By Bhaktimarga Swami
British Columbia Completed
Crows seem to dominate here along the Crow’s Nest Pass (also known as HWY#3). They are ever present but are not alone in the scenic mountain route. Bears show their prowess too. Bear experts say that a large grizzly can eat up to 200 000 berries a day. But now, at the time that I am walking (June) it is not berry season. They then look for other seasonal fare.
Garuda Vahan, my comrade, and I happened to be on the path of a sniffling huge grizzly. We are walking east on the Pass and he is walking west. It is early and quiet and we meet with a short distance apart. He raises his majestic head and all other furry muscles to follow. A car approaches. He retreats to the ditch. The car passes. We move on slowly. He crosses the road to our side and follows us with great interest at a bear’s prowl pace. A semi-trailer approaches. It intimidates the grizzly. That was it. He’s gone! A close call!!
It’s not the encounters with bears, crows, elk, deer, moose, wild turkeys and gophers that is the point of this trip. It’s people. While Garuda is mostly off with his car running errands and communication so well with people I have my share of dialogue and interaction. A group of women in a van spotted me and asked me if I could bless their new dragon boat. So I do the best with mantra chanting and water sprinkling on the spot.
Another day a biker notices me, slows down and raises his arms above him to form pranams and that’s his way of communicating with me.
We met tourists, local youths, authorities, professionals, loggers and miners. All are curious. Perhaps the journalists I spend most time with – time that is valuable as the into their words to the public – the intent behind the walk. And what is the intent?
A swami, as people are learning, travels. A swami performs austerities. A swami inspires by his words and actions. A swami makes friends and contacts people. A swami endeavors to get closer to the Creator, Krishna. A swami leads a simple life. Yes, we are living outside (camping with Garuda), cooking outside, doing our laundry, outside. Its all so simple and sweet. We are having a blast.
By the mercy of guru, Srila Prabhupada some seeds of Bhakti, devotion, are being planted across Canada. This walk is an attempt to make the whole of Canada more sankirtana or spiritually friendly.
I must thank Jaya Govinda, Nitai Rama, Gokulananda and Lucien all from Vancouver for assisting me, all the moral and sponsorship and friends from far and wide.
Hare Krishna!
Report on Canwalk # 3
Alberta Completed
I’m out of the towering mountains now and into a different space, a land of openness. After switching roads I trek eastbound along the Yellowhead Highway in Alberta, a place of rolling hills, quick-mud sloughs, and bright yellow canola fields set against big blue skies (reflections of Krsna’s skin and dhoti). There are fewer trees, wide four lanes with expansive medium in the middle. At Elk Island Park I spot the occasional bison, that majestic mammoth, wild and free. It’s dry here, not wet like British Colombia was.
The sun joyfully greets me in the morning but by 8:30 am, it turns into a monster. It glares, blinds, and white washes the easterly direction for hours. It is a body drain experience but there is enough excitement to keep me perked up.
One day,
Garuda and I are walking, Police sirens resound from the distance. They come louder and louder, What could be the emergeny? Garuda and I now see the squad car coming at high speed and now another from behind. Their lights flashing. One crosses the medium and pulls in front of us with the second one shortly behind us now fully stopped. It’s obvious they are after Garuda and I. We remain calm. I ask Garuda jokingly, “ Are we speeding?” (we’re on foot.)
The first officer pops out of his car. He tells us not to worry and reassures us,
“We just wanted to get out picture taken with the monk.”
So the second officer whips out a camera. We pose. Garuda takes the shot. With that job done we talk.
Another day,
A trucker pulls over on the westbound lanes adjacent to me as I walk eastbound. Surely he’s not stopping for me. I continue.
“Hey!” he shouts, descending his cab he eagerly runs towards me with a colossal bottle of cold water in hand. “Here, you might need this. They’re talking about you on the radio.” I wasn’t aware of that.
An oil-field owner and manager stops, also in a response to the broadcast.
“So why are you doing this?” he asks.
“It’s a pilgrimage. Everything around us is sacred. In my tradition when you reach the second half of a century you downscale, roam the sacred land and try to reach a few hearts.”
He insisted on walking with me a stretch while his employee drove ahead to pick him up further up on the highway. We walk, we talk. We both admit that the canola flower stinks, and he corrects me on the name of a local wildflower that I mistook. He also shares his perspective on life. I share what Prabhupada has given to us. He wants to know more and asks me if I’ll look him up when I return to the area. At the end of his portion of the walk he offers a gift, a book on local wild plants. In exchange I hand him a Bhagavad-gita.
The previous day some tree planters chose to accompany me for a length as the sun sets.
Most motorists who stop do wish to walk and chat.
Greg wanted to walk but he would’t leave his car by the side. While standing there, cigarette in hand he sincerely asks me what karmically happens when your girlfriend aborts your baby and you want to give the child support and a chance.
One person who intentionally came out to tackle the road for a morning was Rani. Rani explains that she has had a rough life and that Krishna Consiousness has turned it around.
Most memorable about the Alberta experience was the four consecutive day chanting session held off of Whytte Avenue in Edmonton. On July 1st,( Canada Day) Garuda and I and Krishna devotees from Edmonton left the gazebo area to boldly parade the bar section. It might be arguable as to who the real party-animals were, the toasters or the chanters!
Garuda and I break for the two and a half week to join the Y.O.L. ( Yoga of Love) Festival with Montreal and Toronto Ratha-yatras.
Keep Posted. Hari Bol!!
Is the monk a myth?
Well, what a time I had walking in Saskatchewan. I returned to Yellowhead Highway (#16) after almost three weeks of absence from this most receptive piece of the highway. I participated in three Chariot festivals (Ratha-yatras) with fifty ecstatic youth on the Canadian stretch of the North American summer bus tour, spanning four thousand kilometers. So when I came back “on the saddle” so to speak (it’s a cowboy country here), I found I was missed on the road.
Somehow media had caught on that a monk was wandering through the
Prairies. This had become the talk of the town, Lloydminster and
especially over the radio air waves. The big question was, is he a myth or not. People phoned in to say there was a monk sighting. Others called in to deny this crazy notion.
When I finally hit that highway again motorists honked, people pulled over to talk and get confirmation (even offer donation). The two local
newspapers quickly sent reporters. The TV station came out twice to meet me on the highway and once to the campsite where Garuda and I were staying.
New about a monk on the loose was hot news! So now it was verified. He’s for real and he’s a Hare Krishna.
Curiosity was consistent throughout Saskatchewan.
“Would you like a ride? What are you doing? Are you a Buddhist?” were all common questions. One Saturday a wedding party and entourage passed by, then turned around where I was walking. A bridesmaid in her fine apparel stepped out of the vehicle and said, “My friend, the bride, and her new hubby are going through a journey together, and you are on your monk’s journey so I thought it would be nice to have a picture of you three together”
“Fine!” Snap! “Hare Krishna!”
Rarities!
While it was a marvel for people to see a monk roaming through Saskatchewan I got to see God in the form of gracefulness, which was rare. One morning while on foot with Garuda Prabhu in the middle of our chanting “Guruvastakam”, I looked up in the big infinite sky and spotted one of those rare birds on the very endangered species list – the Whopping Crane. He was joined by another, then another and finally a fourth. They whirled above us for a few minutes and then made a majestic exit wandering into the endless sky. For land creatures, I sighted more of those awesome bison, there was also a wolverine. Fortunately, he didn’t make it across the highway.
Indigenous people here are predominantly Cree. One man of the Cree tribe and his wife pulled over. He complained about trouble with his lower back. Assuming that I was a Shaman, he asked for a blessing. I placed my hands there and chanted the Maha-mantra for him. He was happy, I was also surprised to find that not only the Ukrainian and Russian had settled here to escape oppression back home but also Icelanders who left home after a volcano destroyed their crop land in the late 19th century. I do believe that if you spend time in a land of diverse people you must know their ancestry.
What was rare for me still, was what nature provides for a traveller
who needs to ease his legs. In the heart of Saskatchewan there is a lake, Little Manitou. It is more dense than the Dead Sea, this lake possess’ miraculous minerals in its water for healing. People come from all over the world to take what it is has to offer. When I dipped in to tread the deep section my legs automtically kicked up and I would lie on my back floating with no effort. You could just lie there for hours and read the newspaper, (or the Bhagvatam), if you wanted.
Friends
This Province has “its” treasures for sure. Garuda Vahan, my support person, and I made friends that we are following up on. It is the people that are the most treasured. A Catholic priest from Saskatoon gave us shelter; a place to stay. We broke bread together. One day we came upon a doctor who had moved from South Africa to Maidstone (population 1,000) He and his family, are vegetarian, the only ones in town in this beef country. The town didn’t know what to do about it but people adjusted. We ended up having kirtan, (a Krishna Pow Wow)
in their home. Another fella pulled over on the highway and remarks that he once had a Hare Krishna bible but lost in. So we provided him with a Bhagvad-Gita. Another two young chaps followed me in their red sports car to the camp site where we stayed. They wanted to know how I became a monk. What does that tell you?, that people have an inkling towards spiritual life.
Lightning and thunder threatened us almost every evening but somehow the gods seemed to be teasing us. We remain dry in these big open spaces. For all the above reasons I have come to cherish this place Saskatchewan, the land of the living skies. when walking through Saskatchewan you can be assured there is always a hawk present nearby but bear in mind that Krishna’s always in the heart.
Prabhupada ki Jaya!
Bhaktimarga Swami
Traveling Solo But Never Alone
Traveling solo it seems you are never alone. Boiling around a corner and onto a straight stretch east of Rock Creek my line wavers at a surreal scene. On this lonely stretch of the Crowsnest Highway set against a verdant backdrop of rolling Okanagan ranchlands lush with unseasonable rain and shot through with rocky outcroppings, a man striding along in a monk’s orange flowing robes transforms the scene into a surrealist painting.
Pulling over at a rest stop I snap a few photos of the surrounds, wondering if I need to work up a cover story to talk with what I take to be a either a man of some faith or some medication. As it turns out no excuse is needed.
Bhaktimarga Swami, “but you can just call me Swami for short”, is a Hare Krishna monk who has about in much in common with the airport-chanting variant as I do with Madonna. He is quiet, plain spoken, introspective and crossing Canada by foot for his third time. It is a pilgrimage for Swami, formerly Jon Peter Vis, but also an escape. “I work with a lot of people in my day to day roll, this is a break.”
I comment that I’m not sure I’d consider a stroll of this length, some 7,800kms, a break and Swami calmly admits that he’s had to split this walk into two three-month segments. “I just couldn’t take the full six months away.”