What compels people to shave their heads, don robes, and spend their lives chanting the names of God?
Ever wonder why people become Hare Krishnas? Why do they give up all that they know and love and engage in a complete about-face? And it’s not just the Hare Krishna tradition, more technically known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism – why do people become monks, or nuns, or cloistered ascetics of any stripe? What is it that seems to take people over, to make them change, or transform – to search after God as if nothing else matters? The ancient Greeks called it metanoia, which literally means “beyond thought.” It refers to that “turning around” in one’s consciousness, that “inner turnabout” that is required if one is to embrace the spiritual quest with any seriousness. In Sanskrit, too, we have a word: paravritti, which means “reversal.” Or janatagha-viplavah – “a revolution in consciousness.” Again, it refers to that upheaval in thinking that enables us to give up conventional life and to go for it – I mean, really go for it – where we set aside everything we once knew in favor of the Absolute T
