More Alike than Different

By Emily Turner

All our welcome at the table.

As an intentional spiritual and religious community of spiritual directors and formation leaders working in a covenant relationship to serve individuals and groups who wish to deepen their relationship with God, Retreat House Spirituality Center honors all faith traditions. Through regular interfaith gatherings, RH consistently creates space for conversations.

And, if we listen and look close enough, I believe we’ll notice that we are more alike than different.

Lavanga Schlette teaches weekly yoga for Retreat House, is a covenant partner and also brings a varied spiritual and religious perspective to our community. As a Hare Krishna, Lavanga says she enjoys the hospitality and freedom available through RH.

“When you get to the roots of different faith traditions, when you dig down deep, religions are actually all very much the same,” Schlette says. “For those who are looking to connect with the Holy, there’s an openness and realness, and I’ve found that to be true with the people at Retreat House.”

Lavanga and I had a chance to get real over a recent ZOOM call as we chatted about her faith journey from the Roman Catholic tradition to her current affiliation with more Eastern traditions. In addition to teaching yoga, Lavanga is also a Licensed Massage Therapist incorporating techniques like such as shiatsu, aromatherapy, reflexology and reiki into her practice.

As a practicing Christian and follower of Jesus, it was a gift to find the common threads in the ways in which Lavanga and I connect to ourselves, God and the world.

What are some of the main expressions of Hare Krisha? Feeding people. Cooking for others is another way to embody Bhakti. This represents or describes a spiritual path or spiritual practice within Hinduism focused on loving devotion towards a personal god. The personal god varies with the devotee, but I focus on Krishna.

Bhakti is actually a form of yoga. The definition of yoga means union or connection. So preparing or cooking for others is way to to connect to them. It becomes sacred.

So, I suppose this means you don’t snack during your cooking process? Correct! No snacking. I say and sing prayers and mantras while I am preparing food. When we cook in a mindful way, we are actually cooking for the pleasure of God. The cooking process is a way for us to rekindle our relationship with God and in a sense our relationship with others. What better way to endear yourself to others than by cooking for them?

The ritual and blessing that is coming to mind for me is Holy Communion. There’s definitely a similarity since both of these practices are considered Holy. The preparation, the actual food, it is all blessed by our posture of prayer. The word to describe it is Prasada, which means love and mercy. It becomes embodied food. The idea is that food prepared in this way cleanses all who eat it.

“Since everyone and everything is from God, it is kind of like a giving back to the One who gives us everything. ”

The word for this interconnectness is Asana. Kalachandjis

This makes me think of Kalachandji’s, the Hare Krishna temple in East Dallas. I used to love to head over for their lunch buffet when I worked at Baylor University Medical Center. Kalachandjis is great. I worked in the gift shop there for awhile. Since feeding people is such a significant part of our tradition, many Hare Krisha temples throughout the country have restaurants inside of them.

One of the principles I adhere to within my tradition is Ahimsa. This is a yoga principle that basically encourages consuming food with a no-harm mindset. This means no meat - which is why the buffet you were talking about was vegetarian. But it is interesting, because this practice does allow for dairy, but we would only want to consume milk from happy cows.

What are happy cows? Happy cows. Happy cows just means the are open to graze, they’re given affection, they have freedom. These are the types of cows that give extra milk.

Makes sense! What are some other prayer practices that are part of your tradition?

There are different ways of worship that are more meaningful based on what is going on. For this time in history, the form that is the most recommended in the modern era where the world is crazy and we don’t have a lot of time is mantra meditation. People find it hard to sit still and just sit and meditate so adding a mantra gives something to focus on.

I say: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

This meditation is considered the method for the modern age to cleanse the heart.

Will you explain a bit more about that? A main tenant, in Eastern philosophy is that we are already perfect – we are just covered over. The idea is that we don’t have to strive, God is already in us, we are already loved. But, we can practice ways to uncover what is preventing us from experiencing the fullness of God.

“I have a good friend who likes to see we are like the mirror,” Lavanga says.”Sometime the mirror gets dirty, and we have to take time to clean it off.”

We are already perfect, because we are made in the God’s image. We are composted of the same image and energy of the Divine, the same qualities, just in smaller qualities.

What a beautiful way to describe our humanity. I’m drawn to consider the teachings of Jesus on the idea of wholeness. I’m reminded of writer Sue Monk Kidd’s words in her book “When the Heart Waits.”

“Jesus himself referred to this truth when he spoke of the kingdom of God as a self-sowing seed,” says Kidd.” It’s as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, the the ear, then the full grain.”

Kidd’s recollection of the Bible’s Mark 4:26-28 captures the idea that God makes available inside us all that we need to grow and become whole.

Another question for you - what does Hare Krisha stand for? The name Krishna means all attractive. Hare refers to feminine side of God.

From my perspective, there are a lot of names for God. But that makes sense. We are each a thumbprint - so intricate so different. Krishna made us all different flavors because He wants to taste each of us in our uniqueness.

How would you sort of define your personal faith mantra? I would say St. Francis of Assisi. All he wanted to do was love God. I can relate to that.

Our quest for wholeness in God is an undeniable common ground between my life and Lavanga’s, and I’m grateful for her openness to share such an interior space with me as we both found areas of connections in the ways we see the world.

My hope is I might continue to venture into conversations like this - reminding myself that listening to others in this way doesn’t diminish or distract me from my path - it simply provides more color and creativity along the way.

Read read more about Lavanga’s faith journey in Yoga Magazine. You can also some of her writing here.

To register for her yoga offering through RH, visit our online calendar. Interested in connecting with Lavanga? Send her a note!

Emily Turner is a Trained Spiritual Director and writer. She would love to hear from you.

Michael Moyhahan, an American pastor and college professor shares a prayer for consideration titled “Let us Grow Together” taken from the book Hearts on Fire.