Hare Krishna

When I think of these two words together, I think of what most Americans think of. Crazy people on the corner in New York City chanting and waving their arms.


But are they crazy? And what does it all mean? I don't really know any Hare Krishnas personally. Is that even what they call themselves?


I got onto this topic because one of my yoga teachers recommended a song for yoga called Baba Hanuman by Krishna Das. The only way that you could get that song was by buying the album. The song is amazing and so I bought the album, hook, line and sinker.


The song that comes after that is Kainchi Hare Krishna, and I also became obsessed with this song. It's such a happy song and I kept feeling like I had heard it before on Eat, Pray, Love. But I looked up the soundtrack and it's not on there. Regardless, I started to wonder what it was that they were talking about! So, I googled it. "Hare", Wikipedia says, can be interpreted to mean "the energy of God while Krishna and Rama refer to God himself."


I think it is interesting that there are different names for God. They have different gods, yes, but at times they almost seem interchangeable. I did a little more digging and found that this is due to the Hindu belief of incarnations. Depending on your sect, there is a different god who is the Supreme Being. Vishnu seems to be the most widely known as the Supreme Being but Shiva and Shakti are also known as this in their own sects of the Hindu religion. These Supreme Beings come down to earth to help us as different identities. Krishna and Rama are god but we know them while they are here on earth as Krishna and Rama until they reveal to us their true identity.


To me, is seems like it all goes back to the belief that God is everywhere, in everything, and everyone. Which isn't such a bad belief. If God is in your enemy, then you can't really be enemies...can you? If God is that rude person in the car beside you, then it's not so easy to think they are an ass and YOU would NEVER act that way. Life is hard enough as it is without having people to hate and revenge to enact.


There are few people that I truly dislike, and really, only two come to mind. I'm trying to let it go and think instead, what are they here to teach me and others? It might not be easy but if I can let that part of me that is hateful go, maybe others can too and maybe the world would be a better place. What do you say we try?

Awakening

I'm rereading Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth; Awakening to Your Life's Purpose for my book report. Right now I'm reading about how we are all really mentally ill until we become awakened and realize that our mind is not WHO WE ARE.


This book saved me five years ago or so when I read it for the first time. I mean, literally, I would be in my head so much and so anxious about everything. And when I read this, for me, it was what Oprah calls an "aha moment."


He's also talking about how divisive religion can be "and yet [...] the Truth to which they point still shines at their core." This is getting back to what I was talking about the other day. I have always felt spiritual but not religious because, at a very young age, I found out how divisive religion really can be. People get divorced over it, stop talking to family members, become angry and aggressive in the names of their religions. AND YET.


I don't dislike religions. I used to be in that place where I blamed it for suffering. But now, I see that even in religion, we're still just humans getting caught up in our "selves." Where it becomes our identity and our need to prove "my religion is better than yours" and therefore proving our superiority in general. And that is what hurts us. It's not easy being a good human and letting go of all of our crap that makes us feel important. But what we don't realize is that we are the most important, without all of that "stuff" that we think defines us.


Glad to be reading this again. It is really an inspiring and healing book.

Faith

I have my book report coming up in yoga teacher training...what should I talk about?


I've been reading so much that the information is swimming around my brain with no apparent port in the harbor. But I know that it is not swirling in vain.  I feel stronger in myself these days. "The prize is in the process," as Baron Baptiste says. Kind of loving that book of his, aren't I? But we're all reading that one so I probably need to pick another one.


I have to talk about this radio show that I heard today. I ran to lunch to get some peace and hopefully concentrate on this book that I ordered to do my report on...Spiritual Journeys Along the Yellow Brick Road by Darren John Main. I like the book but I kind of think it's not right for my book report.  But anyway, on the way home, I turned on the radio and this woman's voice came on talking about the death of her three daughters in a car accident two days before her son's wedding. Her voice completely drew me in. Something about it and of course the story she was telling mesmerized me.


Her and her husband were both talking about the tragic event and how their faith was basically able to save their lives. After they found out, she didn't know what to do so she went for a walk with her pastor's wife to just move instead of think. When they got back to the house, the pastor's wife grabbed her hands and started praying. During this, the woman looked at her mantle and saw pictures of her three girls who had all tried on her wedding dress at separate times and taken pictures in it. She said that the thought came to her (sounded like to her from the Divine) that they were now married to Christ. She said that at this moment she was able to find some peace.


I mean, they made it fully clear that every day they miss their daughters like mad. They get angry, they have their moments...but their faith is amazing. I've never experienced faith on this level. I've never had a religion that made me go to church every Sunday or that I believed in excluding all others. I'm not saying that these people do exclude all other religions but their particular belief system and faith was so strong. I was crying the whole way home. To lose your three children and be able to live, let alone inspire others after such a tragic loss is incredible and certainly beyond themselves. It definitely came from a place and a being much larger than them as individuals.


I believe in God. I just don't know what that means exactly or if there is a right religion out there. I have always felt like there are many paths to the Divine and judgement should not be one of them. I pray. I have had moments where I felt the presence of the Divine. I feel like I have angels watching over me during times of hardship. But these people just really touched me with how deeply they felt their religion.


My book report is nothing compared to the story I just told. If people can have faith through something as terrible as they went through, I can certainly have faith to get through a presentation and teaching a yoga class and whatever else that comes up. Living in the moment and living our best isn't easy but it has to be done. God bless us all!