How did you get started?

[vanamali]

Hello, Vanamali here. A question to all you devotees: how did you get started with devotion to Sri Krishna?

 

For me it was plain as this:

 

I was in a protestant Christian group at the time that encouraged "a personal relationship with god" but did not conceive of god in a very personal way, so it was very difficult for me. One thing they taught me, however, is the first step of religious life that most Americans have not realized. That God will give you whatever you ask for, incuding money, etc. if it is good for you. I have seen people in their group praying "Oh Jesus, I need a thousand dollars for such-and-such in the ministry" and sure enough the money would come in the mail from some source or other.

 

Anyway, at the time I was very focused on getting a husband. But at one point I said, okay God I'm getting more and more miserable, the bible is confusing me and is not giving me answers, I'm not getting the sense gratification that I desire and it's making me depressed. From this moment on I will stop thinking about men and dating and all that. But You: please get me out of this mess!

 

Within the next week I had met my husband-to-be who is a Marathi Kshatriya (this is in US and I am an American by the way) who introduced me to Pujya Prema Panduranga's discourses on tape. She is an excellent speaker, and in one dose, I learned about Bhagavad Gita, some stories from Bhagavatam, etc. The most important thing she said was (not exact quote) Krishna's message to us is "You come to the temple and donate three rupees and ask for three millions in return. Fine! But when will you ask for Me?"

 

This concept of loving God for Himself had never occured to me before, had never been mentioned to me before. The thought that God was lovable in and of Himself was foreign to me. Religion is not a business of I'll do this for You, You send me to heaven, or even I'll do something for Youin exchange for happiness or peace.

 

The easiest, simplest religion is to love God for Himself, and everything else flows naturally. Suddenly, you actually want to work. Everything in life, dedicated to God, becomes pooja. Homework = pooja. Office = pooja. How simple religion becomes!

 

These were the first beautiful words from Krishna to me, offered at the lotus feet of you devotees.

 

~Vanamali

[Guest guest]

I used to be a total atheised, beliving that everything has been sprung out of evoultion, my parents did try to make me a legit chrstian, but I never really belived that there was a jesus christ, and even if there was, he was problay a fony. I started to hang out with my other friends who are pretty much druggies, and I decide to experiment with different drugs, such as marijuna, psychedlic mushrooms, lsd, salvia, and during this course, I noticed how miserable my life, and everyone elses life is, one of my good friends was a good thinker and he himself belived in Krishna, he told me the concept of god, and I found it very interseting, he told me that I should read this book if I thought what he said was intersting, surely enough he gave me the bahgvad gita to read, It took me 3 readings to finally understand the main idea of the book, (it will take me another 1000years to understand the entire book) Since then I been living with lord krishna always side of my mind, always blaming him for my mis fortunes, and thanking him for my fortunes. I am not much of a devotie, is hard for me to follow the path of one, so I decide to just enjoy life with god as a friend. He can watch me make all my mistakes and all of my thropies.

 

I do think that there is a god, a universal being, that controles everything, that has everything planned out like a train riding down a rail, and that everything does happen for a reason.

 

At the end is always up to you in what you wanne belive in, everything you belive in, is true to yourself. Since I realized that, I started reading many other religions such as the tao and the writtings of buddha. I will problay never read the bible in my life, because I belive that the christan bible has been changed around so many times for control of the masses, and I dont want to be controled by another human.

 

 

[AncientMariner]

That is a truly great post. Not that I am trying to be critical but I have personally witnessed so much nonesense in Christianity that I got attracted to Krsna for the same reasons. It offered the concept that God is just plain lovable (not that I am trying to limit Krishna). It makes you amazed more people don't realize and promote this.

[krsna]

Yes,the story of how Krsna drags you to Him is always nice to hear.All glories to the assembled devotees who Krsna is dragging back to Godhead !

[Guest guest]

Hello Vanamali,

 

I was just another guy dreaming about love all the time. I was also interested in spirituality. In school I read Vivekananda. It was interesting, but I just hated the impersonal philosophy. They say bhakti is just a means to formless God. I just could not swallow this, although he talks about thinking God as husband. My favourite God was Krishna from childhood, but I never ever thought that you can love Krishna as you love other family members. Yes, I was this "Give 3 rupees and ask for 3 million" types. I never bothered because I thought God is separate, and we are separate, and we are meant to salute him and ask for relief from time to time.

 

Then in college, I read one of ISKCON book by Prabhupad saying God has form and we can love him. This was such a different thing. I read that one can love him as God, servant, friend, parent or wife and lover. I really..... really...... got interested in finding how to love Krishna as wife.

 

Then I spent sometime with Iskcon and GaudiyaMath. It was nice, but they are not interested in becoming Krishna's wife. But with each day, my interest began to grow very much. So I had to bid them bye bye and search for myself......still searching.......

 

Wretched_Soul_In_Love_With_Krishna (Hopeless_Case) ;-)

[Guest guest]

I came from a catholic upbringing, always doubting the beliefs and practices taught in church. Once I was giving the ok to make my own choice by mom and dad, I opted not to follow the catholic faith anymore. I searched and search for SO MANY years, diving in and out of different religions.

Then last year I visited a temple and it sparked an interest in me to learn more about Krishna and the whole Hare Krishna movement. I attended a Ratha Yatra festival last summer and I have been practicing Krishna Conciousness ever since! Once i left, I could not stop thinking about it. I love that the idea is to LOVE god, not fear him, which is what I was raised with. How can that be wrong to love god?

Karmis are usually unhappy, stressed, and totally dependant on material pleasures. You see a devotee, or a group of devotees, and it is like this force of love and happiness just knocks you over. If I had to choose who I would live my life here with, I would want to live it with the devotees!

Hare Krishna!!!!!!!!

So, that is how I got started!

A.