The first way is by searching for something that makes sense, or reading about it, and having it kick in intellectually as something that resonates with your logic. I would call this the intellectual approach.
The other way is substantially different. I've heard many stories of someone having a dream, a vision in deep meditation, driving by a Hindu temple and wondering, seeing a picture or a statue, or observing another devotee who seems to be in bliss. I would call call this the intuitive approach. These things come UNBIDDEN. The person isn't looking for it at all. Is this God as proselytizer, sort of? In the other approach, you're looking, and it's your selection, your doing.
I replied to a similar question not so long ago:
For converts, when did it "click" for you that this was the path for you?
I went a long, gradual way, from Catholicism to theosophy to Advaita to Buddhism and I ended up with Hare Krishna because it seemed like the best synthesis of it all. The Hare Krishnas use scripture in a similar way like Christians do (at Bible class they told us Hindus had no scripture) so when I found a nice picture of Krishna with a quote from the Bhagavad Gita (Bg. 9.29: I envy no one, nor am I partial to anyone. I am equal to all. But whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend, is in Me, and I am also a friend to him.), I decided that I wanted to be friends with that "foreign" god who seemed so self-confident and serene, so much unlike the Christian god. I do admit the translation is not 100% accurate but it was that quote which struck me and as it was taken from a "scripture" it seemed alright.
In my case, I guess I have to admit that proselytizing does work, because I first became interested in Krishna when I saw the pictures of him in a "Krsna Book" forced upon my uncle by a Hare Krishna missionary.
The first way is by searching for something that makes sense, or reading about it, and having it kick in intellectually as something that resonates with your logic. I would call this the intellectual approach.
The other way is substantially different. I've heard many stories of someone having a dream, a vision in deep meditation, driving by a Hindu temple and wondering, seeing a picture or a statue, or observing another devotee who seems to be in bliss. I would call call this the intuitive approach. These things come UNBIDDEN. The person isn't looking for it at all. Is this God as proselytizer, sort of? In the other approach, you're looking, and it's your selection, your doing.
I wouldn’t take these two approaches so far apart as I see my faith as a synthesis of cold, rational considerations (had been a Buddhist) and the devotional aspect (Christianity). However, I never felt truly “at home” in Christianity, because of the guilt trip, emotional blackmail, “duty to believe” etc. One day, I sat in Mass, listening to those “Lord have mercy” prayers and a little voice inside me said “What if God actually responded to you and you can’t ‘hear’ it because you’ve busy endlessly moaning at him with all those “Lord have mercys”. This was the starting point for my quest.
The first way is by searching for something that makes sense, or reading about it, and having it kick in intellectually as something that resonates with your logic. I would call this the intellectual approach.
I’d say this approach can be more than merely intellectual, it can be need-fulfilling and thus, emotional. If you study Prabhupada’s life, he came from a well-off middle class family but – justified or not – he felt stuck in an unhappy marriage and left behind by the members of his family. So, he was critical of family life as a fake source of happiness and he was against consumerism because he had failed in business. Thus, he was able to appeal to middle class kids who “had everything but love” (I know this may sound incredibly cheesy but it sometimes sticks). And contrary to many Christians, he appeals to “common sense” and is able to “substantiate” his arguments rather than merely threatening or emotionally blackmailing the reader. And yes, he is polemical, but he sounded “radical” and I liked it.
I had been critical of society in general as I have a visual impairment and a certain type of “successful” people enjoy themselves making fun of me, slapping each other on the shoulder showing how “cool” they are while mocking me. I know that in society, there are many decent people, too, but during puberty, when most people gather in their peer group, I was left outside. So, you probably can imagine how much “society” disgusted me. I wanted to be with people who were “better”, more “sensitive”, who saw me as a “soul” rather than reducing me to my body. Of course, there are also fundamentalists and loons in Hare Krishna, but many of them indeed had a special “quality” in them, a kind of sincere intellectual quest, a kind of sensitivity I admire. I felt they were “trying to be different”. Moreover, I was impressed by the sincerely humble way they served prasadam. Yes, there is communion in church, but its not really comparable to prasadam. The Bible says that Christians should serve each other and “wash each other’s feet” but where I live, the regular clientele in church is rather about middle class people displaying how much they are “the pillars of society”. I couldn’t really imagine anyone of them “washing each other’s feet”. In contrast, I was impressed by the amount of work Hare Krishnas put into preparing prasadam, about their “generosity” in serving it, in their way of walking barefoot while serving and only eating after everybody else had eaten. I liked listening to the spiritual conversations they had while they were eating. They weren’t gossiping or running down other people. So, I felt that these were the “true Christians”, acting in an authentic manner which could be considered somewhat similar to “washing everybody’s feet”.
So, that’s my story. I hope you like it and you can draw some sense from it.
) asking what the symbol was I wrote at the top of all my assignments. It was the pranava. I also decided that when I could I was going to get it tattooed on my right delt, and I did years later.
