Vraja Kishor Dasa

I publish a "fanzine" called Enquirer subculture stuff. This, along with being in the bands Shelter and 108, has rewarded me with a flood of mail questions about Krsna, appreciation of Him, and a few reports on my crass stupidity. Recently there's been a new brand of letter: kids telling me of their own ecstatic experiences. Here are two of my favorites, followed by a letter about questioning Krsna consciousness.

Bhakta Vic,

When I was in Florida visiting my parents, I went to your show in Palm Bay, with Zero Tolerance, Edgewise, and Greenday. I bought the Enquirer #5 from you.

Maybe you remember who I was. I had green and yellow hair in braids and my nose was pierced in the middle. Although I kind of think that, in a way, all this body piercing and hair dying is a waste, I also like the way it looks and whatnot. But get this…

I was on the city bus the other day, and this old woman started to go off on me, telling me I was ugly, and an eyesore, and stuff. In any event I would have been polite, no matter how irritated I was, because I feel that these people don't understand and there is no reason to get angry.

Well, I politely told her, "How can you know I'm ugly when you don't even know me."

She said she could see that I was ugly.

So I told her that I was not this body, that I was the spirit/soul, and that she shouldn't judge me by my looks.

She said that I was right and she was very impressed by my knowledge! And imagine, without the Enquirer I would have just sat there without that knowledge!

Keep up the good work.

Sherry Eckhart

Dear Vic,

Hare Krishna! I was sitting in class the other day, and we were having an in-depth conversation on equality and racism. My class is pretty small, and we get involved in discussions fairly well. Everyone was expressing their ideas and theories, back and forth, back and forth. My teacher was about to express her ideas on the matter when I raised my hand. She said, "OK, Chrissy, what do you feel about this?"

I told my class what I had learned about the soul from your examples [she'd just read a pamphlet we put out called The Core of Equality]. All of a sudden our raucous class fell silent. I heard people whispering to their neighbors, "Wow, that was deep." My teacher, who has a Masters in sociology, looked at me and said, "I'm not gonna even bother saying what I wanted to say now. Nothing I could say would express my feelings so clearly as the way you did."

I told them I couldn't take the credit for this myself. I told them about my involvement in Krishna consciousness. Well, this idea was revolutionary, because I go to a Catholic school.

Chris Laraceni

Vic,

I met you and the rest of the band at the Unicorn show here about three weeks ago. I just finished reading the fanzine I got at the show and now I have a lot of questions about the Krishna religion and the band. [Among them:] Do you ever question your feelings toward the Krishna religion?

Genella (Gene) Taylor

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Dear Gene,

Do I ever question my feelings towards Krsna consciousness? Yes. The more questioning the better. Sincere devotees are always questioning. Questioning what? Mainly their own motives for doing what they do.

Srila Prabhupada describes doubt as a symptom of healthy intelligence. Naturally in the beginning of your involvement with Krsna consciousness you have doubts. These doubts shouldn't be frowned on or suppressed. They should be brought out in the open and put before others who can help solve them.

Krsna consciousness is a lot more than a set of feelings or beliefs; it's a spiritual science. Science means that you can verify the theory by your own direct experience. It's not blind faith "Hold your breath and hope; you'll find out when you die." It's not like that. You verify the faith, in this life.

Faith can be either blind or reasonable. Krsna consciousness grows from reasonable faith and scorns blind faith.

Here's an example of reasonable faith: You have every reason to believe that Hong Kong exists. You may never have been there, but you have faith that it exists. And you have good reason to you've seen pictures of Hong Kong, you've read about it in the newspapers, you've talked to people who've been there, and so on. It's reasonable faith. It's not sentiment.

Reasonable faith in Krsna consciousness increases as you make progress. It's just like if I gave you directions to get from Brown Deer to Washington, D.C. "Go south till you see the 7-Eleven, then make a left. Soon you'll see Freeway X. Get on it. Drive till you see a big red house just past the Maryland border… "

At first you may be a little skeptical. But you trust me enough to give it a try. You get out on the road, going south. Hey, there's the 7-Eleven! You feel more confident. Your faith increases. You go a little further. Sure enough, there's Freeway X. Now it's reasonable for you to have more faith in my directions, and eventually, when you get to D.C., your doubts are gone.

The same thing happens in Krsna consciousness. We have a road map for getting back to our original spiritual consciousness. And the landmarks along the way are elaborately described. As you go along, you find these landmarks, and your faith solidifies more and more. Gradually, doubts diminish, being answered. Finally, in the fully mature stages of Krsna consciousness, they disappear altogether.

Bhakta Vic 108 joined the Hare Krsna movement about two years ago. He and his band are based at ISKCON's Washington, D.C., temple.