The Temple Is the Journey
Slowly I walk
Slowly I walk through it all, as a trance begins to unfold. My breath is steady, moved by something more.
Night becomes day. Day becomes night. This life is just right.
Pain starts to melt away, embraced by something more. I am whole and complete for it’s all held within.
The path of yoga is not linear. It unfolds differently for every soul. Yoga means to connect, so a yogi is one who unites not with dogma, but with the raw, living pulse of experience.
For me, this path began long before I called it yoga. It started in the Canadian Rockies, biking alone, two and a half months into a cross-country journey. That was the first time I felt god not as a belief, but as Shakti, the divine energy taking form in the mountains. Mahakali in all her wild beauty. No words, just awe. Just wow.
Years later, drunk in Toronto, I met a young Bhakta I mistook for a monk. He spoke of Krishna with no judgment, only love the pure ecstasy for Radha in his eyes. As I left, he pressed a yoga book into my hands. "Read this," he said. I tucked it away. I wasn’t ready yet.
When I finally opened it, I’d already changed: from carnivore to vegan, from construction to personal trainer. A quiet fire was growing inside me, something I couldn’t name. Then I met the monk who walked humble, like me, but on foot across Canada. Our connection deepened. When the time was right, he gave me the name Jagajivan Das. He taught me the deeper meanings of Maha Mantra, of devotion and service. We performed a fire ceremony.
But time changes everything. Extremes and fanaticism pulled me off course. I lost myself again, searching through traditions, clinging to anger, to ego. Nothing stuck.
Then, another shift. The last few years have been about austerity, humility, growth through pain. I met the walking monk again recently. His energy, his peace, reminded me: our paths may differ, but we are still one. We all are.
Dreams returned from the void. Mantras, yogis, the divine all of it, alive again.
They say the guru disappears when you’re ready. Lately, I’ve heard the guru appears when you’re truly ready.
Here’s where it gets strange: a lineage I’d encountered before called to me differently this time. As the year began, I received another Deeksha. A different Guru, a very different teaching. But this wasn’t an ending. It was only the beginning.
The last week has been a process of attunement something you’d have to experience to believe.
So here we are. This blog, a journal, notes from the journey moving forward.
Not to preach. I’m not a missionary. Maybe it’ll teach, but I’m not your guru. Just an offering: perspective, experience, creativity.
The temple I seek is the journey within.
