Servant of the Lotus Feet: A Hare Krishna Odyssey

By Gabriel Brandis, Brandis, Gabriel Brandis

Servant of the Lotus Feet: A Hare Krishna Odyssey is the true story of an adolescent's quest for spiritual meaning. Enchanted by the wisdom of the Orient, Sidd drops out of his freshman year of college in the early 1980's to join the Hare Krishnas while visiting Boston. During the course of four years in New England and New York City, Sidd struggles as a fund-raiser for the cult. As an initiated Brahman priest, he gains privilege and responsibility. Sidd's innocent question posed to the spiritual master in a room of hundreds of curious guests and devoted followers shakes the foundations of the temple walls, engaging the "holy man's" wrath. Disillusioned by the contradictions and deceits perpetrated by the elders of the Indian religious cult, including his and other allegedly "pure" spiritual masters, Sidd gradually backs out of the movement. While visiting his family for a holiday reunion, Sidd is abducted and compelled to review the facts about the religious cult he had embraced.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595312640
• ISBN13: 9780595312641
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Servant of the Lotus Feet

This book was interesting, I learned about what Hare Krishna devotees do. The author is trying to make this organization appear in a bad light. But it sounds to me that he never really was "into" this to begin with. He was having flashbacks about things he wanted to do and had done. All he had to do was walk away. No one was holding him there. I did learn quite a lot about the lives of these peaceful people.

Good insights into the lives of Krishna devotees

Apart from a few editorial glitches, this is a well-written book that takes the reader right inside the experience of being a Hare Krishna devotee. The strange manner of their dress and unfamiliar customs to Westerners may make them seem much more alien than they actually are. In fact, I recognized much of what Brandis went through, because I was once myself a member of a high-demand group, and even though the doctrines were very different between the two groups, the lifestyles were strikingly similar. I was a member of the Unification Church (the 'Moonies'), so it was amusing to read at one point what Brandis, who was then hawking wares for the Krishnas, thought of a Moonie whom he encountered who turned out to be engaged in a similar activity. He recognized him at once as "spaced out" and brainwashed, but failed to notice the strong parallels with his own situation. Eventually, Brandis burned out on the devotee lifestyle, as many cult members eventually do, and with the help of his mother, who engaged deprogrammers to speed his exit, he was able to make his escape.

Dream-like reflections on a counterculture

Like any book dealing with experiences in a counterculture, Gabriel Brandis' book Servant of the Lotus Feet is worth reading to gain insight into a way of life so out of the ordinary and otherwise concealed to the general public. However, to my personal perception as an ex-Hare Krishna sympathizer, for a book examining the community from an ex-members' point of view, the book comes along oddly uncritical and un-distanced, without suggesting any process of detachment, which, for a four years membership within the movement, certainly must have been long, painful and complicated. On the last pages, Servant suddenly comes up with some rationalist analysis on mind-control, probably a result of some hastily-undergone process of de-programming, which contrasts drastically with the book's overall sentimental style. Great parts of the book are written in a narrative style which either shows that the author might not have really dealt with his cult experience or reflects it in some dream-like, hallucinatory way. The book's greatest plus is its strikingly detail-rich description of Hare Krishna rules, behaviours and prayers, thus catching well what being a Hare Krishna feels like.