Friday, January 10th, 2025
Overbridge, Suriname
Continuing on with my padayatra (festival on foot), the district west of the capital city becomes more rural with indigenous exotic trees. Ninety-three percent of the landcover in Suriname is trees, making it the most foresty nation in the world. That’s pretty cool!
Sanjaya and I covered 10 kilometres, 16 rounds of japa meditation in humid 27 º Celsius temperatures. Dogs make their presence known. Most of them are on the other side of the gate. Those that aren’t get kind of close. They can be aggressive. Sanjaya is shy – I have to counter their boldness when it calls for it. We had covered the bridge at River and then it was time to return to the Paramaribo temple to deliver the Bhagavatam class.
A second river, the Suriname River, we became acquainted with for the day, but in a more intimate way. The devotees of Suriname decided to have a relaxing afternoon at a retreat known as Overbridge, which is a plot of beach, huts, shelters, shady trees, etc. Shanti Priya set up a hammock for me. “Our native people used this technique for resting as a tradition for thousands of years.”
“Okay, I’ll try it.” It kept the ants off me. The real fun was in the pond, a sectioned off portion of water which screens off the voraciously eating piranha fish. The prasadam picnic was when humans became piranha. The highlight of our retreat was the kirtan chanting during a light rain session.
It was all fun, all bhakti.
MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU!
18,361 STEPS
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