Hare Krishna Faith really is ‘a Science’
May 25, 2013 (VNN) By Nigel Benson via Otago Daily Times
His Holiness Janananda Swami dishes up a $3 Hare Krishna lunch to Rika Takeda (19) at the Otago University Students’ Association recreation centre yesterday. Helping are Dunedin Hare Krishna co-ordinator Jane Beecroft and volunteer Callum McLean. Photo by Linda Robertson.
The Hare Krishna faith was more a science than a religion, a visiting swami said in Dunedin yesterday.
”In reality, we’re not really a religion. We’re probably better described as a science; searching for who we are and what our purpose in life is,” His Holiness Janananda Swami said in Dunedin yesterday.
”Religion can include or exclude. We’re open to everybody.
”This is something everybody can adapt to their life. It’s a release from the materialism of the age.”
The 64-year-old joined the Hare Krishnas in the mid-1960s.
”It was the hippy time and I was into a lot of the things the Hare Krishnas were into; the idea of love and peace and a better world,” he recalled.
”One day, I was looking for something to read and found two Hare Krishna books in a friend’s rubbish. That’s how it works.
”Back then, we used to share our toothpaste, soap and clothes. You had no clothes of your own. You shared everything. But, it is difficult to sustain that.”
The swami grew up in a conventional family in Swindon, England – ”… but there was an underlying feeling I wanted to serve society and a desire to understand more about our meaning in this world.”
For the past 15 years, he has roamed the world as ”a wandering monk”.
”I’m travelling all the time and spreading the good word.
”It is hard to be harmonious in this world. He said most people do not understand how much more fulfilled and happier and at home they could be with each other.
”Inside, we’re all the same. Our potency is within all of us.
”Our body and talents are not ours; they’re gifts of god for everyone’s benefit.
”The most intelligent thing is to work according to your nature.”
The swami yesterday had a look at the new London St Dunedin Hare Krishna Cultural Centre, which was donated earlier this year, by Dr Karuna Sindhu Dasa and his late-mother, Madam Yap.
”I think it is fantastic. It’s a great upliftment for the people of Dunedin. He said it would ”expand the family here”.
”We’re all in the same family, no matter what our race, colour or religion.”
The swami will hold a talk, ”An Ocean of Love”, at 7pm today at the recreation centre, before leaving Dunedin tomorrow.
