THE DAY BEFORE

Bhaktimarga Swami
Jul 10
2 min read

Updated: Jul 16

Friday, July 10th, 2026

Centre Island, Toronto

Every year at the dawn of the Chariot Fest, meaning the day prior, a twelve hour kirtan takes place at the Toronto ashram temple. It attracts many people. I am the lucky one to kick-start the event and a half-hour time slot is what I'm given for taking the lead in the chant. The magical musical couple from the town just north of Toronto, Bolton, had agreed to come to participate. Mahadevananda plays guitar and Annapurnachandra, also expert, plays at the harmonium. We are positioned so that they individually are at either side of me.

The ceremony began. Oh! And it went so fine. We arranged for it to be a stand up kirtan, even for the musicians. It allowed for freedom of movement. It was marvellous. Everyone was off their butt, in other words. We stuck to traditional tunes. It worked.

What happens as the hours pass by and various designated kirtan groups take their time slots, is that a momentum builds, excitement rises and the place gets crowded. My legitimate excuse for bowing out, so to speak, is that a visit to the site on Centre Island is necessary to check out the stage setting. Three companions came with me and indeed we did the inspection. All is good!

Deciding to walk back with Arjuna Sakha, we tread the trail, Yonge St, then veered on foot through the happening place at Yorkville. Two men at a bench noticed us and one of them yelled out, "How is Hare Krishna these days?"

My response was, "Krishna's doing great, so is Hare." I mentioned about the coming day's Chariot Fest.

"Will there be any girls there?" he asks.

"Oh yes, there will be a super attractive girl, like a queen.”

“What is her name?”

“Subhadra,” I answered.