Swiss TV Program on Zurich Temple 1991.m4v

I meet her by the lake, in her Indian clothes. Young men, young women. They sell books, they distribute sweets, they sing full regga. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.

They started to interest me. What kind of philosophy, what kind of religion is behind it? What do they want? How do they live?

What do they believe? Together with a camera team I spent a few days with them in the temple. Krishna, Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hope Hare Krishna... Krishna Kamakhata Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna A Krishna younger goes to bed early and gets up even earlier.

In the morning at 4 a.m., when the city is still asleep, the first ceremony takes place in the temple. The fire, which is reached from person to person, has a purifying effect and represents the presence of Krishna. Krishna, Hare Krishna. Krishna, Krishna, Hare Krishna.

Goran Lila is the first one I've learned to know. His original name is Guido von Arx and he comes from Solothurn. He has been living as a monk of Krishna for more than 10 years. Are they sects?

The meaning of the word sect is that someone from a main religion splits up, sets their own values, which are different from those of the main religion, and a self-sacrificing claim. A so-called sectary cliché was made. The original word of the Latin word secta is simply a religious community. There are so many of them within Christianity, not necessarily sects in the negative sense, as it has been understood.

This is Srila Prabhupada, an Indian guru. Here in the temple, his presence is still noticeable everywhere. For a lifetime, he studied the holy scriptures and translated them into English. He is his master.

He gave him the task to spread the teachings of Krishna in the West. In 1965, Prabhupada boarded a ship with a gift ticket from Bombay to Boston. He had a box of books with him and seven dollars in his pocket. A year later, we meet him in New York.

A 70-year-old man who gives lectures about a holy book, the Bhagavad Gita. His listeners became followers of Krishna Junger. He cooked for them and chanted with them. Chanting means singing, meditating, praising God.

Tipis became aware of him. George Harrison from the Beatles also had followers. Not last but not least, thanks to the music, he found a lot of young people who still take care of Krishna after his death today. The old Indian culture remains alive.

Hare Ramah, Hare Ramah, Ramah Hare, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna... Bernadette is the second one who has been brought up, together with her little daughter, who is living outside, but many are coming to her around. ... Hare Ramah, Hare Ramah, Ramah Hare, Hare Hare... If we have a full member, we do a chant of 16 rounds of our movement.

16 times 108 times the mantra in a day. Could you say the mantra again? Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare... Hare, Rama, Hare, Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare.

It's very simple. What does that mean? These are actually the names of God. So, Hare is actually the inner energy of God.

Krishna is a direct address to God. And that means that Krishna is one of the main names of God, isn't it? Because God himself is no longer a name. It's just a designation, a title.

That actually means good in ancient Germanic. And Krishna is actually the main name of God, he is called the All-Compassionate, that is, the being who is all-compassionate for all. Dehinasminyatadehe kaumaram yavanamjara tatadehantaraprabdhir dhirastatranamuyati Just as the embodied soul in this body, continued from childhood to youth and to old age, the soul enters another body in a similar way during death. A special human being is not confused by such a change.

The Vedic literature describes the moment of death as nothing other than the moment when the soul, which penetrates this body during life and fills it with consciousness and with life force, leaves the body. And what remains, namely the material body, we then call death. An einfaches Beispiel kann das illustrieren. Angenommen, ich hätte jetzt hier einen Handschuh an und ich würde meine Hand bewegen, so es schiene von außen, als ob der Handschuh sich bewegen würde, als ob der Handschuh leben würde.

Aber jeder versteht, nein, es ist nicht der Handschuh, der lebt und sich bewegt, es ist die lebendige Hand dahinter, die sich bewegt. Und wenn wir den Handschuh ausziehen und ihn auf einen Tisch legen, dann lebt er nicht weiter, er bewegt sich nicht weiter. There is a term called karma. What does it mean?

In words, karma means action, something you do. But it also means the opposite, something that happens to you. And that is not a coincidence, but something that is a reaction to an action that you have done yourself. Accordingly, there is a natural law of karma, which is a law of action and reaction, reaction, as we know it in physics, in the fine-material.

So what I do to you, someone else will do to me in the future. Maybe it's you yourself, maybe it's someone else, but in any case, this reaction to my action comes back to me. Does it come back personally? It is personal, yes.

Either it's a good action, then there's a good reaction, then it's called having a good karma. That means that you become satisfied and happy, and a simple and pleasant life can lead. Or when one has performed bad deeds, with other people, who have done deeds which have harmed others in some form, then this harm comes back to oneself, and then the problems, difficulties and so on come out. Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare...

Through his study, he gained the consciousness of Krishna through the Indology. He mainly dealt with philosophy and wrote a book about rebirth. Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna. I came to the world at some point.

I don't know why. I don't know where. I will die at some point. I don't know when.

I don't know why. That's not bad at all. There's nothing bad about it, if you think about it that way. Problems can most likely arise when it comes to deciding how to shape one's life and then, in ignorance of these larger laws of karma and reincarnation, act in such a way that one will suffer in the future, and no one wants to suffer.

For example, we talked earlier about vegetarianism. When someone eats meat and just says, that's normal, everyone does that, I'll eat my meat now, and is not aware of the karmic consequences, The suffering that is added to the animal by the slaughter and the killing of the person who causes it, ultimately comes back to the consumer. After that, you can eat your meat and not have a bad conscience, but this will not keep us from the fact that the laws of nature allow suffering to come to us in some form and then suddenly we get sick in old age or maybe even earlier, or otherwise get some problems. This does not necessarily have to be a medical connection, but a karmic one, which is more subtle.

Is this suffering not just present in nature? Not to the extent to which it is experienced today. You can't expect to be completely immersed in this world, always fully immersed in blissfulness. Certainly not.

But the way humanity suffers today, the most difficult forms of suffering that we have to deal with, that's not normal. That's not what man is meant for. Man is meant to be happy and content his spiritual course. Where does he take his knowledge from?

The Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Indian text, comparable to our Bible. It describes how Krishna appears to the warrior Arjuna and teaches him about the cosmos, about the laws of life and death. In the temple live about 20 men and a good dozen women. They have dedicated their lives to Krishna and stick to a strict monastic discipline. .

Claudio hasn't been around that long. He started in his twenties and lived as a electrician. I wanted to know from him what it had in common to move into temples. I've read one or two books, and everything I've read has seemed logical to me.

I've always been able to accept it, I was able to accept it with my attitude and so on. And that was about one and a half years ago. I started to be seriously interested in it. And until I got the solution, it was a big step forward.

Just give your life completely to Krishna. Because I saw, yes, it's actually the only thing we can do. Because otherwise I was already critical of the whole society. Yes, and that's a radical change now.

Yes, in principle. Especially in terms of the external circumstances, of course. You're starting here now. Do you still serve?

No, I don't really need that, in principle. You have come and left in this temple, I assume, and still give a bit of a sack, right? Yes, you can get over it if you need something like that, right? It depends right away.

Of course, you can do bi activities for yourself, right? The goal is of course that you give your life completely to Christ, right? But of course, I mean, for example, I also have a bit of my own attachment and so on. Well, you're actually independent because everything is voluntary, isn't it?

Yes. The door is open to go in and out. That's why I've decided that now I'm completely dependent on Krishna. Why should we not take drugs?

I think it's clear now. It's absolutely not clear to me why I shouldn't drink coffee in the morning. You're welcome to do that. It's not that bad to drink coffee.

I mean, it's also just with the caffeine in it, or we just remove any drug and also coffee. And I can say from my personal experience that I used to drink a lot of black tea every day. And it's a kind of thirst. I really almost couldn't stop.

And black tea is even weaker than coffee, with the caffeine in it. At first, because I wanted to become a devotee, I stopped drinking black tea, and then I noticed it. Did it make your body more refined? Or did it have a positive effect?

Black tea makes you nervous. I was less nervous back then. No nicotine, no alcohol. That's clear, yes.

That destroys the body. No drugs that increase consciousness. Partly it's a conscious-advancing sign, isn't it? Now that's a conscious sign.

Yes, that's from my own experience, isn't it? I also used to drink a grass tea about it. I don't think it's conscious-advancing. What you experienced directly?

Yes, partly. I also had anxiety states and things like that. And also in my circle of friends, when I saw that, where some people did it. Even with hash, I mean, you don't have to talk about harder drugs now.

That's clear. What destroys that. And did you have a few things in mind? Yes, a few times.

And good as a devotee? Not at all. That was much earlier. I wouldn't say anything.

It's just what you support with. Is wine smoking a good thing? No. We sacrifice that.

It was in the picture. Wine smoking. Yes, it's unique. But you can't eat it with a gnocchi.

You have to eat it with a gnocchi. It's a collaboration with Krishna. It's kind of... Krishna people are strict vegetarians.

That means they don't eat meat, fish and eggs. But it didn't work out. The Indian kitchen is rich and full of variety. Krishna is also used as food.

It is a ritual and is called Prasadam. The Radha Priya was a child-lover. She lived in India and in a temple in Johannesburg. She will be visiting here for a few months.

Krishna Prashanthi Jai. When you are in a Krishna conscious situation, you want your husband to continue spiritually with him. And you want a child to give another soul the opportunity to realize yourself. Actually, you call out to a different soul when you are in a relationship between a man and a woman, in sexual intercourse.

You always call out to a different soul. But because we no longer have this consciousness, we just consume our bodies. In our time, pleasure is body consumption. I'm sorry to say that, but all these sedatives prevent the birth of a soul in a material body.

You simply forget the concept of what it actually means to be a man and a woman. Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama and Shyamananda. Both are music teachers. Here in the temple, they live like everyone else, eating and sleeping together.

Before they came here, Shyamananda was told that their relationship was in a crisis. We were on top of each other, I can tell you that, before we got married. And somewhere this relationship has already changed fundamentally. Because it's completely different depending on how you look at a person, right?

If you just always think, if he doesn't give me satisfaction, if he doesn't just do exactly what I want now, and that he already reads me off my shoulders, then he's not my friend and then I have nothing more to do with him. It's just a very business relationship. I would also like to say that you can ask yourself if a relationship that is mainly based on sexuality is a better relationship, especially if you look at the divorce rate or something like that, you can ask yourself. It's also a different angle of view.

So you look, that's something that always comes to mind, that in the past we might have looked at each other more directly. And now it's like a goal that we look up to together. We look at each other together and don't look at each other in the eye. Still passing each other.

Yes. We try to do something together. That's what holds us together. Every partnership, be it a business relationship, works like this when you have a common goal.

And if the goal is God, that's ideal, because the goal doesn't just go away. It's a goal that you can follow your whole life. Even if it's just a house or children or something, it all goes away. It just goes by.

And that's why it's really a relationship. If it's really a relationship that builds on religion, on religious life, then it's a very stable relationship, where you don't just get along a little bit, but where you try to do something together, to help each other more. and it's much more comfortable and you can learn to appreciate much more with the other. The physical attraction is also very flacky. Maybe one day you can say, yes, that's my ideal, and the next day, when you're in a different place, you'll see something completely different.

But if you get to know a person, or if you get to celebrate a good life with a person, To achieve a goal, to achieve a spiritual goal, then you can teach a person very well. When you realize that he is also working on himself, he tries to be with himself. On a Saturday afternoon we were allowed to film at a Tamil wedding. Tamils are the people you know from the train stations where they stand a little lost.

Or from the restaurants where they wash their clothes behind the counter. Here in the temple they are at home, committed to their own religion. Vishnu Yajna is a priest, he is accepted because he carries out the ceremony exactly the same way as it has been customary in India for generations. Two or three times a month there is an auction in the temple of a Taufe.

Together with the book sale and with private donations, these readings also belong to the source of income of the Krishna Jünger. svā prakāśā mahā te jā sarvatā sthima rāpaḥ savabhyāntara jyotir dīpayam vratigrihatam pralāpāṁ viṣjāṁ ghināṁ unmiṣyāṁ nimiṣyāṁ api indriyān indriyāṁ te śūvārthaṁ te iti dhārayān svā irāṁ kṛṣṇa irāṁ nāmavaḥ I see these people as spiritual souls, like everyone else, and the skin colour doesn't play such a big role. whether it's guests who come here to get married, or to perform the Taufe, or the Meile, or any other guest, for all the external things, like clothes or the body, that doesn't matter to me. I try to give everyone, according to their consciousness and their situation, the consciousness of God. Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Rāma Hare, Rāma Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Rāma Hare, Rāma Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Rāma Hare, Rāma Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Rāma Hare, Rāma Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Sri Krishna Hare Krishna ... One of these experiences, which shows us and the higher nature, that God must have the Spirit. In India, we lived at the sea, in South India, we built a hut at the sea, and there was the coast. Day and night, with great strength, the waves were breaking on the rocks.

And I was just stunned, I was stunned by the power that came. And I also asked a sadhu, one of the saints who lived there, where does the power come from? Because I know that it comes from the wind, it comes from the ears. And then he said, the question that every child can answer is very simple, the power comes from God, it comes from no one else.

And the simple answer convinced me in a way. We live in this Switzerland and it is not possible for us to live in a Vedic culture from one moment to the next. It is not possible. But is this the goal of your work?

To introduce the Vedic culture in Switzerland? I would love to live in that culture. It's a very beautiful culture. Whether in Switzerland or not.

I could go to India and live there for a while. And last year I saw it and I really liked it. I took a suitcase with me. And I couldn't use two thirds of it because life there is so easy.

I couldn't use it at all. And it made me totally satisfied. I would have preferred to stay there. And I just wanted to notice how it calms me down, how it makes me happy.

I have always been drawn to oriental religions and their culture. I am simply overwhelmed by that. As I said when I was a child, you can't live with that religion. It's such a contradiction.

It's sometimes beautiful what you sing in these church songs. The texts are very beautiful, especially the Latin songs about God. It impressed me, I always liked to sing along, but it is an incredibly blatant contrast to normal life. While being in the consciousness of Krishna, the longer the more I can integrate it into my life consciousness.

That is also the goal and the way of this philosophy, that you really live it. Not just theoretically in the back of your mind on a Sunday from 11 to 12 in the cell. Yes, I do believe that a good Christian would lead a life like we do. There are people who have nothing and are much more content.

They don't believe that material things make them happy for a long time. And you can see that you are simply more carefree. If you have so many things, you always have to think about so many things. And you have less time to think about your life, about the essential things.

And that's the whole principle of the Vedic culture. Just live so that you have time to think highly of yourself. I don't want to go through it again. I don't want to go through it again.

For example, that with the hard school. Maybe that point with... Maybe through discipline one hardens in the instrument, for example. One goes through a hard school and learns piano very disciplined.

Yes, six to eight hours a day. Six to eight hours a day, very strict. With time he becomes so free and so good, he becomes such a master in it, that he can only improvise and really experience that it is really a pleasure. Because he just went through this hard school first.

Finally it is the consciousness of Krishna. At the beginning it may seem very hard and disciplined and very impossible, But with time, our existence becomes so much looser, so much more natural, so much freer, so much more independent of all possible distinctions, that we really start to live as civilized people. So you see yourself as someone who practices and learns something? Yes.

I am still far away from being self-sufficient. I can only choose the path now. At the Krishna Festival, Esther and Keshava appear as guests. She is Swiss and he is Indian.

Their temple dance has a tradition that goes back thousands of years and is an important part of Hindu culture. This is how I got to know Krishna Leutkler. As a borderline between two cultures. As a person who believes in not only the Pope, but also in life.

In the service of God. In the service of Krishna.