Saw a sign, Free Krishna Feast With The Hare Krishnas
Didn’t care for their movement, the Hindu trappings, the way they dressed, the continuous chanting in the streets, selling incense in airports, a bit much though the chanting effective. It worked.
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of the movement, real deal holy man, seemed to live a pristine holy life.
Attended the dinner with three seeker friends, like me back then always interested in various approaches to the Absolute.
Appreciated the devotees – good people, fun to hang with, impressively devoted to their spiritual path.
But …
Krishna fundamentalism served up first and second course, the actual food exotic, holy, tasty treats.
If not with Krishna, wrong way, off course highway to nowhere.
Only way, correct way, true destination – Krishnaloka Heaven.
Then a Krishna devotional ceremony, well done, sacred.
Devotees precise, scrupulously respectful in their practice, the atmosphere reverberating with their chants, myself and my friends lit up with bliss.
After the chants and the highs, one of my friends vanished for awhile, where he went I didn’t know.
He returned with one of the Krishnas, two white tilaka marks painted on his forehead. Damn!
They got him! Like a scene from the movie The Body Snatchers. But my friend smiled, and I knew he was just going with the experience, entertained by it, having fun. Inwardly, I laughed.
Thanked the cordial Krishna hosts, bid them goodbye, walked into a warm Cambridge, Mass evening enriched from insightful and enjoyable dinner, our souls unsnatched.
Bob Boyd