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I would first like to offer my humble obeisances to all devotees of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, and secondly to any and all readers.
One day, several month ago, in a very bad time in my life, I decided that I needed to sink back into some spiritual practices to stabilize me, so I hopped on a bus and headed straight for the nearest Hare Krishna temple to pick up some prayer beads. My life has not been the same since.
"Really now?" you may be asking yourself, "a Hare Krishna temple? Why?". Its actually fairly simple. When I was fifteen I spent a year in New Zealand and traveled with my parents and five younger siblings with gypsies (well, maybe not so simple). After several months, I needed space, we were too many people too close together, so I stayed with some friends we had made on their farm, and they were devotees, or had been. Though I learned some small bits of philosophy from them, mostly I just helped cleaning and watching kids, but I did pick up Japa meditation, or, meditating by chanting or prayer beads. When I came back to the States, it stuck, for a while.
But life happened
I had high school, friends, meltdowns, so many things to distract me and draw me away from that small saving grace I had found. For the next almost four years, I didn't chant, and lost my center.
Lucky for me, Sri Krishna smiled on me in August of last year, and took away my best Friend rather abruptly.
"Surly he is crazy!" you must be telling yourself "Going to see the Hare Krishnas, thinking having your friends leave you is a blessing, MADNESS!"
Actually, I would have agreed with you, this friend was more or less the one thing that kept me going, it was a rough year and I had alienated most of my friends, losing him hurt me, allot.
A name for Krishna is Hari, He who takes away, and he does. He took my home, my friends, everything I called me, every thing I thought mattered. At times he will humble you, remind you that you weren't really happy at all. In taking away all that, he took away some bigger things, my sadness, my emptiness and my unassisted longing for God.
Feeling low, I remembered the simple joy of chanting, and needed to reincorporate chanting into my life. So why the temple, I knew a bit about it, and its the only place I know to get Japa (the 108 beaded string of beads many eastern faiths chant on).
I steeped off that bus and into a new life.


I am sorry if that was rambley, I am new to this. Please give comments and suggestions. Please ask me questions.

Your servant
Nikki