Vaishnava's appearances in the West.....

[Erik 0]

Hey guys haribol.....

 

what did Prabhupada say about the appearances of us, Vaishnava's, in the West.....I know we shouldn't look like hippies, i guess, but are there restrictions to clothing ourselves and then I mean in the Temple or on book distribution or on Harinam or whatever......

 

Thankx....

[theist 1]

Clean cut, conservative and simple in dress works. He wanted temple devotees to dress in traditional vaisnava garb but that is not a hard and fast rule.

 

Remember when temple book distributers were wearing wigs to sell books? I see no need for such silliness. If you live as a traditional monk then look like that, if you live in the greater society then look like that only clean well kept versions of both.

 

But no matter what the dress style is it is vitally important to treat people you meet and approach with the utmost courtesy and respect.

[HerServant 0]

 

Clean cut, conservative and simple in dress works. He wanted temple devotees to dress in traditional vaisnava garb but that is not a hard and fast rule.

 

Remember when temple book distributers were wearing wigs to sell books? I see no need for such silliness. If you live as a traditional monk then look like that, if you live in the greater society then look like that only clean well kept versions of both.

 

But no matter what the dress style is it is vitally important to treat people you meet and approach with the utmost courtesy and respect.

 

<<----- (see theist) But I prefer the "theist look"

[theist 1]

 

<<----- (see theist) But I prefer the "theist look"

 

Yeah I'm stuck in a time warp somewhere between '67 and '69.

 

 

I just noticed a blooper in my post above.

I said: Clean cut, conservative and simple in dress works. He wanted temple devotees to dress in traditional vaisnava garb but that is not a hard and fast rule.

 

I meant to say: Clean cut, conservative and simple in dress works. He wanted temple devotees to dress in traditional vaisnava garb but that is not a hard and fast rule for those that lived outside the temple.

[stonehearted 0]

He seemed to push for shaven heads and tilak. However, when I got diksa, my hair had grown out some. He didn't ask me why my head wasn't shaved; he asked me if I was chanting 16 rounds daily and following the regulative principles. And when I answered in the affirmative, he asked if I was happy. It was the same later, when things fell apart in Hawaii. He never asked me about my hair, but about my association and my practice.

[Erik 0]

Yeah, in the beginning I didn't like the tilak, I hated this sika and dhoti......

 

But since a month ago I went to the morning program in a dhoti for the first time, wasn't ashamed anymore and since two days ago I have a little sika on the back of my head ( this picture was taken from me before Prabhupada a week ago, so there is no sika there).

 

So I guess the conscioussnes changes one way or another in due time.....and hey.......after all, we're not the body, right ?

 

[theist 1]

Brings back memories of when I shaved up and moved into the temple. What a culture shock. I even remember the first day I woke up for mangala arotik in a shaved head .

Just the day before I had hair that went down my back and now all I was left with was arguably the longest sika in the movement. Alfred really looks weird with a shaved head. On top of that I was still attending high school 3 days a week as a compromise I made with my parents for moving into the temple. Nobody recognized me at school and I had to reintroduce myself. The general feeling was I had finally taken one too many acid trips.

 

I did leave the dhoti back at the temple when I went to school. No tilak either. That would have really freaked them out. This was 1971 and things were not quite as liberal as now.

[Erik 0]

Hey,

 

compared with you I really feel like a rookie, I just joined ISKCON July 10th last year and it took me a while to get adjusted here, but my heart cried for it, one way or another......

 

Haha, you got a funny way of telling things, Theist, I can see the faces of the students of your school before me....

 

I remember the suspicious looks of some devotees here thrown into my direction when I was just here, wearing my, made in Rotterdam, Swami Sivananda T-shirt proudly, heck, did I know he was a Mayavadi...........anyway, he admits himself you can fall down from Brahman in his book conquest of fear.....so what better advertisement do you need for Krishna Consciousness.........

 

Haribol....

[theist 1]

LOL Sivananda T-shirt. That must have freaked 'em out a bit. And if your sika hadn't started growing out yet they might have thought you were a infiltrator.

 

I wonder why Sivananda never asked himself just exactly who it was that fell out of Brahman. Go in as an individual and come out as the same individual, you would think that was clue enough to the fact that maybe he was an individual afterall.

[Erik 0]

hey, BIG LoL........but I stopped wearing that T-shirt a loooooooooong time ago, yeah, my rebelious times here in the beginning, did I know....!!!

 

Anyway, listen to some nice Krishna Consious Funky House Beats.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSqAt5cmNfA

 

Enjoy.....

 

ps... I have the greatest time of my life here.....and I have the blessings to be accepted by the devotees here even when I rebelled sometimes much in the first months, they have a great heart and much love, it's a loving and caring place here and I feel I belong here......check it out for yourself....

 

www.radhadesh.com

 

Haribol,

 

with warm regards,

 

Bhakta Erik.

[Vigraha 0]

 

 

All Vaishava's internal and external appearances represent the Supreme Lord and his dear pure devotees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vigraha 0]

 

 

 

How Vaishnavas should appear all over the world

 

[Erik 0]

Hey,

 

thank you for your wonderful pictures and the fact that this thread is a bit........screwed up a bit, i mean, who wants to read it anyway anymore.....

 

But I understand your point, your enthiousiasm and your way of expressing yourself.....

 

Haribol...!!!