Reflection Paper on

Hare Krishna

Group 4 BSA 1-2:

Calderon, Xenia Denise
Gloria, Mariefer
Jao, Jovan
Macaranas, Melvert
Rocaberte, Jivanta
 On the 26th of September 2019, a seminar all about the Vedic Culture

was held at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines – San Juan. The

speaker, Mahendra Das, started out by familiarizing us with the art of

Krishna through showing us a few paintings of Lord Krishna with his flute in

the book Krsna Art. He also mentioned that Hare Krishna is considered as

a part of Hinduism. They are somehow polytheistic because Krishna has

the ability to expand His personality. Krishna is a beautiful 16 year old boy.

Unlike the belief in the Catholic Religion, God does not watch over His

people twenty-four hours a day, Krishna spends His time at the garden and

the moment a human being calls Him, only then will he pay attention. He

also taught us a chant that is considered as the Prayer of Salvation in their

Religion. It goes “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare,

Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare”. Mahendra Das

said that the chant is in Sanskrit and it is a mantra used to control the mind

and avoid chaos from within. The term Hare stands for the female energy

of God, Krishna is all the attractive good, and Rama represents the

reservoir of pleasure. As the discussion grew deeper, we learned a lot

about Hare Krishna. They have clothing designated for the male and the

female which looked very comfortable. There were also required hairstyles

for the male members depending upon their position or status. They are

also vegetarians. Hare Krishna believes that eating meat is a form of

violence against animals because they are being killed. Besides being

vegetarian, they also sacrifice a lot of things. Mahendra Das says the

essence of religion is learning to let go of our desire for material things.

Hare Krishna also believes that self-realization is important. We are not this

body, we are mere spirit souls that are part and parcel of the Supreme God

Krishna. Mahendra Das said that the saying “the truth will set you free”

actually pertains to this. There is this cycle of birth and death called Sam

Sara wherein you’ll be reincarnated in alignment to your karma, “what you

sow is what you will reap”, whether you earned good or bad karma in your

past life, that will determine what kind of life you will have when you get

reincarnated. He said the only thing that will set us free from this cycle is

when we learn to let go of our materialistic desires and spend our lifetime

following the main essence of religion.

We are glad that we attended the seminar because we enjoyed it and

were able to gain knowledge, try their vegetarian snack, and even have

some of their books. Mahendra Das said that this body is not ours, if we will

keep that in mind, we would not worry if we’re appealing to others or not,

we would be more confident. We quote Mahendra Das, “for him who has

conquered the mind is the best of friends with it, but those who has failed to

do so, his mind will remain his enemy”, this makes a lot of sense for
whatever is in the mind of a person will have an effect to his whole being.

The difference of eating meat and eating vegetarian food were also shared

with us. The former causes heart diseases and such while the latter

reduces the risk of cancer and animal violence. Sam Sara, the cycle of life

and death. Death is a part of the cycle therefore it should not be something

we are scared of. Instead we should strive to live life at its fullest while

bearing in mind the essence of it because we have no idea when what is

lent to us will be taken back.

Through this seminar, we were shown how art can be used not only

as a form of expression but also in religion, we were reminded that

differences are not a hindrance to unity if we choose to honor it. There can

be unity amidst adversity. Ma’am Dulce always tell us that even though

there are numbers of different religions, they have similarities greater than

their differences. And those differences are of essence making all the

chaos with regards to religion seem uncalled-for. It should not matter if we

do things in different ways, if we sing different songs, if we praise on

weekdays or on weekends, if we do sacrifices or fasting through various

processes, or if we call Him in different names because in the end we are

all pertaining to the same God. The only essence of religion is to love God

above all things and to love our neighbors as we love our self.