WHERE IS HOME!

Bhaktimarga Swami
3 days ago
2 min read

Monday, May 12th, 2025

Cleveland, Ohio

Srimal and I were climbing up the stairs by the beach at Lake Erie to return to his vehicle when we met halfway two men who were tourists. They looked like they were from the middle east.

“Good morning! How are you?” I asked. It was they who were curious and who asked where we are from.

“I’m from Canada, and he (Srimala) is from here. How about you?”

They replied spontaneously, “Jordan.”

“That’s nice.” In a subtle way they indicated that the dialogue was over, as brief as it was, and they went back to their photo taking. But they did get me thinking. Where do we all actually come from? Not from Jordan, Ohio, or Canada. Being identified by some deductive analysis as an anti-material particle, we really don’t belong to this world at all. It must be a spirit world that we are habituated to. It’s the reason we don’t really get comfortable in this world no matter how hard we try. There is always something agitating us. If we invest the time, we can find that origin and make our way back to where we first pitched a tent – our original home.

Srimala and I continued walking along the creek at Fort Huntington Park. We were chanting on our beads practicing our own form of bhakti yoga, the means to eventually get back to our place of origin in Krishna’s world. It was interesting to be in that beautiful park. I felt as if I had been there before. It was surreal. I truly did trek here before. In 2016 this was my route towards San Francisco, along the waterfront of one of the Great Lakes. Still, it is a long, long way from home. Srimala launched me to the airport. I made it home to Toronto, a kind of home away from home.

Additionally, as mentioned in previous blogs regarding the Youth Bus Tour, let's get it back on the road again! It's urgent! This is such an important program for establishing a Krishna consciousness foundation for our youth, particularly in North America including Mexico. I personally travelled with the group for 10 consecutive summers, especially helping with the drama portions.

A new bus is badly needed. Please donate: https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-for-iskcon-youth-ministrys-new-bus