WHY DO WE READ OF BAD PEOPLE?

Bhaktimarga Swami
3 days ago
2 min read

Wednesday, November 26th, 2025

Buenos Aires/Sao Paulo

My visit to Argentina came to an end. It is difficult to part from such a pleasant yatra, a community. Every place I visit has its own flavour. That’s what makes the life of a nomad monk fairly exciting. For a last morning walk by the rusty old trains, our group of ten (myself included) took a bench break. When I counted that we were ten in number, I announced, “We are the Das Avatars.” With that we chose our choice avatar to adopt in spirit. I chose the Kalki avatar, the age’s end warrior. That left the rest to the nine – the lion, the boar, the tortoise, the fish, the dwarf, Buddha, Rama, Balaram, and the axe warrior. I assumed the photographer’s role. “Click!” There, we had it. I guess the opportunity to get off one’s high horse is not a bad little game.

The sadhana program includes a class from one of the many narratives of the Bhagavatam. Our studies brough us to the tale of Daksha, both a shady and colourful character. He is definitely not a person whose soul you want to bear. He is just too repulsive.

One of the attendees asked why this great book shares so much space for conflicts, wars, and nasty characters. My attempts to answer such a question goes like this:

In order to absorb the great and healing philosophical truths that the Bhagavatam provides, intriguing stories surround social issues of conflict. It brings attention to the essential messages that ultimately help us.

By 4 PM, I was boarding Air Canada destined for Toronto with a stopover at Sao Paulo.

Farewell to the land that is crazy about soccer.