Monk Making Friends On Walk

[Guest guest]

By Marcy Nicholson

 

Bhaktimarga Swami rolls his wooden meditation beads smoothly between his thumb and index finger. His orange dhoti clings briefly against his legs with each short step.

 

"When people see a person like a monk walking in these robes, it wakes them up better than a cup of coffee," says the Hare Krishna monk.

 

"I'm hoping to encourage people to get back to the simpler things. Walking's a therapy."

 

His cotton dhoti swishes like linen blowing in the wind with each step. While covering an average of 45 kilometres a day, Swami has time to reflect, contemplate and sort things out.

 

"A lot of problems get resolved from walking," he says.

 

People's bodies are meant to be used, he says.

 

"It's the most humbling experience, walking across Canada. It just keeps going and going," Swami says.

 

The Ontario-born monk has been devoted to the religion, which shares the Hindi text, for 30 years.

 

In 1996 he walked the Trans-Canada Highway from Victoria, B.C., to St. John's, Nfld., in less than eight months. Now the Toronto-based walker is on his way back.

 

After starting in Cape Spear, Nfld., four months ago, Swami is now on his way through Westman.

 

"There's something extremely awesome about the place. Sometimes it's like a desert out there," he says.

 

Swami enjoyed an urban break in Brandon over the weekend, after he and his support person were invited to stay with a local family.

 

"The outcome is fantastic. You get a chance to meet people on a one-to-one basis," he says.

 

While the 50-year-old walks in part to celebrate being on this planet for half a century, he brings another purpose.

 

"I often wondered why I was given this name (Bhaktimarga Swami), but then on my first day walking in 1996, it hit me," he says.

 

It was Swami's guru who named the then 20-year-old what translates into "path of devotion."

 

Swami typically beats the summer heat and begins walking at 4 a.m. For the first few hours, he rolls his meditation beads and chants, "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare ..."

 

"Oh great Creator, please engage me in service to you and to the world," Swami translates.

 

Next he sings devotional songs.

 

"We've met all kinds of people. We'll go to a campsite and people will say, 'I saw you on the highway. What's going on?'" he says.

 

Swami is not out to convert anybody, but rather into making friends and contacts.

 

"Spiritually, it's just nice to have a new friend. You kind of open yourself up," he says.

 

But Swami also considers walking a way to remember the simpler things in life, and encourages other Canadians to take the time to slow their life's pace down.

 

"When you meet somebody, the first thing I ask is, 'How's your family life going?' It's what's on everybody's mind," he says.

 

"The nomadic life, it's a nice way to live, to be honest with you."

 

But the "ecstasy" of the trip is when he sees wildlife, like the snapping turtle he helped to cross the road in Peterborough, Ont.

 

Swami aims to arrive in Virden by today and the Saskatchewan border by Tuesday. His walk westbound will end in Victoria, sometime in early November.

 

Courtesty,

Mrigendra das

Los Angeles

 

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