Religious community offers unique weekend getaway
By Cydney Cappello, BTS Editor
February 14, 2007 | 3:51 p.m.
Nestled in the hills of West Virginia lays a piece of India, which goes unnoticed by most residents, yet it has been around for nearly 40 years.
The only reason why I felt obliged to endure the three to four hour drive through the winding hills of West Virginia to visit the Hare Krishna community, a Hinduism sect that lives in New Vrindaban, near Moundsville, West Va., was for a Global Leadership project.
A Brief History of New Vrindaban
According to New Vrindaban's Web site, the community was founded in 1968 by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and if you visit the community, you will see his likeness throughout.
The story says that Prabhupada was asked by his spiritual leader, Srila Bhakitisiddhanta Saraswati, to "go to the west and spread Krishna consciousness."
Prabhupada was almost 70-years-old by the time he finally reached American soil and it was not an easy journey. Although he suffered from seasickness and heart attacks, Prabhupada finally made it to New York City after 40 days aboard a freighter with only seven dollars in his pocket.
Embraced by the "Hippie Revolution," many members were interested in his "far-out yoga method," Prabhupada quickly formed the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in July of 1966.
According to a member of the Hare Krishna community, Terry Sheldon (Tapahpunja das), said that the New Vrindaban community was started with the response to an ad in the newspaper for cheap land in West Virginia and all other plans soon followed.
The Palace of Gold
One of the very first features of New Vrindaban and a popular tourism pull, is the Palace of Gold located near the entrance of the community. The palace began construction in 1973 and meant to be a home for Prabhupada, but he died before it was finished. Amazingly, the intricate gold-leaf detail and precise stained-glass windows were designed and built, not by contractors and architects studied in Indian architecture, but by Hare Krishna devotees with a vision and a lot of faith.
The inside of the palace is even more breathtaking than the view outside with its 250 tons (and 50 varieties) of marbles from across the world. Prabhupada's bedroom is one of the most detail-oriented rooms in the palace with its hand-painted ceiling adorned with a crystal chandelier.
The Overnight Experience
Staying overnight with the Hare Krishnas was an experience completely separate from the tour of the Palace of Gold. As soon as we arrived, a group of about 30 students, we were given three keys to rooms with six bunk beds in them. The bunk beds were obviously hand-crafted and the room was not heated, which was undesirable as it was cold and rainy over the weekend. The rooms were cozy and after the tiring evening, everyone slept without complaint.
We were soon rushed to the temple at New Vrindaban after unpacking. At the temple, we had to remove our shoes before we stepped out onto the hardwood floor. We all cautiously walked into the cavernous room and sat down to take in our surroundings.
All around us were scattered devotees chanting "Hare Krishna" as they counted their prayer beads. Above us we saw several murals depicting scenes from the Bhagavad-gita. As our eyes glanced around the room once more, we noticed all of the different alters displaying different deities. The deities would soon become an important part of our trip, but not after dinner.
Dinner was served "buffet style" by the monks at New Vrindaban, who could be easily spotted by their white or saffron-colored robes and baldheads with a tiny ponytail in the back. All of the meals were organic vegetarian and surprisingly tasty. Each meal we ate there; breakfast, lunch and dinner, contained rice and some form of vegetable "slop" for toppings as well as bread and salad. I thought that the food would be more like Indian cuisine, but it was much blander than I expected. The homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Sunday morning were fantastic.
After dinner, the real fun began as everyone gathered back in the temple. With the sounds of drums and cymbals guiding us, we attempted to chant along with the Krishna devotees in order to help put the deities to sleep (for more information about iconography and the deities, refer to the slideshow). The chanting and drumming got progressively faster and the Krishnas began to dance, at first by themselves, then they became quite wild and wanted us to join. What began with holding hands and skipping turned into huge inter-twining circles of chanting devotees and very confused students, but it was a lot of fun. The chanting eventually slowed to a stop and all of the gates closed around the deities, as a sign that it was time to rest.
Good Morning, New Vrindaban
Getting to sleep was not difficult after our Krishna dance party, but waking up at 4 a.m. was. We were encouraged by our instructor, Dr. Greg Emery, to be at the temple not a minute past five to experience the ritual for the goddess Tulsy. Of course, only about five of us actually got up and trudged over to the temple in the early morning drizzle.
The ceremony began with the blowing of conch shells to wake up the deities, then while the other devotees chanted, and we watched, someone would "clean" the alters of the deities. They offered the deities incense (or Prasad, a gift offered to the deities), flowers and perfume. When they offered the Prasad to us, we had to wave our hands over the incense then sweep our hands over our heads. This all lasted a couple of minutes and then they brought out Tulsy, whose form in our world is a basil plant. In circles around Tulsy (men first, women next) we all took our turns to water the basil plant as one devotee chanted the entire time. Around 5:30 a.m., we finished the Tulsy and decided to nap before getting up again for the 7 a.m. deity wake-up call.
The wake up call was very similar to the "goodnight" ceremony except there was less dancing, but a lot of loud music and chanting. We were once again offered incense and flowers. After the song and dance, the gates of the deities reopened to reveal new outfits for the day (they have enough for about two weeks).
After the ceremony, it was time for our final meal at New Vrindaban. We chatted with community members about their reasons for coming to the village (most for a deeper spiritual life) over the aforementioned scrumptious cinnamon rolls.
Breakfast was a bittersweet end to a weekend full of new experiences and as we drove away from the community and I glanced over at the lake to see two giant dancing icons, I thought, "Nothing will ever compare to this, unless of course, I travel to India.
--
For more information on New Vrindaban, check out http://www.newvrindaban.com.