{"id":3583,"date":"2007-05-27T17:27:10","date_gmt":"2007-05-27T16:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3583"},"modified":"2007-05-27T17:28:34","modified_gmt":"2007-05-27T16:28:34","slug":"on-the-road-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3583","title":{"rendered":"On the road again"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JONATHAN WILSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bhaktimarga Swami wears traditional robes Tuesday as he walks near Kakabeka Falls on his third cross-Canada trek. Swami says the walks strengthen his personal growth and tolerance. A Hare Krishna monk from Toronto is well on his way to matching the coast-to-coast exploits of Forrest Gump. The famous movie character ran back and forth across America four times. Bhaktimarga Swami, 54, is halfway through his third cross-Canada trek, aimed at promoting meditation, pilgrimage and \u201cthe walking culture.\u201d \u201cI feel that the message to encourage self-discovery through walking is a job that\u2018s not finished,\u201d Swami said Tuesday near Kakabeka Falls. \u201cI just want to keep going . . . perhaps I\u2018ll just walk until I drop.\u201d The walk begins each day at 4 or 5 a.m., and Swami spends about nine hours walking 45 kilometres per day. He carries with him a sack holding his meditation beads, and often chants and talks to the Creator along the way. The personable monk, who joined the Hare Krishna movement in 1973 and changed his name from John Vis, said he runs into a lot of cyclists and marathon runners, along with regular citizens curious about his exploits. \u201cWalking in the summer, it\u2018s when people are out and about,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2018s the real natural time to be there, and the really big part of this project is to meet people and get inspired . . . and to inspire.\u201d Today, he\u2018ll walk along Highway 11\/17, from outside Kakabeka to Thunder Bay. He credits his new rubber Crocs with keeping his feet in good shape along the way. \u201cThese are great, I\u2018ve tried everything,\u201d he said, though trying not to sound like a pitchman for the company. \u201cFeet tend to crave for a break, but I find that I don\u2018t need to have any change with these. \u201cThey call them holey soles for more reasons than one.\u201d He wore running shoes the first time he walked the 7,800-kilometre route from B.C. to Newfoundland in 1996, followed by a return walk the other direction in
\n2003. \u201cEach time, it just gets better,\u201d he said. \u201cI learn more, certainly about myself.\u201d Last year, he walked from B.C. to the Manitoba-Ontario border, and picked up where he left off on May 10. He expects to reach the Atlantic Ocean in late September. On Saturday, Swami found himself walking in snow, something he didn\u2018t expect to experience at this time of year. But he said the weather is part of his journey of personal growth. \u201cBlazing sun, torrential rain, cold, hot, whatever, you\u2018re learning detachment,\u201d he said. Swami said besides self-discovery, he\u2018s learned about the impact of litter from motorists, the craftsmanship of the beaver, and the generosity of strangers. \u201cPeople are generally big-hearted, they really are good in spirit,\u201d he said. Dr. Prashant Jani, a local pathologist and assistant professor at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, offered Swami and his two helpers a place to stay during their three days in the Thunder Bay area. \u201cI pressured him to come and stay with me, instead of staying outside in a campground or something,\u201d Jani said. Jani said walking just two kilometres a day would be difficult for him to do, and he called Swami\u2018s daily marathon walk \u201camazing.\u201d \u201cI like his promoting the environment and peace and nice activities,\u201d Jani said. \u201cThat\u2018s something that not many people do.\u201d For more information: www.thewalkingmonk.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy JONATHAN WILSON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bhaktimarga Swami, 54, is halfway through his third cross-Canada trek, aimed at promoting meditation, pilgrimage and \u201cthe walking culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iskcon-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3583\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}