Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare
Walking quietly, shaved head bowed slightly and dressed in stocking feet and a swath of cotton, Giri Govardhana chants this mantra at least 1,728 times a day. He counts using chanting beads called japa mala.
A FEW FACTS ON THE RELIGION
Name: International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
Central beliefs: Krishna is God; reincarnation.
Main scripture: Bhagavad-gita.
Numbers: An estimated 200,000 in the United States; about 250 active members in the Detroit area.
Places of worship: The former Fisher Mansion, at 383 Lenox in Detroit, is home to the only Krishna temple in Michigan. There are about 50 temples nationwide.
Local services: Each Sunday at 4 p.m.; devotional singing and dancing, Bhagavad-gita readings, vegetarian feast. All are welcome.
More information: 313-824-6000 or www.iskcon.com.
Govardhana, a Hare Krishna monk and priest, says the mantra is simply a calling out to God. The word Hare means energy and Krishna is God. "Rama means supreme happiness," and he says that "chanting is a way of trying to have one's relationship with God restored.
"There is only one thing lacking in this world -- God consciousness."
Govardhana was baptized Gregory Weedan 42 years ago at Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church in Saginaw. His father, Michael Weedan, says "he struggled with how he fit into the world." Weedan says he and his wife thought their son would be a professor because he was such a bookworm. "The Hindu scriptures go back at least 5,000 years," Weedan says, "so it gives him a lot more to read. It's not something I would choose. My Methodist background is where I am. I've never questioned -- he always has."
The bigger questions about life and death are often what elicit spiritual thinking. In the immediate aftermath of the events of Sept. 11, attendance at temples, churches and mosques increased dramatically.John Saliba, a Jesuit priest and scholar at the University of Detroit, says that questions are what religion is about. "Religion isn't there to give you all the answers; it is there to give you questions."
Hinduism and the Hare Krishnas share some important fundamentals with Christianity, he adds. "Both emphasize spirituality, and they both have similar moral codes." Saliba says people often dwell on the inconsequential differences of religions. "Do you kneel, stand, use yoga posture, squat? People make these minors, majors."
Nirmal Prasher, a Hare Krishna devotee from Grosse Pointe, agrees: "We create these walls between us. It's human."
Prasher, originally from India, goes to the temple on Lenox in Detroit three times a week, including the Sunday feast. She makes garlands for the deities -- which are God-forms sculpted from descriptions in Vedic scriptures. Govardhana says "the dieties are a way for us to see, serve and touch God directly with our physical bodies."
According to Yogina Shah, who is from India and now lives in Troy, "if you chant in the morning, the whole day looks like happiness."
Every Sunday at the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Center at the former Fisher mansion, Prasher, Shah and about two hundred other devotees gather for the weekly feast. It begins with devotional singing, chanting and spiritual dance in the temple. The room is dark except for light spilling through and beyond wrought iron gates where deities stand on altars, enrobed in costumes and adorned with garlands of fresh flowers.
On a recent Sunday afternoon, a sensual mixture of incense, flowers and Indian spices pervaded the airthat was also thick with sounds of hand cymbals, two-headed drums, singing and chanting.
Yajna Parusa Das, a monk and guest speaker from New York, sat in the lotus position and read excerpts from the Bhagavad-gita, the main text of Hindu traditions.
After the reading, Parusa Das spoke about service, God and eternal bliss. He said, "Love of God is in the heart of every soul. It is a natural-born quality. To render service to God is what makes us happy. Service to our families, to our cities, our countries, the whole world . . . it is what gives us pleasure."
Left with that thought, the devotees filed out of the temple and into the long hall for the weekly vegetarian buffet.
Then, retrieving their shoes in the doorway, heads bowing slightly, smiling and exchanging quiet Hare Krishnas, the devotees filed out, leaving the deities and the monks until the following Sunday.