The light bulb idea
I caught up with Bhaktimarga Swami, commonly known as "The Walking Monk", by phone shortly after he completed his fourth “Can Walk” across Canada. Our conversation transcended religious doctrine, dogma and belief systems.
Swami, born in
Ontario as John Peter Vis, adopted the Eastern monastic lifestyle of the Hare
Krishna movement some forty years ago.
In 1996, he completed his first pilgrimage across Canada,
journeying from west to east. Since that time, he has completed three more
cross country treks, each time travelling in the opposite direction, and along
different routes.
He conceived the idea to walk
across Canada one day while walking in a ravine in Toronto, an activity he
undertook initially to rehabilitate low back problems. “It was almost like a light bulb lit
up,” he told me of the moment that led him to walk across the country, “as a
monk might do it; (to) travel kind of lightly, and meet people along the way,
spend enough time in a place, as long as it takes to milk a cow, as we say in
our tradition”, before continuing
the journey.
More than a metaphor
In many religious traditions, the
journey is a metaphor for the growth of the soul as it enters more profoundly
into an encounter with the Divine. Since Swami has crossed the country on foot
multiple times, I asked him if walking is more than a metaphor for him.
Not
surprisingly, it is. “It’s a natural position of the spirit or soul to wander
in this world and to walk it in wonder and in appreciation. So (wandering) puts
you in that spot where you need to be, that place of humility which is the
basis of success in life.”
Swami explained that walking
along busy highways with vehicles barreling past or trekking through remote and
beautiful landscapes is a lesson in detachment. “You learn to take it all in,
the heat, the wind, the rain, the cold, the black flies, the mosquitoes,
attention by the public, no attention, traffic – with all of that, you learn
detachment.” These external
factors, along with the physical discomfort that comes from walking thirty to
forty-five kilometers per day, and the spiritual challenges of facing your own
deficiencies, help a person learn disentanglement from this world.
We discussed the idea of
detachment in light of today’s culture, with its emphasis on self and
acquisition. At the core of the self “there is this passion to move about and
pick up on all the little nuances the world has to offer”. We shared the belief
that our passions may become misdirected, and we may find ourselves walking in
a direction that leads us away from our deepest yearnings.
The role of the mantra
Chanting the mantra is an
essential part of Swami’s journey, helping him to keep the spiritual in his
midst. “God is present in sound,”
said Swami. “Hallowed be thy name. So, the name, the sound is sacred. We,” by
which Swami meant the Krishna and Christian religious traditions, “have the same
understanding…The Absolute or the Divine is there with you in their sound.”
The word “mantra” comes from two
Sanskrit words, “mana” which means the mind, and “tara” which means to
free. Chanting the mantra frees
the mind “so that your mind is not on the acquisitions you’re trying to
achieve.” The mantra “pulls you out of that mode“, illuminating the beauty all
around, and providing spiritual strength; “it keeps you a bit on your toes,
otherwise the forces of temptation could get to you.”
Humility from standing under
Our hour-long conversation ended
with Swami providing an exegesis of the verb “to understand” that he picked up
from a Catholic priest. In order to understand, it is important to go under, to
stand humbly and look up, then “you understand your real position.”
Walking “brings about a lot of revelation
and epiphany about our smallness, our insignificance and about how much bigger
the universal machinery is than our self. Getting to the point of taking the
humble stance is the end product” of the long and arduous spiritual journey,
which, I am sure Swami would agree, is always a walk in progress.
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