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| with my Hare-Krishna devote friend Madumangala |
I’ve been hearing about this botanical garden in
Potchefstroom for quite a while now... For some reason, in the 9 months I have
been living here, I just never visited it.
The thing is I am a big garden
lover! And spending hours in a beautiful landscape is one the most therapeutic
things for me. Well after drinking beer in my favourite pub or listening to
jazz. But the point is; I love hanging around plants and lying on grass I don’t
have to take care of. Seeing people at work while I can relax is definitely
part of the therapy. I guess its part of my sadist nature.  |
| the little hidden gem in potchefstroom |
As I walked in the little labyrinth for a little
meditation, I couldn’t help but to think of the Hare-Krishna monk who sat next
to me on the long bus ride to Gaborone.
We had such a great time chatting with
each other about different life philosophies and ways of living... He gave me a
book about his faith and I had the opportunity to ask him questions that has
been burning inside of me; e.g why do you have the funny pony tail? Why do you
wear these certain clothes? What do you believe in exactly? What is all this
chanting about?
The short version of the 7 hour conversation is a
little bit difficult to describe. But a there were some main pointers in the
topic. For example I learned that Hari-Krishna devotes believe that through
chanting a certain chant they generate a vibration that release a supernatural
energy from a higher force. This energy brings them happiness and peace. They
don’t eat meat. They don’t listen to any other music. They love their ear plugs;
they insert them in public places to cancel out all the noise around them. They
get up at 4 am every morning for yoga, meditation and scripture studies which
will keep them busy till 9 am.
Now I have respect for anyone who manages to devote
his life for certain cause and believe. However I realised, or at least got the impression,that these devotes don’t receive joy out anything else than
their chanting and meditations. That is not exactly a life I want to live...
There so many things out there to enjoy! I love Hollywood movies, I love modern
popular music especially dubsteb even if it does sound like robot sex! The last
thing I want to do is to plug my ears with ear plugs to create the illusion
that I am not part of this world. I
guess the most frustrating part was the fact that the monk never gave me a full
chance to explain my points of view... I would ask a question, he would talk
for an hour and whenever I wanted to challenge him on certain topics he would
just start to chant and play with his prayer beads. When he finished his ritual
he would turn to me and explain to me how I got brainwashed by the “system”, I
will never be happy with materialism and that Inflation in the economy is
created by the illuminati to keep us in the darkness of endless debt. Thanks for the economics lecture dude... I
couldn’t help but to role my eyes. I am certainly not a materialist, I am very
happy with my life and I see no reason why on earth I should become a Potch-Hobo
to experience real happiness. In fact if there is one on this planet that can
steal my happiness immediately it is a bloody Potch-Hobbo asking me for
taxi money!
Well that’s enough rambling about a monk I have met. I
am starving under this tree right now... I guess I will head down town to buy
myself a good chicken burger because I am pre-programmed by the system to make
my choices based on clever marketing tactics which the Colonel is certainly
part of. And I’m not even mentioning the scary clown, Ronald McDonald
Ps: I feel didn't give justice to my friend,Madhumangala's , wanderlust. if there was one element that truly connected us then it was our shared love for Africa and our passion to explore. Here is the link to his blog if you want to learn more about the "The Travelling Monk In Africa" http://www.nectarofsankirtan.blogspot.com/
