Shiny hippy people

suchandra · September 4, 2006

Smiling spirits in white robes wandering through waist-high grass

Shiny hippy people

http://www.budapesttimes.hu/index.php?art=2037

A valley on the southern bank of Lake Balaton is home to around 130 people, all with a common aim: to be happy. They are not seeking instant gratification, artificial intoxication or superficial joy but rather a lasting state of spiritual bliss. This is reached via endless recitation of a mantra revolving around the words hare, krishna and rama, which puts believers into a trance-like meditative state that, taken to its highest point, can be consciousness altering and lead to a state of perfection they believe.

The landscape that unfurls from the entrance to Krisna-völgy (Krishna Valley) makes a decidedly unreal impression. Within it are perfectly arranged trees, well tended plants, meticulously mowed lawns, a babbling stream and colourful new buildings. The whole area appears so orderly, so tidy and so well arranged that you cannot help but think of a film set. As if to confirm the impression, shrouded women and men with straw hats wander through the scenery. Their robes waft, their step is deliberate, and when they come nearer and voice the greeting “gouranga” (be happy) each one beams the familiar Hare Krishna smile.

Even the small wrinkles on Dvaipáyana dásas face form the shape of a perpetual smile. Previously he was called László Gyöngyösi and worked as a maths and physics teacher in Szeged. He was - as he readily admits - a fully-fledged atheist: “I couldn’t bear it when others talked about God,” he said. Despite this he still had questions which neither teachers nor professors at the university could answer. What is the fourth dimension? How can time be overcome? What lies beyond the boundaries of the universe?

One day, Gyöngyösi met a Hare Krishna on the street who was selling books and collecting donations. He began to discuss these questions with him, and within two minutes he had received answers to his questions. After a sceptical phase and posing many questions bordering on interrogation, his interest in the movement had been awakened.

That interest led him, in 1995, to the Krishna Valley, a kind of village commune which had been established two years earlier under the auspices of the Hare Krishna organisation Iskcon (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). Then 25 years old, he left behind his previous life and even his name. He became Dvaipáyana dása the first part of which literally means “born on the island” whilst the second part means “servant of god”. Initially, his parents were not happy about the idea. Now, however, they visit him regularly. He makes his contribution to the community by guiding tourists, classes of schoolchildren, and the merely curious around the village. He does not receive money for this, but is given a kind of credit that he can spend in the shop in the valley. Dvaipáyana wears a turban on his head and he has drawn a symbol in yellow powder on his forehead. His upper body is covered by a long shirt and he wears brown sandals. The colours of the four-metre long cloth that he wraps around his waist each morning and the ring on the finger of his left hand show that he is married.

Marriages in the Hare Krishna community are arranged. “One decisive point in their favour is that the stars indicate that a couple is compatible,” he said. After a kind of engagement period during which a third person chaperones them, the marriage takes place. Divorce is not allowed. Almost all women marry because they need “the protection of men - first that of the father, then that of the husband and, as a widow, that of the son,” said Dvaipáyana. The same is not true for men. They do not have to marry. “Whoever has the strength in his heart for chastity should use this strength to give up sexuality,” he says.

Not only is marriage strictly hierarchical - society is also organised this way. A five-member temple council is responsible for administration and law making. “They are not elected but selected. They stand on a higher spiritual level and so have the ability to lead,” he explained. In addition to the decisions of the council there are religious rules which regulate the life of the settlement. The four most important ones are abstention from eating meat, forbearance of gambling, the eschewing of drugs of any kind, and sex only within marriage - and even then only for the purpose of procreation.

“These laws might seem strict to many Western people,” says Dvaipáyana, “but they are necessary in order to practice our religion.” Most members of the Hare Krishna movement - he puts the figure in Hungary at 9,000 - lead less regimented lives. They pray daily, eat vegetarian food and practice yoga. The construction of the school, in which four teachers are responsible for two students, was made possible by a Hungarian businesswoman. The other pillars of finance are the income that the village’s inhabitants get from entry fees, events, their restaurant, guesthouse and a clothing and jewellry shop. They also adhere to the principle of leading the simplest and, thus, the least costly lives. The only electricity in Krisna-völgy comes from a couple of solar cells and wind turbines, the kitchen uses a lot of home grown vegetables and milk comes from their 30 dairy cows. To “live on a low level, think on a high level,” is how Dvaipáyana describes it.

People from outside the village are employed to take care of the grounds. The meticulously tended gardens and the many new buildings, the shiny prospectus, the Internet site, and the many entertainment opportunities for tourists do not really point to a life led as simply as possibly. Also, the smiling openness on the face of Dvaipáyana, and his interest in the opinions of others, changes as soon as he enters the colourful and almost clinically spotless temple.

Then he asks about the colour of god’s hair, thereby asserting his existence and form to be an absolute truth, and admits of no further discussion. The once open talk then assumes a rehearsed form and every question and answer oozes with proselytising zeal. Apparently, this evangelical element is also one of his tasks within the village, and of his religion too.

Lysann Heller