paper

Assignment 8

After conducting two of my four interviews with women as my focus, I have found some

interesting perceptions. In my interviews, I have asked about my interviewees day-to-day life

with respect to their timely aartis and how this impacts their lens on their own religion. I also

asked about their frequency in attending Sunday prayers and the effectiveness of the mind-soul

concept with respect to Hare Krishna consciousness. Moreover, I asked what effect does

chanting give to followers and devotees. Aside from interviewing, I have captured some

beautiful moments of devotees fully engaged in their Sunday religious practices at the temple.

Hare Krishna devotees have raised my awareness in the religion and have helped me in

understanding different perspectives between devotees.

Through my observations in the Hare Krishna Temple and my conducted interviews, I

have found central concepts studied in class to support my data. One of my interviewees, being

unmarried, a college student, a cisgender female and hailing from a big family stresses how her

life is best associated with our central concept of cocktail spirituality. Being of millennial age,

she says Hare Krishna faith is very intense and places much restriction on the individual. Her

school schedule conflicts with the timely aartis and pujas and although she feels a sense of

enchantment when chanting with her loved ones she is bored of the religion and would much

rather be with her boyfriend. Being in a romantic relationship for two years, she has confessed

that she practices in pre-marital sex happily and enjoys non-vegetarian food in public places.

However, with family, she adapts herself to the Hare Krishna regulations and would face

consequences otherwise. Although she is practicing collective effervescence when participating

and regulating the Hare Krishna rituals with family, she also is involved in cocktail spirituality. My

second interviewee, a stay-at-home married woman with two children and a cisgender male

spouse offered a different perspective as opposed to my millenial interviewee. In this interview,

my interviewee is one who spends day and night worshipping Hare Krishna, Prabhu and Radha.

She recited biblical chapters to her children and every Sunday, her children are required to

wake up as early as 5am to take part in the early morning rituals. Her and her husband reside in

authoritative parenting and are strict in following everyday practices which reinforce Hare

Krishna consciousness. My literature review from the Gupta-Vrindavan article supports my

findings through this article in the sense that the ISKCON structure is much like a commercial

office where different individuals have delegates tasks based on their position in the hierarchy

and seeking the spiritual self can be done through daily religious practices. On the other hand, I

believe this literature review is not supportive of my first interview. My journal article named

Family Structure, Commitment, and Involvement in the Hare Krishna movement focuses on how

family life may impact religious organization and individual commitment. This literature review

represents what my second interviewee and her family exercises and is in proper accordance

with the impact family has on religion holistically.

Rochford, E. Burke. “Family Structure, Commitment, and Involvement in the Hare Krishna

Movement.” ​Sociology of Religion​, vol. 56, no. 2, 1995, pp. 153–175. ​JSTOR​,

www.jstor.org/stable/3711761. Accessed 16 Mar. 2020.