Sing to God

In Chowpatty, one night I was chanting softly on my beads. After some time, my friend and roommate from Spain, Gopi Kumari, remarked, “You seem to sing the maha mantra. It’s beautiful,”

“I never thought of it like that,” I replied.

“It’s interesting. In English you have the word ‘chant’ and the word ‘sing’… but in Spanish, there is no distinction. It is simply ‘cantar’ for both,” she said in a ponderous tone. 

“Very true,” I murmured. When I was in Spain and I needed to go chant, I told my friends, “Necesito cantar,” which translates as “I need to chant,” but it can also be translated as, “I need to sing,” 

How beautiful. Oh, how beautiful that as Vaishnavas, we take time out of our day to sing to God. 

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LOL!

I know this post is a bit out of character, but humor me. I tend to be a very serious person (if you haven’t noticed). But I am a huge fan of LOL cats. I think you will be, too, after checking out a selection of my favorites. 

Please tell me you’re Laughing Out Loud. 

There, my day was successful!

Vote for your favorite. 

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People First, Place Second.

So. 

I’m home.

On July 21st, I began my first mile of travel in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The next five months would whirlwind me across America, through Europe, within India, across the mighty Pacific and back to Hawaii on December 23rd. 25,000 miles – I circled the world. 

The places were magnificent. But I am finding more and more and more that travel is first about the people, and second about the place. Always. Always. I could have been in hell (aka: an airplane) but if there was someone cool to connect with (an English Muslim student on his way home to Pakistan) then I was in heaven. I could recount – literally – hundreds of examples of this rule: people first, place second. 

I met hundreds of incredible people in my travels; some tweaked a realization in me, and I didn’t even know their name. I still remember the beggar girl in Vrindavan who cemented my realization to allow my heart to soften, and to let go of my feverish attachments. Others reached inside my heart and flipped me upside down. The people of Chowpatty are forever imprinted on my heart as the goal of what it means to be a devotee of the Lord, and what it means to serve.   

You can’t recount people in a list, like you can with places you’ve visited or the miles you’ve traveled. It just doesn’t work like that. People are the breath of travel… they are the breath of life.

Thank you. If I encountered you in my travels – even just for a moment, the span of one breath – and you’re reading this, thank you. You were the reason and the perfection of my journey.   

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