Hope for September 11th

I was singing some hymns this morning and I opened the page to one called "Hope of Abraham and Sarah" in the hymnal More Voices (it's number 148). I sang it and remembered that today is September 11th, and it seemed that today of all days, this is the song that everyone should be singing. The text (below) is written by Ruth Duck, and the music is by Judith Snowdon, who studied composition at the Canadian Mennonite University (where I happen to be studying right now). So it's been a morning with some interesting coincidences. Or perhaps some (subtle) signs.

Hope of Abraham and Sarah 

Hope of Abraham and Sarah, friend of Hagar, God of Ruth, 
you desire that every people worship you in spirit, truth.
Meet us in our sacred places, mosque and synagogue and church.
Show us paths of understanding; bless us in our common search.

Root us in our own tradition, faith our forebears handed down.
Grow us in your grace and knowledge, plant our feet on solid ground.
Cultivate the seeds of sharing in this world of many creeds.
Keep us open, wise in learning, bearing fruit in loving deeds.

Hope of Abraham and Sarah, sovereign God whom we adore,
form in us your new creation, free of violence, hate and war.
So may Torah, cross and crescent, each a sign of life made new
point us toward your love and justice, earth at peace and one in you.

Amen.

"Your Names are so many, and Your Forms are endless. No one can tell how many Glorious Virtues You have"

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Some Hare Krishna monks were passing through my city last week. I bumped into them a few times downtown and had brief conversations with them. Basically, all I knew about the Hare Krishna movement prior to this week was this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu4S-KYjB4E
If you made it all the way through that video, let me just say, that has very little to do with the Hare Krishna movement, and I can see why the writers of the original musical (James Rado and Gerome Ragni) thought that the film was terrible. The University of Winnipeg theatre students did Hair a few years ago. I went to that; it was good. I love the music. My parents also saw a live performance of Hair in the '70s. Ultimately though, my parents turned out to be squares.


I did a ''Strong Interest Inventory'' last winter, which is a psychological test that tells a person what they are interested in and which career they should pursue. My number one interest area was ''Religion and Spirituality''. My number one career recommendation was ''Food Service Supervisor''. I've decided not to pursue a career in Food Service for the moment (I'm becoming a science teacher instead). I am, however, remaining active in the exploration of religion and spirituality. I read the Bible every day and I like to listen to podcasts of the CBC radio show ''Tapestry'' while I do my ironing. I own a copy of the Qur'an which I intend to read some day. I now own a copy of the Bhagavad Gita (that's the one the Hare Krishnas like).


I went to this Hare Krishna spiritual meditation event hoping to meet some other people who were interested in spirituality (and I did!). The service started with the singing/chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra (see the title of this post). This lasted a while -- maybe 20 minutes. I wasn't keeping track because it is a meditative sort of thing. When it started off I was pretty skeptical. It took me some time to get into it, but once I did, it felt really good, and I enjoyed it. The meaning of the words are as follows:
Hare: He who removes illusion
Krishna: He who is all attractive
Rama: The source of all pleasure


I took these definitions from Wikipedia, but it sounds similar to what the monks told us. I honestly couldn't keep the definitions strictly in mind while I was chanting, and I started to think about weighing the pros and cons of chanting in a language that one doesn't understand.


I do find that certain sounds produce good vibrations in the human body because of the way that they must be produced physiologically. I would like to look for English words that might have this effect (since English is my mother tongue). I also thought it would be interesting to find some short words or phrases in Hebrew or Greek from either the old or new testament.


This brings me to my next point: Hare Krishna chanting reminded me a lot of Taizé prayer. The Taizé community is a group of Christians in France who practice meditative singing:
http://www.taize.fr/en_article338.html
I have actually experienced Taizé prayer a couple of times through the United Church, and I would like to try it again. The Hare Krishna mantra singing was done with a lot more spirit and wild abandon than what I experienced with Taizé prayer in my church. Perhaps this is because the UCC (United Church of Canada) originated partially from Presbyterians, therefore we are, by definition, pretty straitlaced (interestingly, the word ''presbyterian'' is derived from a Greek word for ''elder'').


After the mantra singing, the monks read us a passage from the Bhagavad Gita and then discussed it with us. We did some chanting and dancing, then they fed us some traditional Indian cuisine. All Hare Krishna adherents are vegetarian, and do not consume any drugs. 


While we ate, I spoke to one of the monks, telling him that I am a Christian and asking if he knew of any incompatibility issues between Krishna Consciousness and Christianity (try saying that three times quickly). He said that from his end, there was no problem. I agreed that from my end I had no issues either. I agreed with the points that the monks had discussed with us from the Bhagavad Gita. The overall message made a lot of sense to me: finding peace in spiritual life as opposed to in a materialistic society that profits from dissatisfaction. I don't agree with some of the details of the Hare Krishna beliefs, but ultimately I find that there is a certain arbitrariness to classification through language. I find that this is true for both the material world (think biological taxonomy of species) and spiritual life (what I call God, someone calls Gichi-manidoo, Allah, Brahman...). 


Another thing that one of the monks said to me was that when they meet Christians, Muslims or whatever, they usually encourage them just to become better Christians (or Muslims, or whatever). If I get another opportunity to worship with Hare Krishnas in the future, I will definitely take it. There was a beautiful spiritual and physical energy in the room while I worshiped with this group of strangers. I want to power up with that kind of energy any chance I get so I can live Christianity more fully.