A small and elderly Indian woman, wrapped in white, tries with all her might to sound a note from a large seashell, but her efforts, dedicated to the elaborate golden statues before her, only produce sputtering. “She usually blows a really good conch,” Ananda Vrindavan says with a slight smile, watching. Vrindivan is the president of the D.C. community of Hare Krishna, or the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which has a temple and 12 acres in Potomac. Raised as a Catholic in Ireland, Vrindavan came to the United States and converted to Hare Krishna as a young woman. She now offers her life in devotion to Krishna, believing he accepts all love-filled gifts, large or small, loud or sputtering.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
In a funny way, no, in the sense that [our founder and spiritual teacher Srila] Prabhupada would often say that faith can change, but really in essence we are something much greater than just having faith. But in another sense it is a certain faith, because you have to trust something and someone in life and beyond life. And in my studies and practice I find that in the combination of the philosophy plus chanting, I do feel trust and faith in the process and in Krishna, another name for God.
I try to shy away from calling it religion, because religion’s got such a bad name. It’s basically like praying to God to get something, whereas in Krishna consciousness we’re really trying to offer back to the Lord. We’re saying, “Hey, we just want to know you. We want to love you. We want to walk with you. We want to do stuff for you,” rather than thinking, “Why aren’t you making me happy? Or why are you making this person suffer?”
How do you explain Krishna to those who have never heard of him? And how can someone who is absolute truth also be these golden statues that you bow and give offerings to?
It depends on the person who asks the question. Some people have a context. For example, I was raised as a Catholic, so for me, God as a person wasn’t such a strange concept, because he was your father. There was some relationship there. So if somebody hasn’t ever heard of Krishna, sometimes the way to explain is that he’s like the sun. Krishna, or Allah, or Yahweh, or God — they’re different names for God. The sun is shining over America, but you don’t say, “That’s my sun; that’s an American sun.” The sun is everywhere. So is God, or Krishna. We’re all part of the whole cosmic creation.
At the same time Krishna takes these [physical] forms. These forms are also not made up. They are described in Vedas, ancient scriptures of India, as ways that you can with your senses build a relationship with God. It’s something tangible. Otherwise it’s very hard to conceive of spiritual energy. Just like it’s hard to conceive of the mind or the intelligence. You know they’re there, but you can’t actually open up your head and pick out the mind. In the same way, it’s very hard to visualize or conceptualize God, and that’s why some traditions completely avoid doing that. Whereas in our tradition, we really make it clear so people can come offer prayer or offer flowers. You can’t have love without an object of love.
Most people know Hare Krishna from the public chanting. Why is winning people over so important?
It’s more like education; it’s not conversion. We go out to chant to remind people not to get so caught up, to take time for their spiritual lives. You don’t need to become a Hare Krishna devotee, but you should take time for reflection, for prayer, for inner work.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
My core belief is that I am something more than this body. I am a spiritual being, eternal and individual. This temporary situation is just a covering for who I really am underneath it. I have a loving and serving relationship with Krishna, who is my eternal father. And I’m loved and cared for in that relationship. I feel very safe and fearless, most of the time, knowing that this world is a temporary place, but in essence I’m not made of this. I’m on a journey, traveling from one body to another body to another body. To realize who I am completely, out of the body and in relationship with Krishna — that would be my essential goal.
– Liz Essley
