Visit to Hare Krishna Temple

Our visit to the Hare Krishna Temple.

The main hall's elaborately beautiful display.

We went to Hare Krishna Temple at 243 Avenue Rd on April 15. Our goal is to learn about Hare Krishna, respect for pluralism and the importance of building a multi-faith society in multicultural Toronto. Before we went into the temple, taking off our shoes was necessary. The main hall was full of the special smell from special incense. There was a couple of sofas right in a corner. After we left our bags on the sofa, we looked around in temple.

Every picture tells a different story.

The temple separates into two floors. There are pictures hung on the wall all over around the first floor. Different pictures include different single stories and different meanings. And there are several holy displays in the middle of main hall. People kneel in front of them to pray for something.

We sat around Kamalini as she introduced us to the temple.

The second floor looked just like an auditorium with multiple stairs. After we took some photos, we went back to the first floor. Kamalini Devi Dasi came to introduce us to the temple and she explained the descriptions of the drawings hung up on the walls. We all sat surrounding her on the floor. She also taught us a song, which is about Hare Krishna. Here is the lyrics:
“Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare; Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”.

Kamalini showed up how to sing the Hare Krishna song.

Kamalini told us that Hare Krishna believers assemble every Sunday at 6 pm to chant this song in this temple. She also invited us to join them for the assembly. Then, she held a small cymbal and sounded it rhythmically as she led us in the chant. We were also supposed to let our right feet cross over our left feet and touch the floor lightly. And left feet cross right feet to opposite side as well.

We stopped singing after repeating the chant several times. We also learned that believers believe that Mahatma is a great soul. Followers believe that people should focus for Global Unity and that Krishna, which encompasses all attractive supreme personalities, is the central point of all loving feelings!

We had a little snack.

The visit to the Hare Krishna temple taught me lots of cultures and histories of India which are very different from any other countries. We experienced the dancing, the song, and a little snack from India. It was a very good opportunity for learning about pluralism. And we enjoyed ourselves!

""It is important for us to learn about respect for other religions, because everyone is equal. You may don't believe what they believe, but you should respect it. If you have a religion that you believe in, you will definitely want others to respect your religion. "

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On a side note, I would also like this program to add some activities which are kind of like contacting with animals or watching performance of ballet. Hope we can get to do that soon!

Written by: Jessica Wang
Edited by: Lynda Young