{"id":21477,"date":"2015-11-14T05:53:19","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T04:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=21477"},"modified":"2015-11-14T05:56:58","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T04:56:58","slug":"krishnas-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=21477","title":{"rendered":"Krishnas on Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0iIpymZWOUE?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"390\" width=\"640\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Krishnas on Campus<\/p>\n<p>Its a Friday night on campus as Laura Sura leads a small prayer circle in song, \u201chare k\u1e5bi\u1e63h\u1e47a hare k\u1e5bi\u1e63h\u1e47a\u2026k\u1e5bi\u1e63h\u1e47a k\u1e5bi\u1e63h\u1e47a hare hare\u2026hare r\u0101ma hare r\u0101ma\u2026r\u0101ma r\u0101ma hare hare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is the scene at the weekly meeting of the UNF Hare Krishnas, a club devoted to&nbsp;offering an alternative way of seeking spirituality to students.<\/p>\n<p>Many students search for ways to connect with God on campus and the UNF Hare Krishnas do it through sung prayer and meditation. Sura, a club member was singing the Hare Krishna mantra, a 16 word mantra composed of three Sanskrit names of the Supreme Being; \u201cHare,\u201d \u201cKrishna,\u201d and \u201cRama.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height:28.9px;\">The mantra is chanted in order to create vibrations which connect the consciousness with God. There are several things about the religion that attracted the members who met on Friday night.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201dThe food, the love and the energy\u2026It\u2019s just something that felt right and I made a personal connection with,\u201d said club member Alex Coronado.<\/p>\n<figure data-shortcode=\"caption\" id=\"attachment_162\" style=\"width: 300px;\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ashtonelder.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/img_0696.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"\" ilo-full-src=\"https:\/\/ashtonelder.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/img_0696.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-162\" src=\"https:\/\/ashtonelder.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/img_0696.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225\" alt=\"A prayer circle \" height=\"225\" width=\"300\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A prayer circle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Coronado explains, \u201cWe hold meetings every week. We start out with yoga then move on to Japa meditation which is a form of personal meditation but in this club we like to do this as a group. Then we do Kirtan which is the sung prayer, our &nbsp;musical worship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hare Krishna is the popular name for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (or ISKCON), a new religious movement based in Hinduism. Established in America in 1965, the Hare Krishna worship Lord Krishna as the one Supreme God.<\/p>\n<p>Member Laura Sura is refining her concept of God through Hare Krishna. \u201cGod is a loaded question but he\u2019s also an answer and he can be found in many forms. Through the Hare Krishna movement I found answers in the Bhagavad Ghita.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height:28.9px;\">The Bhagavad Ghita is an ancient 700-verse scripture in Sanskrit that is part of the Hindu faith and contemplates the concept of Dharma, a complex spiritual philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height:28.9px;\">\u201cWhat really attracted me is that it is not really strict or restricting or anything like that. I actually grew up Jewish and my Dad is a Buddhist. I would actually do Kirtan with him when I was young which is when we gather and sing and do call and answer,\u201d Sura said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a newcomer. I decided to come because I practice a different form of spirituality actually, not Hare Krishna but I practice Buddhism which is very close to Hinduism\u2026it\u2019s basically one in the same. It\u2019s very vague,\u201d said Corrine Schmaltz, who was attending for her first time Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe get newcomers a lot because you can see us doing Kirtan&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" ilo-full-src=\"https:\/\/ashtonelder.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/img_0695.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-164 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/ashtonelder.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/img_0695.jpg?w=300&amp;h=225\" alt=\"IMG_0695\" height=\"225\" width=\"300\">&nbsp;on the green often. We also hold a lot of events here on campus such as Sacred Sounds, which was a Kirtan concert,\u201d said Coronado.<\/p>\n<p>RaeJeana Brooks&nbsp;closes the meeting by dimming the lights and leading the group in a Kirtan.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks is the club President. \u201cKrishna Club is a very new organization but we have already gone through a lot of phases. All of the members are just consistently beautiful and open. It is an absolute joy to keep spirituality open to those students who are interested in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-qo3YH7ceRzc\/Vka-PTgt9lI\/AAAAAAAAWXo\/cSOAVbFlNuk\/s0\/2015-11-14_05-53-11.jpg\" alt=\"Hare Krishna\"\/><strong>By Ash Elder<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many students search for ways to connect with God on campus and the UNF Hare Krishnas do it through sung prayer and meditation. Sura, a club member was singing the Hare Krishna mantra, a 16 word  mantra composed of three Sanskrit names of the Supreme Being; \u201cHare,\u201d \u201cKrishna,\u201d and \u201cRama.\u201d The mantra is chanted in order to create vibrations which connect the consciousness with God. <!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21477"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21481,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21477\/revisions\/21481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}