Hare Krishna!!!

21st September was no ordinary Sunday. My cousin had got passes to a workshop called the Yoga Retreat at the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, popularly known as ISKCON. Although I am spiritual and religious but my mind wasn’t ready for a full day's session on a Sunday. But I decided to go through it to experience a different side of life and a different side of me which always got neglected. As it was a full day session there were many activities and discussions, I’ve noted down some top of the mind events which I was very impressed with.

Vraja
As we were being seated down in this well equipped indoor auditorium with BOSE surround and 2 giant screens, they played this multimedia piece called the Vraja as filler. This had exclusive ISKCON paintings of Lord Krishna in all his forms, ages etc. But the highlight was the music which played in the background. It is one of the best tracks I’ve heard in a very long time. I wasn’t able to place it in a particular genre as it had everything Trance, Techno, Indian and of course the maha-mantra chanting. I had made up my mind to get hold of this track and bought the CD for a mere Rs.40 at the end of the day.

The Speakers
The workshop had 4 different speakers covering various topics like meditation techniques, mind control, existence of God etc. I won’t deny that I’ve seen speakers with better presentation skills but what caught my imagination was these guys in their mid 30’s were highly educated and had qualifications with brands. Couple of them were from IIT’s, one of them had a MS from a US university and another one was a scientist with IISc. The only thought which kept me baffled was what made them give up their illustrious careers and choose this path.

Exclusive Darshan
This was another experience which will remain with me for a long time to come. The whole batch of 400 odd participants was taken to the main temple hall for an exclusive darshan and it was a sight worth watching. The doors to the 3 idols were closed while all of us were chanting the maha-mantra. The hall was vibrating with the chants and then 3 swamis blew the conks to announce the opening of the doors. The doors opened to a bhajan composed by George Harrison the lead guitarist of The Beatles. The idol rooms were filled with a thick blanket of smoke from dhoop and it cleared slowly with a magical effect. The presentation was so simple yet mystical it could put all the new age special effects to shame.

Next Change….Krishna
An animated short movie was shown as a part of the workshop. This was an episode where Krishna lifts the Govardhana Parvath to protect Vrindavan. This movie has already won an award at the recently concluded Cannes festival and it deserved to. It was at par with any Hollywood movie like Ice Age, Finding Nemo. The sketches were fantastic, the sound and dubbing world class and the execution of the story was very effective and appealing. This movie and a series of such episodes of Krishna will be hitting the theatres in November. So watch out Spiderman, Superman….here comes Krishna!

So no regrets whatsoever for spending a Sunday at the ISKCON. I wouldn’t call it a life changing experience but it certainly looks like a turning point.