Author Archives: H.H. Bhaktimarg Swami

Queen’s Park, Toronto The Power of Paramatma  Every morning our reader, Vallabha Hari, who is a natural Master of Ceremonies, projects out on the microphone a passage from the Bhagavad-Gita: As It Is and it is always a reassuring message from …

Vaughan, Ontario Tolerance When a hurricane hits town it can do a lot of damage. Fiona stormed Canada’s east coast taking only one human life when the notorious wind and water swept through but she left devastation to roads, buildings and so much m…

University of Toronto At the Campus We were blessed with additional rain today. It was actually more of a drizzle, but that didn’t deter us from making that walk to the university grounds with a special mission. There were three of us — Ryan, Durgam,…

Cabbagetown, Ontario From Cabbage to Pizza It was today, with umbrella in hand, that I walked to my old spiritual stomping grounds, or, to put it in another phrase, my spiritual birthplace. 187 Gerrard St. is the actual location, currently a house …

Hamilton/Niagara Lucky Sweet I get concerned these days about travel and the time it takes to get somewhere by a vehicle. It can take so long with so many more people and so many more cars. The drive to Niagara Falls from Toronto used to be one an…

Toronto/Brampton Joy and Feelings A splendid day kicked off with strong sadhanaat the temple including a Bhagavatam class outlining how self-realization can truly take off by way of the nostrils. Such was the case for the adorable four Kumara sages…

Dundas Square, Toronto Night Walk and People After a blissful kirtan at Queen’s Park, and once all participants dispersed, I chose to go solo on foot on the very active streets on this Friday night. It is quite remarkable to see the demographical cha…

Queen’s Park, Toronto Green Spaces I was showing Vallabha Hari new locations for any future strolls he may wish to take. He is accustomed to taking the main through-fares. Little did he know that there are marvelous tucked away green spaces beyond …

Toronto, Ontario IT IS DUE TO SALLY   It was in two thousand fifteen That Sally was happy to be seen By those who admired her At New Vrindavan it did occur Known to be the special agent The one so absolutely patient In signing the fateful papers…

Wasaga Beach, Ontario Last Day It was the last day of summer and our intent was to squeeze in the few remaining hours by taking advantage of sun, water and sand with members of the Bhakti Academy. Our first destination for this outdoor bonding was …

Cleveland, Ohio The Storm and After Just as the sun was to greet us for the morning, Kaustubha and I could see clear over the horizon a mess of black coming our way. It was menacing in appearance though a regular stunt of nature. We were simply on …

Cleveland, Ohio The Times They Are A Changin’ As I’ve noticed, more and more Americans and Canadians upon greeting are offering pranams with their palms together in a slight bow. It seems to me that we Westerners are touching more on being Vedic/Hi…

Cleveland, Ohio Kiss Your Face “Let the sun kiss your face,” suggested Madhavananda, as we were in the water for a second day. The sun was bright. The water clean. Temperature perfect. We were catching that vitamin D from Surya (sun). Receiving a p…

Port Clinton, Ohio The Ship Docked To commemorate the anniversary of the docking of our guru (Prabhupada) on American soil, I delivered a class, basically a reading of this event at Boston harbor in September, 1965. A group from the Harmony collect…

Ypsilanti, Michigan A Day at Harmony Collective Back to Lakewood Park, Kaustubha and I went for the sunrise. Unfortunately, from our viewpoint, the sun was peeking out behind the Cleveland skyline and not from the lake itself. All the same, it was …

Cleveland, Ohio Great at the Lake Kaustubha and I were ambling along at Lake Erie’s edge in Lakewood Park when one of the many, shall I say, “worshipers” of the water and sun noticed my garb. “Oh! Monk! Yeah! I agree!” As he gives me a fist pump. P…

Cleveland, Ohio Great at the Lake Kaustubha and I were ambling along at Lake Erie’s edge in Lakewood Park when one of the many, shall I say, “worshipers” of the water and sun noticed my garb. “Oh! Monk! Yeah! I agree!” As he gives me a fist pump. P…

Dublin, Ohio Embrace Encouragement This morning a handful of Columbus congregants and I took to trekking along the Ohio River on Riverside. What was to be more of a chanting walk ended up being more of a chattingwalk. The conversation hovered aroun…

Columbus, Ohio Food, Students and Paw-Paw I spent the bulk of the day in the residence of Chandra and Kalpana with their son Gertik (it’s his birthday), 14, and daughter Dashika, 11. They live in a place called Dublin, a bedroom community to Columb…

Moundsville, West Virginia Finale It was a drizzle of a morning but that was no roadblock for some enthusiasts to circum-ambulate the lake at New Vrindavan. There has been no conversation during the strolls around the lake, named Rada Kunda. When o…

Moundsville, West Virginia Relishable Topics Other topics on the agenda at MANtra 2022 were “The Art of Meaningful Association,” “Chasing the Wild Monkeys: Lust, Addiction and the Power of Healing Association,” “Flourishing as a Father” and “Compas…

Moundsville, West Virginia On the Way to Betterment The air was still and most comfortable as twelve of us were inside our Toronto ashram, when two chubby raccoons were milling around looking for food. By the time we got outside, loading our vehicl…

Yorkville, The Annex/Toronto Full Cup Day   Today was the birth anniversary of one of our great saints – Bhaktivinode Thakur. And so, as a poem: Twas a half day fast Birthday of Bhaktivinode Bit of biography read Ashram-ites in a good mode&nb…

Queen’s Park, Toronto Going Over We are getting ready for the MANtra retreat. Staged in the beautiful Appalachia of West Virginia is this guy’s get-together. It’s our fifth annual and we are actually going to attend, physically, this year. Our crew…

Cobourg, Ontario Getting Out The women from our Bhakti Academy were squealing (and they don’t mind me using that word to describe it) as soon as the goats showed themselves from behind the pasture fence. It was an expression of ecstasy when both hu…

243 Avenue Rd., Toronto Chanting with a Backing   It was with great satisfaction that I conducted a Kirtan Standards course along with the Bhakti Academy students. The feedback that I received from this three hour interactive workshop/presentat…

Scarborough/Milton, Ontario Two Winners   The smaller communities we have established in recent years are all doing well in terms of governance, attendance and participation. Financially things are also doing all right. Even during the pandemic…

Christie Pits, Toronto Celebrations   Rishab and Juhi’s wedding was just about perfect. The two priests, Dharma and Rasaraj, are these two pure saints – humble, honest and attentive to their delivery of Sanskrit mantras. First of all, the progr…

Christie Pits, Toronto   The Goddess   The Goddess   The embodiment of beauty The spirit of purity Her complexion resembles gold While Her senses are controlled She is calm, composed, collected To all souls She remains connected She is…

The Annex, Toronto Reflect on High Character   Mitch poked his head in the doorway of the temple room when we were engaged in drama practice. He just had a nutritious meal at Govinda’s Restaurant along with his companion. I haven’t seen Mitch f…

Seaton Village, Toronto The Best Reading Material   Of all reading material that comes my way in a natural devotional setting – the Gita, the Bhagavatamand anything else which is a publication of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, I also include the o…

Christie Pits, Toronto Priceless Encounters   The light winds aroused the spirits of people as I walked on Bloor St., West. It was a struggle at intersections to get my dhoti (lower robes) to behave. But I was having fun with pedestrians. The …

Forest Hill, Toronto Taking in a Short Stroll   The evenings appear to be the only favorable time for taking that stroll, and even then, you start sweating within ten or even five minutes of movement. It’s the moisture in the air. If someone sa…

Niagara Falls, Ontario It’s No Wonder It was a smooth drive with Gabriel behind the wheel from Ottawa, but looking at the rest of my day I asked myself, “When will I get the chance to put in some walking?” Before reaching ISKCON Toronto I asked Gab…

In Ottawa Sandy Hill, Ottawa This is the first year of a Chariot Fest, on more of a grand scale, in Canada’s Nation Capital. The chariot, so well constructed and conserved by competent craftsman from Montreal, Abhuy Charan, came in on the scene in …

Yonge St., Toronto On a Podcast Kushal Mehra is host to a regular podcast from India who found out about me as a Canadian monastic and marathon walker. It was this morning that he arranged for a recording on the Charvaka Project. Our guru, Prabhup…

Downtown, Toronto Finishing With a Possum After three years we have our invited guests, Vaisesika and Nirakula, to inspire us in the service to Krishna and His outstanding rep, our guru, Prabhupada. He, Vaisesika, is doing a series of talks on “Sa…

Concord, Ontario Weddings and Walkings A wedding on Wednesday? It seems odd but it did happen on this very day. The bride’s dad had invited me months ago. He recalls how I last saw her, the bride, when she was six months. Abhiramy Was just a toddle…

Toronto, Ontario Light and Serious I liked our discussion this morning at the Bhagavatam class, from Canto one, wherein two questions were posed by the last of the Yadus, King Pariksit. Question one lodged towards the sage, Sukadev: What should I b…

Bracebridge, Ontario Moving Through a Green Heaven I do not know all my trees but I can pretty well identify the white pine on my walks and here in the near north, there are plenty of them. In Bracebridge you have awesome trees and in the greater M…