Remembering Our Founder.
I’m a spiritual gent and increasingly that’s the level I want to vibrate on, were it not for my crazed lust for sex and glamour.’ "I'm a spiritual gent and increasingly that's the level I want to vibrate on, were it not for my crazed lust for sex and glamour," Brand intoned earlier this month.
Shortly afterwards, Kirtanananda Swami was convicted and sentenced to prison, and the New Vrindaban community was taken over by ISKCON. But if he does ever read the books of Srila Prabhupada and accepts them as the reference point or the standard by which everyone and everything else is measured, he will come to know for himself who is representing Krishna and who is only promoting himself.If anyone could do with a little spiritual guidance in the run-up to marriage, it’s Russell Brand.We were surprised, but at the time we put it down to his (then) affiliation with Kirtanananda Swami, who had been experimenting with various adaptations to the standard practices introduced by Srila Prabhupada. Russell Brand is said to have turned to chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra to overcome his drug addiction, and even now at the end of a show he says, “Hare Krishna”. "We're the eastern philosophical version of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," says Das. Like all of us, he is evolving the way that his spirituality and sensuality mix.
‘He has a very deep spiritual side and has read many Krishna texts and talks to us a lot.’ The relationship between the Hare Krishnas and the hedonist dates back to when he kicked his drug habit.
Faced by a snarling knot of journalists outside his front door this week, Russell Brand raised his palms, strode forward with a beatific smile and chanted "Hare Krishna" four times.
So it’s too bad that Russell Brand, who is highly intelligent and eager to do something spiritual with his life, has gotten mixed up with the likes of Radhanath Swami. If he is feeling apologetic it can be a vocalised apology," says Kripamoya Das, a priest at the Watford temple. Was Brand, who waffles about spirituality almost as much as his sexual conquests, mocking his moral guardians in the media or saying something more heartfelt?Can Brand's mantra - evoking God (Krishna and Rama) and the energy of God (Hare) - also mean "sorry"? "Faced by a snarling knot of journalists outside his front door this week, Russell Brand raised his palms, strode forward with a beatific smile and chanted "Hare Krishna" four times.Das believes Brand takes the religion seriously and was not using the chant frivolously. Radhanath Swami, who had in the meantime established his own camp (originally under the auspices of Kirtanananda Swami) and built up a contingent of well-to-do patrons, negotiated his return to the main fold of ISKCON, and thus became an ISKCON guru.And I’m sure that Radhanath Swami has all kinds of ideas how to put Russell Brand’s celebrity and money to his own use.‘Russell is not a strict practitioner, but he is a well-wisher,’ I’m told. "The mantra beloved of bald people swathed in orange is a strange form of "no comment" for a show-off comedian in trouble with a Fawlty Towers legend, the prime minister and - probably - his mum. "I say Hare Krishna as often as possible, sometimes even when I'm not being filmed," he wrote in his Guardian column 18 months ago, soon after the press discovered his sporadic visits to the Krishna temple in Watford (George Harrison's home until he handed his door keys to the Hindu movement in 1973).The extremely non-judgmental movement will not comment on Brand's behaviour, and devotees say he is welcome to continue his rather wayward spiritual journey.
... HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE, HARE RAMA HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA HARE HARE . He’s a regular visitor to Bhaktivedanta Manor, the Watsford estate given to Prabhupada in 1973 by George Harrison. "A person can call out to his God with any particular prevailing emotion. A match made in heaven, then?Just don't think too hard about karma, Russell.
Russell Brand’s special order.
Bhaktivedanta Manor is the largest UK centre of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He’s got the answer.
"He's a unique character.
‘He did it with the help and support of our devotees,’ explains another source.Brand, 35, has previously gushed about Radhanath Swami, 49, saying: ‘He’s a beautiful fellow.
"We feel that he was saying 'Hare Krishna' in good faith and that there are two sides to everyone - their external public life and their internal, spiritual life. He gives a certain amount of pleasure to a certain amount of people.
College of Vedic Studies. Monthly Retreats. He is known for his wild partying ways, but here loudmouth Russell Brand seems to be concentrating on his more spiritual side as he meditates at a Hare Krishna temple.