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ISKCON Temple

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This past Thursday, we visited the ISKCON Temple in Dallas. As we first arrived at the temple, we had to take our shoes off because it is a religious tradition to enter the temple without them. Once we entered the sacred place, we were greeted by the monk who was going to tell us about the history and how the temple worked. Before he started he told us that the temple was a basketball court. I found that pretty interesting because I would have never thought that a basketball court could be transformed into a beautiful temple. Just after that, he explained how the religion worked and told us some stories about the Sharma paintings that are hanging on the walls. Although the religion is somehow complicated to understand, it is very interesting to get to know more about it.

The monk told us several stories about the Sharma paintings. One of them was when Krishna was a young boy hanging out with other kids his age. In the painting, they are seen having lunch in a circle. The story was very interesting but at the end, I got a little lost because it was a little confusing. When he was finishing the story, the monk mentioned how Krishna was transformed into the kids that were having lunch with him because the kid’s parents wanted to have Krishna as their son. Krishna was tricked by Brahma into turning his friends into calves while he was being multiplied and transformed into his friends. This is when we found out that Krishna can multiply and change form. These parents worshipped and loved that their children were hanging out with him because he was a very kind a loving boy and very popular amongst families. These kid’s parents would make extra food for their children to share with Krishna.

After being told all these amazing tales, stories, and traditions, the monk guided us to the first vegetarian restaurant in Dallas, which is attached to the temple. Although I did not eat food, it looked amazing. It is very affordable for the amount of food one can actually take. The monk saw that I was not eating so he brought me a pastry made of garbanzo beans. It had a very different taste to what I am accustomed to but, I liked it.

Thomas J. Hopkins article, ISKCON’S Search for Self-Identity: Reflection by a Historian of Religions, was very helpful because it made the history of the temple easier to understand. It talks about how the Hare Krishna movement started. It was first founded by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966. This movement belongs to the same tradition as the Hindu and Vedic culture. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s main purpose to make this movement was due to the fact that he wanted to make his own version of Hinduism accessible for people outside India who were unable to read Sanskrit or Hindi. It was very interesting to get to know more about this movement by actually going to a temple and being explained by someone who practices it.

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