FIrst, I will start with the mundane. When this pandemic first surfaced, it was hard to know how extreme it would become. Personally, I did not think that it would reach the proportions that are now everywhere seen. It is amazing that just a couple of months ago the world looked very, very different. I had just returned from India and had heard that China was becoming overwhelmed by the Coronavirus. I could understand that soon there would be a "famine" of electronics gear. Since I had waited 8 years to update my computer, I thought, "Now or never." I knew prices would soon escalate as China stopped producing gadgets. Upgrade I did and it led to a huge amount of time getting up to speed with a new computer. I had dreaded this for a long time, the period of changeover. I know for many this is no big deal, but I use much software that is highly technical: audio software, video software, web-design software etc. Anything and everything can go wrong and it usually does. In this case, we saw no exception to this rule.

Much of my previous software did not work. As I struggled, it appears the world crashed. Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, particularly my zip code was one of the hardest hit areas of New York State, or even the world. I could hear the sirens all day and all night, like the harbingers of death coming for yet another victim. Like many preachers, I was eager to return to my various talks and presentations, but like all of us realized, preaching would take on a different dimension, one marked by "social-distancing."

This then led to the exploration of various methods for "virtual-conferencing," to meet with Devotees at a distance and not spread Covid-19. At that time, I believe that I contracted Covid-19. I say that "I believe" because it is impossible to really know here in New York City. The tests are not readily given and waiting in line almost assures you, that if you did not have the virus before you were tested, you will get it while being tested. I contract all viruses, and every year I get at least two cases of the Flu. One when the weather goes from cold to hot and the other when the weather goes from hot to cold. So the telltale signs of some kind of disease were making themselves obvious. The sore throat, the cough the fatigue and the headaches. I thought, well, maybe this is it, maybe I am leaving the planet. Spoiler alert, turns out that I didn't die. At least this time the angel of death, again, passed me by. I don't know how many times I have had this experience, what I call the, "Not your time, yet" experience.

I reflect on this idea every now and again, that because I have been passed over so many times, it instills in me the notion, that, somehow or other, I will always pull through and remain with the living. From our philosophy, I know that this is patently FALSE. I really struggle convincing myself of the idea that one day I will NOT pull through and remain with the living. Knowing something theoretically, as we all know, is different from deeply realizing it. I am not terrified of death, but just that I always have the feeling that Krishna will get me through. And so far He always has. But we are, none of us, immortal!

To continue the story, I ran through some of my well-worn remedies for viruses, and I tried a new one that occurred to me. Lo and behold, the virus went away. I remained with the living, one-more-time. So after this episode, I began to try to understand Zoom, vMix, teleconferencing and spreading the word on social media. By small degrees, I have been studying this topic for much time and I think that media is very important. To some degree I have been able to work with teleconferencing. Some of the various groups of Devotees that I was giving talks to, wanted to use WhatsApp to teleconference, which we found to be a shaky medium. I never tried Skype. Then we moved on to Zoom. Zoom seemed to be the right way to go, but you have to ignore all the controversy about Zoom not being "secure" from various kinds of intrusion, software passwords notwithstanding.

While there is time still left in this body, I am now ramping up my attempts to produce content for the internet (and virtual-net), which I believe to be the future of preaching. By that, I do not mean that face-to-face preaching will cease to exist. I mean that, simply, electronic distribution of content will become more and more important, setting the stage for the first face-to-face contacts.

My hats are off to all of you doing outrageous preaching out there in Coronaland; this is my grains of sand for the bridge to Lanka.

your servant,

Candrasekhara Swami