got very discouraged.” She…

243 Ave. Rd., Toronto Welcome, Atul Krishna No walking today. Mopping, yes! Meaningful meetings? Most definitely. A Zoom Gita class? Oui. And then came 6 pm. Ananda Gauranga came as the priest and, with Nimai Nitai’s assistance, pulled together wha…