Yo! since when Hare Krsna?

So for those of you who are wondering since when did i become Hindu, here's a quick update. After living in New Mexico for about a year, I decided to temporarily pack things up and take a quick visit back East. Some friends of mine told me about a women's retreat at an ashram in West Virginia. Feeling the need for some Jedi training and curious about the life of a Hare Krsna devotee, i decided to attend the retreat and arrive several weeks early in order to put in some volunteer time and possibly score a free retreat.

West Virginia, of all exotic, foreign lands and mystical places! After several days of enjoying the atmosphere and novelty of the Vedic rituals and Indian food, i started to feel like it might be a long month before the retreat. I began to cry a lot. I realized my spiritual life was lacking depth and discipline. Somehow i made it through that first, lonely month. The retreat came and went, and 5 months of service later, i am now a full-time resident.

Hare Krsna is used like a noun by laymen, but technically it is the practice of Varnashram or Vaisnavaism. I am being trained by the Gaudiya Matha Vaisnava disciplic succession and, more specifically, within ISKCON (International Society for Krsna Consciousness).

I can honestly say that i was crazy to move here, but now I would be even crazier to leave. Folks around here say that it is no wonder people leave, rather why anyone stays.

The Hare Krsna movement has slowed done quite a bit since its initial arrival to the Western Hemisphere along with the former "foremost leading exponent of the Vedas," A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada in 1965. More than four decades later, there are ISKCON temples around the world. However, enrollment of students within the temples appears to be low in North America at least.

It is stated in the Bhagavad Gita:
Out of many thousand among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth. (7.3)