Monthly Archives: May 2011

I interviewed the President of the ISKCON temple, Rama Dasa. I had spoken to him the first time I visited the temple as well.

I asked him if they reenact lilas like the videos that were shown in class. He said that they do reenact dramas during special events and that they also had an actors troupe for this purpose. In India, they only use male actors, but at ISKCON, there are both males and females in the troupe, although in the early days, it consisted of almost all men. Nowadays, the troupe consists of professionals such as doctors and scholars, who do not have a lot of time to dedicate to practicing for the dramas, but they do what they can.

One other thing that was different is they do not throw colors at each other during the festival of Holi. This is because they don’t want to offend anyone by ruining their clothes, and they do not have a large outdoor space.

I went to one of ISKCON’s daily prayer rituals. It occurs every night at around 7 PM and lasts for about an hour. I came early and heard the beating of a drum in the temple. In the temple, the walls were covered with painting, including more familiar ones that I remember from the slideshows in class, such as Krishnas dancing with the gopis. Before the service, a man chanted mantras while circling the statue of the founder for a good half hour or so. By the time the ritual started, it was still very sparse, with around 5-6 devotees participating. However, their dedication and slight echo in the temple made it seem like there were more people chanting along. There was one man on the stage with the big Krishna statue, while the others banged a drum, danced, clapped, and played the zills. The mantras that I remember that they chanted were the Hare Krishna, which is a very recognizable one, and a namaste one, which one of the devotees had shown me in his prayer book. I mostly observed, but they offered me incense, sprinkled holy water on my head, and offered me a pretty flower. After offering it to the statue of the founder first, of course.