Bhakti Marga Swami

Hare Krishna, Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. My name is Bhakta Jeff. I was recently travelling with Bhakti Marga Swami as he began his fourth walk across Canada. Maharaja wanted me to send in all the different news coverage that he got so I am attaching it. There are actually two more papers yet to come out with the story. They are weekly’s so it is a little less frequent. One of Maharaja’s purposes was to show how it is not very difficult to get a lot of positive media coverage by being a little creative. He was walking for two weeks and Maharaja was featured in 7 newspapers, and on two different radio shows. I hope that this is helpful. If you need anything else the best way to get a hold of me is by this e-mail. I hope that all is well with you.

Hare Krishna
Your servant Bhakta Jeff

Roads not taken

Posted on September 28, 2011 Debbi Harvie

Hare Krishna Bhaktimarga Swami strolls down George Street in New Glasgow as part of his walk across Canada. This is his fourth walk across the country to raise awareness of meditation and looking after not only the physical but also the spiritual well being, as well as using the waslk as a friend raiser.

Hare Krishna Bhaktimarga Swami admits he received some strange looks as he strolled down the streets of Pictou at 7 a.m. Friday wearing his peach–coloured robe. But it certainly didn’t bother him as he continued with his meditation chants.
Swami began his fourth walk across the country last week in Newfoundland and made his way to Pictou County walking an average of 30 kilometres each day with a goal of eventually stopping in each town and village in the country.
Swami is walking, not to raise funds but as a friend raiser.
“I want to promote pilgrimage and introspection,” he says. “Reflection and meditation are not emphasized enough. We don’t spend enough time on inner development.”
So Swami is travelling in his carefree way beginning his daily walks around 4 a.m. reciting Hare Krsna Hare Rama as part of his meditation and inflection.
The goal is to clear the mind and come back as a changed or improved person.
Swami became a monk in 1973 in Ontario, where he was born.
“I always had an attraction to the renounced kind of life,” he says. “I felt it was my calling. I wanted to open myself up to the world, contribute to and see the world as my family.”
Canada is not the only place Swami has walked.
“I have walked Ireland, Israel, the Figi Islands, Guyana and Trinidad,” says Swami.
But he enjoys walking through Canada because of the more conducive weather and terrain.
What Swami finds through his walks is that he is often approached by people who feel monks are good luck and in fact invites people to join him on portions of his walk to converse.
“I have received much generosity from people across the country,” he says.
He was even joined last week in Newfoundland by a group of breast cancer survivors walking on the east coast of the island.
Swami stays mainly on Highway 4 during his travels, living a vegetarian lifestyle and staying where he can, one night Swami stayed in Auld’s Cove in the very first Hindu temple built in Canada with his support person.
At 59 years of age, Swami is certainly not done exploring and seeing the country.
“It’s very inspiring, what you see around you. It’s about getting out into nature and applying yourself,” he says.
With this being Swami’s first time in Pictou County he was surprised by the beauty of it all.
“I was pleasantly surprised with the picturesque look of the downtown area,” he says adding the folks are very nice.
Swami’s goal is to help people insert more spirituality into their lives and taking advantage of the outdoors. It is a holistic approach to life focusing on the physical and spiritual.
In the past, his pilgrimage has taken him six months to complete, however because of the time of year, Swami will make his trek as far as the New Brunswick border and take a break until the spring when he will continue on through to Victoria, BC.
When asked why he has walked across Canada four times his response was simple: “There are roads I haven’t yet taken.”

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AMHERST – Most monks worship within a candle-lit, seaside monastery, but not Bhaktimarga Swami.

Wherever he is, that’s where he worships, and yesterday Amherst was his house of worship.

This is Swami’s fourth trek across Canada and, unlike his previous cross-country walks; the 59-year-old will take long breaks during this trek.

“This time I’m going to break it up into different parts,” he said. “I’m going to stop at the Nova Scotia – New Brunswick border and reconvene in the spring.”

He began his latest spiritual journey in Cape Spear, Nfld., about two weeks ago and said he walks, “for his health and, also, to encourage the notion of pilgrimage.”

“I started walking at 5:30 a.m. this morning,’ Swami said. “When I walk in the morning I spend two or three hours using my meditation beads and that helps keep me focused on the spiritual aspect of my life.

“The rest of the time I meet people to get inspired, and try to inspire them to get out and walk.”

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Monk promotes benefits of walking

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Debbie Johnson

Stopping Wednesday for breakfast in Antigonish on his country-wide pilgrimage Bhaktimarga Swami (center) with Hare Krishna followers, Jake Doucette and Jeff Grey-Danus.

The walking monk, Bhaktimarga Swami (John Peter Vis) asks do you know who you really are. On his fourth trek across Canada, his pilgrimages focus on that question, for both himself and those who chose to walk and ask the same.
The Hare Krishna swami stopped in Antigonish on his way west to Victoria, B.C. last week. He finished a four day trek around the St. John’s area and has been averaging eight to nine hours a day on foot usually beginning at 4:30 a.m.
“Some times people think we are kung fu masters so we are walking to dispel some myths around the movement,’ said the swami. “On the highway we get some honks, some waves and some people will say to themselves ‘I did see that, no I didn’t see that’, in reference to people in orange robes.”
He started two weeks ago and continued his walk from Auld’s Cove where the first Hindi temple built in Canada stands, at the end of Highway 4. He is walking with his assistant Jeff Grey-Danus and understudy Jake Doucette, both based in Halifax.
As a self professed “patriotic monk” he says these walks help him develop a further appreciation of his country and the people in it. He adopted a monastic life in 1973 and is a bhakti yoga master, a meditation instructor and produces morality-based theatre world-wide.
In traditional Hare Krishna garb, wearing Croc clogs when not in walking sneakers, the swami exudes a casual calmness that has come through years of work with the Hare Krishna movement. Other Hare Krishna practitioners and those wanting to learn of a more meditative approach to life, are welcomed on his walk.
The National Film Board of Canada featured him in The Longest Road, documenting his first trek in 1996. At age 59 he continues on his meditative path promoting solo or group walking noting he is taking it slower with doctor’s orders to not overwork his knees.
He walks because “he is a walking addict.” He promotes his passion to Canadians as a means to be healthy on a few levels, noting the fitness and spiritual components of mobility and movement.
“Some who have joined me for a segment of the walk have noted that they felt changed after completing it.”

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Monk’s cross-Canada walk promotes simpler lifestyle

Posted on September 21, 2011

An Ontario Monk who is walking across the country to encourage Canadians to explore and enjoy the outdoors passed through the Antigonish area today. 59-year-old Bhatki Marg Swami began the Nova Scotia leg of his cross-Canada walk in Auld’s Cove yesterday. Swami says his walk is a friend-raiser, not a fund-raiser, aimed at promoting a simpler lifestyle.

Bhatki Marg Swami

Swami expects he will take about two weeks to walk across the province. His cross-Canada walk will end at the New Brunswick border for the fall. He plans to resume the rest of his nation-wide walk in the spring. This is his fourth walk across the country.