OH CANADA

I was looking for a home away from home (India is home) and the countries I was exploring were Australia or New Zealand and Canada. I was drawn to Canada, and especially Vancouver, and even told a friend to apply to film school in Vancouver in my early twenties. I decided on applying for my permanent residency to Canada despite the warm weather of Australia and felt I had to work through karma here. This would be best for my evolution, I felt.

I also got a sign that my intuition was right as a close relative of my Guru, who I did not know existed, contacted me when I visited Vancouver during the earlier days. I was coming here only for a few months at that time to keep my classes, speaking assignments and community building going in other parts of the world. Soon I was to stay here longer and teach full time. The meeting with my gurus' relative gave me clarity around which direction I needed to move towards.

Canada Day

July 1st is Canada day and it commemorates the joining of Canada's original three provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Canada province, which is now Ontario and Quebec) as one nation in 1867.

This of course is a wonderful union and consolidation to be celebrated. However if we dig deeper we see that the day stands on the burial grounds of the native people.

Writing The Wrong

Many times we do not know what to do with uncomfortable situations from the past. So we do not record them or despite it being written about, ignore its impact. It is important for us to both write the wrong and revisit it, so it is not repeated. This is how one can right the wrong. This is how we learn from our mistakes. This is true also of dysfunctionality in families and lineages. It is important to sit with it, contemplate it and be part of the legacy of shifting it for the better, not passing it down by ignoring it or a false sense of pride.

“Laws were enacted in Canada offering bounties for scalps of Indigenous men, women and children. The treaty negotiation process itself was conducted under conditions of starvation or threats of violence,” Mi’kmaw lawyer Pamela Palmater wrote in a piece about Canada 150 for Now Toronto.

Karma Of The Colonizer

By being part of this land we also partake of the karma of how this land was created. This means that if we have inherited a business with unhealthy growth practices, then we also inherit the responsibility of changing that for the better. Each one of us on this land has a responsibility to acknowledge what was done to the people of this land and make amends. Else the lineage of torment and injustice will find its way into the country’s culture. Just like a corporate culture we have patterns that can be uplifting or create imbalance in any unit.

Deep Connection With Native Traditions

Ever since I came to Vancouver, I was drawn to the native culture - its purification ceremonies, its sensitivity and connection to the earth. I have had a vision of a life as a native woman and felt strong, empowered and supported as I saw and felt a native man beside me. Just the vision of this empowered partnership was heart opening, rooting, expansive and strengthening and I could not settle for anything that felt any less.

Very synchronistically in Vancouver, I had met those who led native ceremonies and I had the blessing of being to over 10 sweat lodges in the beginning years. I felt the beauty and the blessing of paying respect to and invoking one's ancestors apart from praying for family and friends. I also felt my grandmothers spirit in one of the sweat lodges in Grand forks and knew she had passed in India. I called to check and she had.

In the Arkaya teacher training, budding teachers participate in one sweat lodge atleast to connect to and honour the land and be introduced to the beautiful native ethos and people who are still being sidelined.

Guru Poornima

Guru means dispeller of darkness. Poornima means fullness and a full moon. The guru may start off as a person outside of us but the aim is to allow that light in us to burn bright. Where we can stand up for what is right.

Canada day, American Independence Day and Guru Poornima fall within the first week of July. It is interesting that great transformation is inherent in the fact that America and Canada are relatively new as nations. We are still young countries who can grow into mature beautiful adults if we course correct. That is the plus of being a land of immigrants. We can choose to unite through collective wisdom rather than talk down to each other falling into divisiveness and hate.

When all of us can awaken the guru spirit in us, we can learn from all of life: animals, plants, nature and, most importantly, history in this case. We can remember the past not to hold a grudge but to make amends and create systems to deal with the collective trauma that was unleashed due to the greed and disconnection of the first immigrants or settlers.

May we use this Guru Poornima to see clearly the ways in which we have passed on oppression and carried pain. We hold the responsibility to create a more inclusive and respectful land. We are still young as a country and hold great promise for enlightened change. May we be illumined by compassion and grace. May we allow Canada to fully become the peaceful and harmonious land it is. We owe it to Canada to support her to fulfil her highest destiny.