2025 WRAP UP

Wednesday, December 31st, 2025

Downtown Toronto, Ontario

For the palate I like wraps. They do come to me as a result of desire. Satisfying the tummy is not an issue. With temple life and the active kitchen there is never a shortage. When on the road making sangha visits, the householders in our community always see to it there’s the swami never goes hungry. And as many of them know, I am a wrap fan. Delicious, fresh, colourful, and nutritious is how I describe them.

There is another wrap that I fancy, and it is called a wrap up. Being the last day of the year for 2025 (and it never will back to us), I figure that I will do something noble. I’m not a party animal in the traditional sense of the term. No booze, smokes, or sex for a monk. But I will simply follow a routine that is fun and clean, and that is kirtan. Come to think of it, it is forty years straight to the mark that a group of us head for Old City Hall in the downtown and give our hearts and lungs to kirtan.

Kirtan, chanting and drumming, is indeed a great way to wrap up the year. The sound is not comparable to anything else. Although our boys on the marching drums with mallets didn’t score so well, the endeavour was genuine bhakti, devotion.

Our farewell to the year was with mantra and our ushering in a new one was with mantra. There is no better way to wrap up an interesting year than through this process. Despite the craziness of the world, we can render it less maddening through the kirtan method. It is better than a succulent wrap.