Hare Krishna Anniversary Feast
May 5, 2007

Nitonondo, the guy that Natasha and I met on our visit to Old Dhaka, invited us to come back to his house on May 5th for an anniversary feast and we accepted. Everyone was very friendly and the food was AMAZING! Hare Krishna followers are vegetarians - they do not eat meat, fish, or eggs. Natasha (a Muslim) and I talked with some of the followers about their beliefs. Apparently there are four main rules that Hare Krishnas must follow: 1) they can not eat meat, 2) they can not take drugs or intoxicants (including caffeine), 3) they can not gamble, and 4) they must abstain from sex except within a marriage for the purpose of procreation. Hare Krishna followers also fast two days every month.

Nitonondo explained to me that Hare Krishna followers believe in all religions. He gave me the analogy of a house. There might be many doors (the different religions - Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.) , but the inside of the house (God) is still the same. He believes that the primary purpose of life is to achieve happiness. This is done by becoming a servant of Krisha (God). He also believes in reincarnation.

Feast
There were several dozen dishes. Nitonondo told me that last week there was a party where they prepared 86 different dishes! (All vegetarian) There was a celebration a couple of weeks ago where 1001 different dishes were prepared! Everybody eats a little bit of every dish. They kept bringing more and more food for Natasha and I and we got very full!

Natasha, Nitonondo, and I
This photo was taken on the roof of Nitonondo's house.

Eating
They set Natasha and I up in one of the rooms to eat so we didn't have to sit on the floor.

Eating
After the dancing and singing, everybody ate on the floor in the little courtyard to one side of the building. (For photos of the building, see my May 1 blog entry...)