Back in 1978 I was in the equivalent of high school in Olanchito, a small town in Honduras, in those days only reachable by train or by a very dangerous road which was called “La Culebra” (the snake, because of the curves) this road winded up mountainous territory, was very narrow and very slippery, especially when it rained.
So we were having an ordinary day at school when all of a sudden and I don’t know how they got there, probably by train because it was cheaper, about 7 or 8 Hare Krishna devotees showed up, you know with shaved heads and robes. This was really a great event, nobody had seen anything like that before, I had read about them because my father and then my brother used to buy Newsweek or Time magazine so at least I knew who they were.
They were all LatinAmericans, I remember one was from Guatemala and another one was from Peru, well they gave a talk in the school’s auditorium which mostly caused laughter, nobody there was into transcendental meditation or any of those things.
After the talk they asked for donations and yes, some guys did give them a little money, not much as money was not so abundant, and then they brought out some books they were selling. These were quite small paperbacks but nobody was buying anything.I don’t know why but I became interested in one that was called -Viaje facil a otros planetas- ”Easy journey to other planets”, but I was kind of laying low because I knew if anybody saw me buying it I’d be the laughing stock of the school for at least a week.
There came a moment when at last I thought I was alone with these guys and I bought it, and because I was the only one who bought a book they also gave me a copy of the Bhagavad Gita.Unfortunately, of course someone saw me, and as I thought I became the laughing stock I feared becoming.The worst thing is I never even read the book completely, I never understood what it was about. The other book, the Bhagavad I did read, and it was very interesting.
That was the only time I ever interacted with Hare Krishnas, I don’t know if they are still around, I haven’t seen one in a long time.