Belfast May 4, 1981
I was living at the time in a yoga centre in London. My teacher Swami Vishnu-devananda was in Israel/Jordan, a stop in a series of global peace missions. That is what we thought until he showed up in a taxi at the centre in London, telling us to prepare everything immediately for a peace mission to Belfast. We had planned to do this in a few weeks but suddenly we were in action and I was running around London to different newspapers, putting ads. getting leaflets printed etc.
Swami Vishnu had gone back to Israel to complete the programme but we were all set to go to Belfast. We rented a van, took the ferry across and there we were walking through the streets of Belfast, chanting and giving out leaflets. This was the time of the troubles and the hunger strikes. One of the hunger strikers was Bobby Sands, who was close to death. We did our programme which included headstands for world peace outside Belfast City Hall and headed back to London. On the news the next day it was announced that Bobby Sands had died. All the rushing around to be there at that time, promoting peace all seemed to fall into place. And who was to know that more than 40 years later I would be busy teaching yoga here in Belfast.
