I stepped off the train on my first
Saturday in Melbourne and felt the excitement of being in this city pulse
through me. The energy went directly to my feet as they took me off through the
delights of a brand new city. There was a purpose to my day: as I had not
expected to step out of the tropics this year, I was very much on a mission to
find some warm clothes and boots. The sights and sounds of this city built on
my exhilaration, I loved the street theatre taking place around me - the
gorgeous music coming from singers, guitarists and other interesting
instrumentalists. They called us in, their audiences forming a circle around
them before losing interest and moving onto the next bit of entertainment. I
watched as a man changed position on his street toilet, or a magician pulled a
coin from a little girl’s outstretched hands.
After revelling in my newly purchases
boots, I went looking for some lunch. A sign advertising ‘Gopals: vegetarian
food for the soul’ caught my eye. I wondered up the stairs to find a gorgeous
buffet of food inviting me in. I looked at the price of the feast platter, a
bargain by Melbourne’s standards. Five minutes later I was sitting at the
window with my feast in front of me, watching the streets outside and the
autumn leaves swaying in the shivering breeze. I was delighted to have stumbled
upon this gem. I found out that it was a Hare Krishna enterprise, and I did
recall the Hare Krishnas as being quite generous folk.
I was right. A few days later I was hunting
for the perfect hot chocolate. Another sign caught my eye – the cheapest
vegetarian food in town. Hmm… there are three words I love about that sentence. Once again I found myself walking up some stairs
and into a toasty chamber within. There was a loud man serving large helpings
of food at the end of the room. It looked delicious. Forgetting my hot
chocolate search, I paid my money and sat before my meal: curry, rice,
pommadoms, and an incredibly sweet looking desert. I chatted away to the Canadian
guy next to me, he’s been to both South Africa and Bali and I’d been to Canada.
After filling up the all the food I could manage I went to have a look at the
vegan dessert option. It had already been cleared away. A girl in a sari saw me
poke my nose around the serving station, and she generously offered me some
more. Soon I was clutching a take-away container stuffed fill with a vegan
version of the dessert (Score!).
That next weekend I experienced the Hare
Krishna community. I went to the Saturday night event and joined in with the
chanting. After the mini-kirtan there was a speaker whose talk I only caught bits and
pieces of, I found my tired mind dreaming of other things as the speaker spoke his
truths. I’d like to say that I caught the important bits, but this didn’t help
me when he kindly directed a question at me. I sat frozen, having been
somewhere completely different, “sorry… I zoned out.” Oops.
After experiencing the delicious dinner at
the end of the Kirtan on Saturday night, I convinced Bridgette to join me in
visiting the Hare Krishna Ashram the next evening. She agreed heartily, the idea
of “Free Feast” as appealing to her as it was for me. We found our way there
and arrived during the meditation. A set of wooden prayer beads
were given to us as we were invited to join in, the process was explained to us
newbies - say the mantra written on the wall and when its done, move onto the
next bead. There were 108 beads. By the time we finished the meditation I was
four beads ahead of where I was supposed to be, and Bridgette was four behind.
Our focus would need to be worked on. After our introduction into Hare Krishna
meditation, we joined the queue for the feast, and what a feast it was! Our
plates were piled high with rice and curry and then our dessert was plonked
onto our plate along with the rest of our food. Bridge and I laughed as the
sides of our pudding mingled with the sides of our curry. Nevertheless it was delicious
and we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sitting cross-legged on the floor with everyone
else.
So after the delights of Hare Krishna, would
I join their movement? No. But any sort of organised religion doesn’t really appeal to
me. I’d rather leave myself open to experience bits and pieces of what inspires
the belief and faith of others. Although, I'm certainly appreciative of the way
the Hare Krishnas fed me so beautifully during my Melbourne experience! I found
each person I met within this society kind, open and loving, with seemingly no
intention of converting me - their only concern being to be feed me silly.
Thank you Hare Krishna!
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