Brampton, Ontario
Life is a Walk in Progress
I received a message from Louise whom I met back in June in Trail, B.C. I didn’t know she was a journalist when I was puzzled as to the physical continuation of the Trans Canada Trail when I came to a junction by the road. I saw two female runners and I asked, “Where did the Trans Canada Trail go? It’s not so obvious.” So I got good directions from her. Later she followed up with a story that went to various media outlets. It’s one of my favourites, courtesy of Louise McEwan (www.faithcolouredglasses.blogspot.com). The article:
Life is a Walk in Progress
Trail, B.C. September 15, 2014/Troy Media – My conversation with Bhaktimarga Swami, held by phone shortly after he completed his fourth “Can Walk” across Canada, transcended religious doctrine, dogma and belief systems.
Swami, born in Ontario as John Peter Vis, adopted the Eastern monastic lifestyle of the Hare Krishna movement some 40 years ago. In 1996, he undertook and completed his first pilgrimage across Canada, journeying from west to east. Since that time, he has completed three more cross country treks, each time traveling in the opposite direction, and along different routes.
He conceived the idea to walk across Canada one day while walking in a ravine in Toronto, an activity he undertook initially to rehabilitate low back problems. “It was almost like a light bulb lit up,” he told me of the moment that led him to walk across the country. As he put it, “As a monk might do it, (to)travel kind of lightly, and meet people along the way, spend enough time in a place, as long as it takes to milk a cow, as we say in our tradition,” before continuing his journey to his next destination.
In many religious traditions, the journey is a metaphor for the growth of the soul as it enters more profoundly into an encounter with the Divine. Since Swami had crossed the country on foot multiple times, I asked him if walking is more than a metaphor for him. Not surprisingly, it is. “It’s a natural position of the spirit or soul to wander in this world and to walk it in wonder and appreciation. So (wandering) puts you in that spot where you need to be, that place of humility which is the basis of success in life.”
Swami explained that walking along busy highways with vehicles barreling past or trekking through remote and beautiful landscapes is a lesson in detachment. “You learn to take it all in, the heat, the wind, the rain, the cold, the black flies, the mosquitoes, attention by the public, no attention, traffic – with all of that, you learn detachment.” These external factors, along with the physical discomfort that comes from walking 30 to 45 kilometres per day, and the spiritual challenges of facing your own deficiencies, help a person learn disentanglement from this world.
We discussed the idea of detachment in light of today’s culture, with its emphasis on self and acquisition. At the core of the self “there is passion to move about and pick up on all the little nuances the world has to offer.” We shared the belief that our passions may become misdirected and we may find ourselves walking in a direction that leads us away from our deepest yearnings.
Chanting the mantra is an essential part of Swami’s journey, helping him keep the spiritual in his midst. “God is present in sound,” said Swami. “Hallowed be thy name. So, the name, the sound is sacred. We,” by which the Swami meant the Krishna and Christian religious traditions, “have the same understanding…The Absolute or the Divine is there with you in their sound.”
The word “mantra” comes from two Sanskrit words, “mana” which means the mind, and “tra” which means to free. Chanting the mantra frees the mind “so that your mind is not on the acquisitions you’re trying to achieve.” The mantra “pulls you out of that mode,” illuminating the beauty all around, and providing spiritual strength; “it keeps you a bit on your toes, otherwise the force of temptation could get to you.”
Our hour-long conversation ended with Swami providing an exegesis of the verb “to understand” that he picked up from a Catholic priest. In order to understand, it is important to go under, to stand humbly and look up, then “you understand your real position.”
Walking “brings about a lot of revelation and epiphany about our smallness, our insignificance and about how much bigger the universal machinery is than our self. Getting to the point of taking the humble stance is the end product of the long and arduous spiritual journey, which, I am sure Swami would agree, is always a walk in progress…
(Thank you, Louise!)
May the Source be with you!
7 KM
