BECOME THE MAN

Thursday, July 2nd, 2026

Ottawa, Ontario

With my reconnection to the bus tour group I am happy to be of that regimen again. The drivers of the two buses and the passengers which I described earlier are from different countries and continents. The young men and women are kept engaged, setting up the Festival of India tents at Jean Mance Park, plus there’s kitchen work and a number of other tasks.

My job is of a different nature. It has some flavour of the clerical. While the heat wave persists I can keep somewhat busy in catching up on e-mails, delivery of Zoom classes in the Gita and offering some counselling to younger devotees. Yes, the outdoors is a place that is mercilous. And people complain that Canada is cold but how mistaken they are.

As one of the founding fathers of MANTRA (a men's retreat on its ninth year and our group is in its 9th year) we have been talking about preparing for that event on October 2nd, 3rd and 4th in New Vrindavan, West Virginia. Now we have young men with us on this bus, aged 18–25, and most of them are not yet settled down—settled down even with their senses. I would say they are good young guys and they come from good families. Some of them may be able to attend and others not, so while I am with them I must commit myself to being a good role model. 99.9% of them will not become monks but at least they have a chance to be good human beings with some spiritual inkling. I should say they like kirtan. They like chanting and drumming. They like Krishna—good qualifications for being a devotee of God. Let's not forget the good attributes that make for a responsible man.

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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