Serenity, Perfection Found In Hare Krishna Chant

This article, "Followers Say Serenity, Perfection Found In Hare Krishna Chant" was published in The Orlando Sentinel, January 3, 1972, in Orlando, Florida.

The traffic signal on Orange Avenue blinked "Wait," then it clicked to "Walk," and Diana crossed the street. Clutched under her arm were two dozen pamphlets titled: "On Chanting Hare Krishna." 

Seventeen-year-old Diana wore an orange-colored robe and worn-out tennis shoes. There was an earring in her nose, and her forehead had two streaks of white lines, which had been put on earlier that morning with wet clay. 

THE ORANGE-ROBED girl made a strange contrast to bustling downtown Orlando, just a few days after Christmas. 

Cars went by with clashing gears, the squeal of brakes. Shoppers made irregular patterns on the sidewalks as they exchanged Christmas presents, drifted into restaurants for coffee, and bargain-hunted at downtown stores which had red "Sale" signs In their glass windows. 

Diana stopped passersby, and she gave them copies of her pamphlets. "We have to get out of our material entanglement and go back home to God," she was saying, handing out pamphlets and asking for donations. A woman with a full shopping bag gave her a quarter and Diana said, "Hare Krishna." 

'Good Vibrations' 

"MANY OF US are unhappy in the material world," she said. "We're desperately looking for something. We found it in Krishna. Everything is perfect in Krishna. Perfect." 

Diana, from Phoenix, Ariz., first became involved in the Krishna movement because she felt "good vibrations" while repeating the famous Indian chant. Embracing the group made her one of a growing number of Americans who have turned away from the world, towards what they hope is a more fulfilling spiritual life. 

Leaving behind the structured and orderly religion offered by the established churches, various groups are part of this movement. Many of them have taken to the streets, and they can be found everywhere. 

IN ORLANDO, for example, a recent phenomenon is the "Jesus Freaks." They are mostly young people who consider themselves "Street Ministers," buttonholing people to tell them about their personal involvement with Jesus Christ. 

Then there are what might be called the "loner" types. A 46-year-old Chippewa Indian from Ontario, Canada is one of them. 

His name is Steve Sylvester Wawia. He's in Orlando now, taking time off from a five-year trek across the United States which "Jesus told me to do." 

WAWIA AND his wife, Charlotte, covered 3,400 miles on foot. They took with them only a bedroll, and a change of clothes. They stopped to preach on the way at churches, tents or anywhere people would listen to what they consider to be the Word of God. 

"Jesus told us to walk," explained the dark-skinned, black-haired Wawia as he sat on a bench in Eola Park. "He wanted us to do that so we could meet and talk to people on the way." 

"We'll be off again," he continued, "as soon as God gives us a compulsion and tells us where to go." 

35 Members in Orlando 

THE GROUP to which Diana belongs, Hare Krishna, is a world-wide organization. About 35 members came to Orlando recently from one of their communes in West Virginia. 

For weeks, the group has been traveling in five yellow school buses. When they move on to another town, they plan to leave behind a few members to start an Orlando chapter. 

There are 1,500 preachers of Hare Krishna in the United States, according to a former Columbia University student who now calls himself Kirtanananda Swami. 

LIKE MANY Krishna "devotees," he has a shaven head as a symbol of his faith. Wearing the familiar orange robe, with white clay lines on his forehead, he talked about himself in Eola Park during a vegetarian "love feast." 

"I was a student at Columbia University in New York, getting my doctorate in History. I was not satisfied with what I was taught. I wanted something else from life besides working hard till you're 65, and then retiring to have a heart attack. I took a trip to India, without really having a clear idea of what I was going for. While there, I saw Krishna, but was not impressed." 

He returned to New York, where he met the modern-day leader of the 500-year-old Krishna movement: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The year was 1966, and the Swami was in New York because his spiritual master had told him to "preach love of God to the people of the West." 

Divine Grace Student 

KIRTANANANDA SWAMI became his first student. Since then he has been active in the Krishna movement, reading, studying, traveling to India. 

Kirtanananda says that the Krishna movement is supported by donations and by the sale of Spiritual Sky incense, which is made at the group's West Virginia commune. 

Krishna is perhaps best known for its chant, which "is not an ordinary sound, but a transcendental sound," according to Kirtanananda. "It has the power to unleash the soul."

"IT GOES like this: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare. Hare, Rama, Hare, Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare." 

The Krishna movement believes that God is everywhere, and man is all part of the perfect whole - "Everything is perfect." People cut themselves off from this perfect attachment to God by getting involved in material strivings, followers believe. 

KRISHNA "DEVOTEES" urge a simpler way of life as a way of finding an attachment to God, a consciousness of Him. 

Their beliefs are reflected in their simple life styles and in their way of dress. The white streaks on their foreheads are symbols of their faith. And the familiar tennis shoes are common because Krishna members do not believe in killing animals for food or leather shoes.

Krishna members are opposed to any killing, including mosquitoes. Members also avoid eating meat or eggs, stay away from stimulants and drugs, and promise not to have any sex outside of marriage.

All Ages Follow

THOUGH MOST "devotees" are in their 20s, there are younger members. Like 17-year-old Diana. And there are older followers, such as "Sheelavati devi dasi," who has two teen-age children. 

What is behind the popularity of Hare Krishna and the other religious groups? Some interpret it as only the beginning of a worldwide return to God. Others say followers of these groups are seeking peace in a complicated world. 

Some of the Hare Krishna followers seem to have found this peace. There is serenity in Diana's face as she walks among the more-worldly minded shoppers on Orange Avenue. 

It is a warm afternoon. Some shoppers take her pamphlets. Diana smiles at them. "Everything is perfect," she says. The world moves around her, shifting and changing, but Diana thinks she has found something that is eternal.