Krishna on the Street

I was walking to the bus stop this afternoon and found a friend talking with a middle-aged man in a ball and bedecked with sling bags and backpacks. As I stopped to await my ride, the man turned from my friend and asked, "Are you a student here?"

When I replied to the affirmative he continued, "Are you interested in knowledge?" and pressed into my hands a medium-sized hardback with a glossy cover that read The Bhagavad Gita As It Is. Though curious, I handed it back, replying, "Can't say I'm interested in Hindu knowledge."

"But this is Ultimate Knowledge."

So began our discourse. Judging from a later wikipedia search, I'd hazard that the man was a Hare Krishna, because he identified himself as a monk who had taken vows of poverty and was a disciple of a disciple of the crouching Hindu priest pictured on the back cover. "He is a Realized Soul," the man claimed, "and this is ultimate knowledge." My friend and I exchanged looks and prepared for the debate.

It seems that academia has lied to us, though in what way the disciple did not specify. The book in his hand was one of two books written by the hand of God, not through a man, so it is perfect, and has been perfectly transcribed and translated throughout time. How do we know that it is legit? Because we are told so by the Realized Souls, which are some kind of holy men that are recognized by the "symptoms" of their enlightened state of being. The disciple claimed to take his belief in a scientific sense, and that the particular author of his offered book had all the signs of being such a man.

One thing the disciple wanted to stress is that this was not about changing our faiths, but about gaining the truth, pointing out the Gita's means of breaking the chain of life-to-death. By now I was very interested, not by the antiseptic sting of knowledge within reach, but by the inconsistencies of his claims. We pointed out to him that to accept such a "truth" would indeed clash with the doctrines of the Christian faith.

No, he assured us that the Bible addressed reincarnation as seen in one of the disciple's questions regarding the blind man, "who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" I found this to be a bit of a stretch to claim that the Bible supports reincarnation, to say nothing of Jesus' reply, "Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9).

But of more concern was the man's reassurance that we were not going to change our beliefs because Jesus was recognized by the Hindu religion since he studied in India while a young man (though this is hardly possible) and that his name was in the "guest book." I found this problematic, since having his name in the guest book implies that Jesus is a guest at the heavenly party, whereas I believe that He is the party. I tried to make this clear, but the disciple suddenly got defensive and said that it was clear we were not interested and that he'd try his luck elsewhere, then he left after wishing us well.

I went home to look up this book he offered us. It is a translation of the original Bhagavad Gita, with extensive commentary and other notes. Curiously, it seems to be a somewhat radical book, arguing for a caste system under "perfect" rulers. I don't know. Perhaps I'll do a proper book report one day.