Sit Properly

Once upon a time I was bored at work. And then this fellow came in, noticed the Krishna Art book on the coffee table and some of Prabhupada’s books on a shelf and told me that he used to go to Gita Nagari a lot. He also used to know a fellow named Steve.

Steve used to live at the State College temple. Now he’s a post master in some small town around State College. Anyway, Steve went to India and while he was there, he stayed with a large Indian family. The family was entertaining a large group of Americans (nondevotees). The family performed some traditional Indian dances and songs and then they asked the Americans sing or dance something from American culture. The Americans sang the national anthem and then couldn’t figure out what else to do.

So they did the hokey pokey.

Put your right foot in, take your right foot out, put your right foot in and you shake it all about…

While the hokey was pokeying, it was being translated from English to Hindi. Curious, Steve asked the translator to translate it back to English so that he could hear it as the Indians were hearing it.

At the end of the song, you put your whole self in and take your whole self out, put your whole self in and shake it all about.

Here’s how that part went:

“You place your entire being inside
You place your entire being outside
You place your entire being inside and vibrate your entire being everywhere
You do the hokey pokey and revolve your being in a circle
That is the complete essence of everything.”

Kind of deep when you think about it, eh?

.

[...Tomorrow... Bhakta Pee Wee's Playhouse.]
Ready?

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