Toronto retreat - some final thoughts

[Guest guest]

OOOOHHHH!!!! MY BRAIN HURTS!!!

 

If you remember that old Monty Python skit, that is

how I was feeling around 11:30 on Friday morning,

after Amma had thrown the last flower petal and the

stage curtain had closed. For most of the day it felt

just like a hangover, i.e. dry throat, low-level

throbbing headache, except that I hadn't had anything

to drink, other than Amma's 150-proof shakti (that

stuff is more potent than the Purple Jesus they used

to swill at Laurentian University during Frosh Week

circa 1982!!)

 

As many of you know by now, the Toronto public program

and devi bhava were humungous mosh pits!! Maybe the

largest public program outside of India, certainly the

largest on the North American tour. Much larger than

we had expected. To paraphrase the girl on her

wedding night, "I had been expecting it, but I had no

idea it would be so big!!" For crowd control we could

have used some lathi-toting jawans (Indian soldiers),

the "pushers" on the Tokyo subway, or even some

veterans of Mayor Daley's 1968 Chicago riot squad!

Speaking of Democratic Conventions, I missed watching

John Kerry's acceptance speech because of devi bhava!

 

We have a few things to learn for next year: we should

have two public programs in the morning and evening,

or better still two days of public programs, get a

larger hall, and if possible get a site somewhere

downtown or at least within the 416 area code (City of

Toronto) easily accessible by public transit, not

surrounded by industrial parks, strip malls and

endless automobile-addicted suburban sprawl. I don't

think the Delta Meadowvale will want us back in 2005

anyway. They weren't too crazy about people sleeping

in the lobby and the corridors.

 

We couldn't have asked for better media coverage. You

would almost have be living under a rock not to know

about Amma's visit. The Toronto Star, Canada's

largest circulation newspaper ran a front page story,

which you can read here:

http://tinyurl.com/6ooqw

The Star, besides being a Liberal-toadying rag for as

long as anyone can remember (both the Liberal Party of

Canada and small-l liberal), is notorious for

misprints and not checking their facts. They printed

the wrong day for the devi bhava, so many people came

to the hotel on the second day of the retreat only to

be told to come back tomorrow. There was also

broadcast coverage on the CBC and the mainstream

English-language networks, not just the South Asian

ethnic stations.

 

For the Devi Bhava Amma wore a banana-yellow sari. I

was kinda hoping she would wear red and white -

Canada's official colors, or blue and white, which are

traditionally associated with Toronto - the colors

proudly worn by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Blue Jays and

University of Toronto. Not co-incidentally, Ontario

license plates have been blue and white for some 75

years.

 

For those who mentioned not getting a Hershey kiss

during their darshan - it's quite possible that the

person who was doing the prasad hand-out accidentally

dropped the kiss while reaching to put it into Amma's

hand. Sometimes it's quite a reach, and you might

have to stretch over the head of the lap seva person.

As an experienced prasad line sevite, I know to keep

my eyes riveted to Amma's left hand. But we had quite

a few folks from Toronto, Ottawa, Buffalo, etc. doing

prasad hand-out for the first time.

 

For the Amma Nation here in the Great White North,

that's it until late November.. on to Detroit/Ann

Arbor!

 

Keval

 

 

p.s.. George4Mata -- did you get a ride back to

Buffalo? Let me know off-list!

 

 

 

 

 

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