I remember back in my younger years, before I became a devotee, I decided to spend my summer off from college, hiking the Appalachian trail. I took with me some small books with me to read along the way. I was becoming interested in Eastern philosophy, and was asking myself questions like who is God, who am I, and what is my relationship with Him. I carried with me a small paperback book by Hermann Hesse entitled Siddhartha, a book by Henry David Thoreau; “Walden”, and the Penguin Classic; “The Bhagavad-gita.
From the book “Siddhartha” I became interested in meditation and the journey to self discovery. From “Walden”, I became interested is self- sufficiency, or as I later describe it as simple living and high thinking, and from the Bhagavad-gita, I discovered who God is. Really. For some reason, as soon as I began reading, I immediately accepted that Krishna was God. This book was the song of God. This was God speaking to His friend Arjuna, instructing him. And I thought how wonderful to be a friend of God, to become Gods friend.
Even though I was raised as a Christian, went to church on Sunday, was taught by nuns and priests, I never got satisfactory answers to my question, Who is God? But this book the Bhagavad-gita, This was God Himself speaking to his friend. Now I knew, there is a God, and His name was Krishna.
About a year later I meet a Hare Krishna devotee at the Chicago O’Hare airport, and I got from him the Krsna Book, then later I went back there and found a deserted copy of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, on a neglected bench seat, by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. It wasn’t just the translations that the penguin classic offered, but it was the complete edition, with original Sanskrit text, Roman transliterations, English equivalents, translation and elaborate purports.
On my next journey, I traveled into the Canadian Rockies, and again I brought a few small books to read. I didn’t want to carry the large and rather heavy Bhagavad-gita, so I took a small book by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, entitled Raja-Vidya. And on the very first page It gave me a clear understanding of who God is.
“The opening words of the Ninth Chapter of Bhagavad-gītā indicate that the Supreme Godhead is speaking. Here Śrī Kṛṣṇa is referred to as Bhagavān. Bhaga means opulences, and vān means one who possesses. We have some conception of God, but in the Vedic literature there are definite descriptions and definitions of what is meant by God, and what is meant is described in one word—Bhagavān. Bhagavān possesses all opulences, the totality of knowledge, wealth, power, beauty, fame and renunciation. When we find someone who possesses these opulences in full, we are to know that he is God. There are many rich, wise, famous, beautiful and powerful men, but no one man can claim to possess all of these opulences. Only Kṛṣṇa claims to possess them in totality.”
It was then, I knew for sure who my spiritual master was, I decided it was time to meet him. So I left the mountains and traveled to the nearest Hare Krishna temple. It was there my real journey into self discovery, and quest to find my true realationship with Him began in earnest.
But I owe a lot to the Penguin Classic, as it began my journey into Krishna consciousness.
The Hare Krishna Movement 