CANADA DAY EH!

Wednesday, July 1st, 2026

Ottawa, Ontario

An early flight from Halifax brought me to Ottawa, Canada's Capital City, where major celebrations were going to take place. But before I was to partake in any of the ceremonies, Hare Krishna version, I had an appointment with India's High Commissioner for Canada, Dinesh Kumar Patnaik. Being from the state of Orissa he is an acquaintance of the King of Puri in Orissa. Honourable Patnaik is a deep devotional man, reverential to Krishna in the form of Jagannatha.

I had the pleasure to meet with his family and friends and they were preparing to spend a day at the beach. I told him of my parikramas, pilgrimage walks across Canada, the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, we spoke about the current Prime Minister, Carney, and how Canada is very lucky to have him as their leader. It is a fact that Carney has made the effort to repair relations between the two countries, India and Canada. Some damage was done in the recent past.

Now, what about the festivities for the day?

Well, our location for our usual kirtan was near the War Memorial and across the way from the iconic Château Laurier. Devotees from Montreal, Toronto and from our two buses converged at this site. And the full-on energy of this combined powerhouse drew a lot of people, family-types mostly. The day was hot, approaching the mid 30's, with humidity very high. In fact, it was intense with water in the air that the rains came—and in unbelievable quantities. That was okay. The drenchy rain was favoured over the steamy weather. As so the ecstasy of chanting and dancing merrily was accelerated to new heights.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f9bb3d_9875a7bbe116459b8b4e39f5d0113797/480p/mp4/file.mp4

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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