What do you think of Hare Krishna and the Bhagavad Gita?

Post by **Winston** » September 9th, 2014, 11:45 am

Hi all,
The vegetarian meetup group I went to turned out to be a Hare Krishna center. I've been going to vegetarian meal feasts and meetings there. The people there are very spiritual and non-materialistic, so I have a lot in common with them. They read these Vedic texts called the Bhagavad Gita.

Any of you familiar with this? If so, what do you think of them? I heard that famous people like George Harrison of the Beatles, Robert Oppenheimer, research head of the Manhattan Project, Ghandi, and others, were involved in Hare Krishna.

Have any of you read the Bhagavad Gita? Supposedly it contains stories about human history that go way back before Sumeria.

Here is a BBC documentary about Hare Krishna.

MrPeabody · Post by **MrPeabody** » September 9th, 2014, 3:25 pm

The Gita is part of the Mahabarata. Indian television produced a serial which covers the entire Mahabarata including the Gita which appears towards the end. It's pretty interesting once you get into it.

Here is the link to the first episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxwSd0AhEk

Post by **Winston** » September 9th, 2014, 4:23 pm

Documentary about Krishna and whether he existed or not.

Krishna: History or Myth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalNJ4luBws

Mr S · Post by **Mr S** » September 14th, 2014, 4:11 am

If you're interested in Indian Spirituality you should watch this documentary movie about the life of Adi Shankaracharya:

He's a famous Indian Vedic philosopher/Theologian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankaracharya_(film)

It's the only film ever made to be entirely filmed speaking in Sanskrit.

OutWest · Post by **OutWest** » September 14th, 2014, 9:59 am

Winston wrote:Documentary about Krishna and whether he existed or not.

Krishna: History or Myth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalNJ4luBws

Well, I am showing my age, but men my age likely remember Hare Krishna types soliciting in airports and street corners...total zombies. From what I can tell, first they vacuum out your brain, take all your money, and keep you as their little Zombie.

Post by **Winston** » September 16th, 2014, 2:42 am

OutWest wrote:
Winston wrote:Documentary about Krishna and whether he existed or not.

Krishna: History or Myth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalNJ4luBws
Well, I am showing my age, but men my age likely remember Hare Krishna types soliciting in airports and street corners...total zombies. From what I can tell, first they vacuum out your brain, take all your money, and keep you as their little Zombie.

Why do you say they try to take all your money? They don't ask for money. They just take donations at their centers, but they don't push it. They also provide good vegetarian food at their centers. They are very anti-materialistic and the least greedy people you will meet.

But Hare Krishna is kind of a religion though. People who are serious about a religion are kind of in their own world. But then again, in a sense, everyone has a religion, even Atheists and Darwinists do, in the sense that they have a set of beliefs that they cling to and reject all contrary data. Everyone needs something to believe in, including me. So in that sense, we all have some kind of religion, whether we call it that or not. My religion is "happier abroad" of course. lol

Post by **Winston** » September 17th, 2014, 7:05 am

Another problem with religion is, how is it going to fulfill my needs and desires? How does it fulfill anyone's needs?

If my needs and desires are for romantic love, beautiful women, physical passion, intimacy and stimulation from romancing attractive women, how will any religion fulfill that? Spirituality may bring inner peace, sure, but it's not going to fulfill my desires and needs in those areas. I'm still going to suffer and be unhappy from the deprivation of such things, even if I devote myself seriously to a great spiritual religion.

So what's the point? How can having a religion make you happy? What does it fulfill? I don't get it.

Devotees of all religions will tell you that the material world can't bring happiness, but their religious practice can. They say that the world is too materialistic. I agree that materialism alone can't bring you complete fulfillment or happiness. But how does believing in something you can't see bring complete happiness and fulfillment?

Now I acknowledge that there is a spiritual component in life that is real and necessary. But that alone can't bring you happiness, satisfaction and contentment. You need more than that, well at least I do. I'm not talking about materialism of course. I'm talking about other things, which I will list below.

But religious devotees seem to imply that their religion alone will bring happiness, peace, joy and contentment. That is too far fetched. Don't you need a little of everything in life? How can one thing alone do it all? What is their basis for that? And why does that work for the devotees who claim this? Are some people happy with religion alone?

In my view, being able to do what you love, having quality friendships with quality people, having a great romantic love affair and relationship, having some adventures and new experiences in life, and having good health, are what bring the greatest happiness, at least for me.

I don't see how religion fits into that though. How is it that some people find happiness through religion only? Can anyone explain?